StratNeuro funding for postdoctoral researchers 2026
The StratNeuro postdoctoral funding initiative aims to support outstanding postdoctoral researchers in basic and clinical neuroscience who are currently conducting research at KI. In the 2026 call, we received 45 submissions from 10 KI departments.
Evaluation process
A total of 42 proposals were eligible for external review. Each proposal was evaluated by four external reviewers with broad expertise spanning basic to translation/clinical neuroscience, following the evaluation criteria used by the Swedish Research Council. Submissions where a conflict of interest was declared were not scored.
We are happy to announce that StratNeuro will fund the 7 top ranked submissions, which represents an overall candidate success rate of 15.6%. The approval rate for males was 15,4% and for females was 15,8%.
Each funded project will receive 800,000 SEK to cover the postdoctoral researcher's salary for one year.
External reviewers
We are grateful to our reviewers for their time and contribution.
- Estelle Barbier, Linköping University
- Filip Bergquist, Göteborg University
- Iskra Pollak Dorocic, Stockholm University
- Johan Jakobsson, Lund University
- Matias Palva, Aalto University
Simon Butt, University of Oxford
Awardees
The grant awardees, in alphabetic order:
- Yanan Chen (Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics): "Circuit-Based Integration of the Gut and Pancreas: A New Role for Intestinofugal Neurons in Metabolic Control".
- Damien Gilabert (Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics): "The xiphoid nucleus of the thalamus as a causal node for pain-depression comorbidity: from circuit mechanisms to molecular identity".
- Wenjing Kang (Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology): "Nuclear RNAs as Architects of 3D Genome Organization in Development and Disease".
- Ioannis Mantas (Department of Neuroscience): "Non-motor behavioral functions of dopaminergic neurons vulnerable in Parkinson’s disease".
- Fernanda Rodrigues (Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics): "Decoding the Impact of Mitochondrial Dysfunction on Neuron-Microglia Crosstalk in Parkinson’s Disease".
- Jonas Svensson (Department of Clinical Neuroscience): "First-in-class TDP-43 PET imaging to reveal hidden co-pathology in Alzheimer’s disease".
Dang Wei (Institute of Environmental Medicine): "Causal Pathways from Cardiovascular to Neurodegenerative Diseases: Biomarker Trajectories and Target Trial Emulation Across Three European Countries".
Congratulations to all awardees!