KI's coordination of the government's research and innovation bill
The government's research and innovation bill (2024/25:60) contains investments in research of the highest quality over the next four years. The focus is well aligned with KI's profile and ambitions, and represents important opportunities to strengthen the institute's research and innovation capacity.
Internal coordination work is underway to manage selected initiatives, particularly where the university is the main applicant or where there is a need for central support. Work is currently underway on new strategic research areas (SFO) and clusters of excellence in groundbreaking technology.
In spring 2025, researchers at Karolinska Institutet were invited to submit expressions of interest for participation in potential applications within Strategic Research Areas and Clusters of Excellence with a focus on groundbreaking technology. KI's steering group has processed the expressions of interest received based on their relevance and how well they match the criteria for the initiatives. Subsequently, more information has been received about the initiatives from the financiers, which has influenced the process and the assessment. The expressions of interest have provided important input for the steering group's work, particularly for the application in the area of health, life science and artificial intelligence, where KI has a coordinating role (see below).
In autumn 2025, KI held an internal information meeting for researchers interested in applying for funding for clusters of excellence in groundbreaking technology.
Current initiatives
The aim of the initiative is to raise the profile of Swedish research so that it can continue to compete internationally by pooling resources and raising the profile of Swedish research. The research funded under the initiative must have the potential to be of the highest international quality in the long term or must already have achieved that level. The new strategic research areas will be sought within eight new strategic research areas for which higher education institutions will receive applications in competition from the Swedish Research Council, which is coordinating the call for proposals. The budget for the initiative is SEK 200 million in 2027 and SEK 400 million in 2028. The applicants are the higher education institutions, with each institution only allowed to submit one application per strategic research area. However, a higher education institution may participate in one or more applications within the same or different areas.
More information is available on the Swedish Research Council's website: VR's SFO call for proposals
Strategic research areas:
- Health, life science and artificial intelligence
- Quantum technologies
- Polar research
- Climate-related research
- Crisis preparedness and total defence
- Practical professional research on crime
- Excellence in schools
- Research on advanced materials
Schedule
The deadline for applications was 4 November 2025 at 14:00. In February 2026, the Swedish Research Council will invite a selection of applicants to interviews. Once the applications have been assessed and decisions made, the first payments are planned for 2027. For each strategic research area, 1–3 applications are expected to be recommended for funding.
KI is participating in eight SFO applications within five themes.
Current strategic research areas
In 2026, the Government intends to commission the Swedish Research Council, in collaboration with other research funders, to re-evaluate the quality of the existing strategic research areas. The Government will assess whether the current earmarking of funds should remain in place or whether there is a need for reallocation if poor quality is identified.
Clusters of excellence for groundbreaking technology is a parallel initiative by Vinnova and the Swedish Research Council to establish world-leading research and innovation environments in various areas of technology. The clusters will bring together researchers, companies and other actors around visions with the potential to create groundbreaking innovations and strengthen Sweden's competitiveness. The goal of the initiative is to establish up to 5-15 world-leading clusters of excellence in Sweden by 2035.
The call for proposals is being conducted in several stages. The first stage, planning grants, was carried out in autumn 2025 in separate calls for proposals by the Swedish Research Council and Vinnova. A total of five applications were approved, with KI as the main applicant.
Vetenskapsrådets planeringsbidrag
Timetable
The Swedish Research Council and Vinnova plan to open stage 2 of the call for proposals in spring 2026. There is no requirement to have applied for funding in stage 1 in order to apply for funding in stage 2.
Read more about KI's initiative to recruit assistant professors at ki.se Call for 20 Assistant Professor positions
Project organisation
The announced initiatives include both competitive funding for higher education institutions and grants for government research funding bodies. Some calls for proposals will be handled by individual funding bodies and be open to individual researchers, while others will require coordinated applications from higher education institutions. To address this, a steering group has been appointed at KI with the task of coordinating internal work. The aim is to ensure that KI can take advantage of the upcoming initiatives in a strategic, proactive and effective manner.
Steering group members:
Clara Hellner, Vice-Chancellor for Life Sciences, Chair
Marie Arsenian Henriksson, Vice-Rector for Research
Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Professor
Sten Linnarsson, Dean, KI Solna
Carl Johan Sundberg, Dean, KI North
Matti Sällberg, Dean, KI South
Björn Kull, Head of Department, Research Support and External Relations
Karin Schmekel, Specialist
Researchers will be co-opted to the steering group as needed.
An operational working group has been formed to support the steering group's work.
Working group members:
Clara Hellner, chair
Karin Schmekel, specialist
Björn Kull, department head
Lise-Lotte Vedin, international coordinator
Natalija Buza-Vidas, coordinator
More information about current and upcoming calls for proposals
Please keep an eye on the event calendars at Vinnova and the Swedish Research Council, as they are continuously planning information meetings. Right now, the focus is mainly on the upcoming calls for proposals for clusters of excellence, see below. Some of the previous information meetings have been recorded by the respective authorities.
Internal information meetings at KI will be published here and in the KI calendar.