“It’s fantastic to have funding all the way through to 2039. It gives WCMM the opportunity to work long-term with recruitment and to foster interaction between clinical researchers and basic researchers, thereby strengthening the research,” says David Engblom.
A total of SEK 140 million has been allocated to Linköping University (LiU). Research at WCMM here operates at the interface between medicine and technology and builds on LiU’s already strong research areas in materials science, image analysis, engineering biology and medicine. The extended initiative, covering the period 2029–2039, places greater emphasis on patient-oriented clinical research than before.
“WCMM recruits young, internationally competitive researchers who are given the opportunity to establish a research group here. We provide them with good conditions for this, as well as a strong local and national network in which to develop. On the clinical side, we also support promising researchers already active,” says David Engblom, Director of WCMM in Linköping.
Thor Balkhed
More physician-scientists
An important part of the continued initiative is the Clinical Fellows programme – doctors who combine clinical work with research and receive mentorship within a national programme. Up to ten operational grants for Clinical Fellows will be advertised in 2028 and 2030.
“This is a powerful, long-term initiative to ensure that Swedish clinical research does not lose momentum. There have been indications that fewer and fewer doctors are conducting research, so we are very pleased that, together with the universities and regions, we can now offer conditions that enable more to do so,” says Peter Wallenberg Jr, Chair of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, in a press release.
Supporting doctors who want to conduct research entails certain challenges, as part of their role involves clinical work with patients.
“Recruiting Clinical Fellows depends on the region taking a positive stance, and that is not a given. But it’s worked very well in our case, and WCMM Linköping is an example of a strong collaboration between the university, Region Östergotland and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation,” says David Engblom.
National life science initiative
The current initiative from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation amounts to a total of SEK 1.6 billion for Swedish life science research.
In addition to continued funding for the country’s four WCMM centres, approximately half of the investment will go towards collaborative projects between early-career clinical and preclinical researchers, as well as so-called NEST projects between researchers in clinical medicine and researchers in AI and molecular technologies. NEST stands for Novelty, Excellence, Synergy and Team. The concept was developed within another of the Foundation’s research programmes, the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP), for which LiU is the host university.
