Grants to 18 research projects that may lead to future scientific breakthroughs
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has granted a total of SEK 560 million to 18 research projects considered to be of the highest international level, and potentially leading to future scientific breakthroughs.
– Project funding is granted primarily for basic research in the fields of medicine, technology and the natural sciences. The grants give the researchers the opportunity to try out new and bold ideas over an extended period. The main idea is to give the researchers freedom, both to succeed and fail, without any demands for results or applications,” says Peter Wallenberg Jr, chairman of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Research into mast cells that may yield new methods for diagnosing and treating asthma, and particle collisions to understand the birth of the Universe, mapping of the insects in Sweden and Madagascar, studies of the Higgs particle and solving the fine-tuning problem, studies of a protein affecting virus infections and development of cancer, may lead to new medicines, and also the importance of the microbiota in the gut for developing type 2-diabetes, are some of the research topics for which the grants have been awarded.
The Foundation employs a strict peer review procedure in which applications are assessed by the foremost international researchers in each field.
Project funding awarded in 2016 by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation:
More information about the projects is available on the websites of the respective institutions.
Medicine
Project: “Transforming microbiome research”
Grant: SEK 43 200 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Fredrik Bäckhed, University of Gothenburg
Project: “Molecular structure of mucin domains and role of their interactions”
Grant: SEK 29 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Gunnar Hansson, University of Gothenburg
Project: “Mast cells and their proteases: future targets for asthma therapy and diagnosis”
Grant: SEK 34 300 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Gunnar Pejler, Uppsala University
Project: “Understanding malaria-parasite survival in the human body for developing antimalarial drugs”
Grant: SEK 27 500 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Mats Wahlgren, Karolinska Institutet
Project: “The Achilles’ heel of breast cancer”
Grant: SEK 36 800 000 over five years
Principal investigator: dr. Anita Göndör, Karolinska Institutet
Project: “Development of new therapeutic strategies based on the discovery of STINP”
Grant: SEK 18 000 000 over two years
Principal investigator: Professor Leif Andersson, Uppsala University
Natural sciences:
Project: “Interconnected quality (IQ) control – role in organelle structure-function, aging and longevity assurance”
Grant: SEK 44 700 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Thomas Nyström, University of Gothenburg
Project: “Elucidating the principles of allelic”
Grant: SEK 18 400 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Rickard Sandberg, Karolinska Institutet
Project: “Deciphering the physicochemical codes for cellular function”
Grant: SEK 20 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Mikael Oliveberg, Stockholm University
Project: “Mitocondrial genome separation and segregation”
Grant: SEK 34 500 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Maria Falkenberg, University of Gothenburg
Project: “Comparative Insect Biomics”
Grant: SEK 31 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Fredrik Ronquist, Swedish Museum of Natural History
Project: “Deciphering Spatial Signaling of Protein Clusters at the Membrane”
Grant: SEK 25 150 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Dr. Björn Högberg, Karolinska Institutet
Technology/physics/mathematics:
Project: “Attosecond chronoscopy of electron wave-packets probing”
Grant: SEK 36 300 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Raimund Feifel, University of Gothenburg
Project: “Quantum sensors”
Grant: SEK 34 800 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Val Zwiller, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Project: “Pinning down the origin of collective effects in small collision systems”
Grant: SEK 26 200 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Associate Professor Peter Christiansen, Lund University
Project: “Random structures and algorithms”
Grant: SEK 27 500 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Svante Janson, Uppsala University
Project: “Controlled atomic scale 3D ordering for exotic electronic phases”
Grant: SEK 34 200 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Kimberly Thelander, Lund University
Project: “Solving the Higgs Fine-Tuning Problem with Top Partners”
Grant: SEK 35 200 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Associate Professor Sara Strandberg, Stockholm University
Contact persons
Peter Wallenberg Jr, Chairman, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
+46 (0)8 545 017 80, kaw@kaw.se
Göran Sandberg, Executive Director, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
+46 (0)8 545 017 80, kaw@kaw.se
The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation was established in 1917. The Foundation’s aim is to benefit Sweden by supporting Swedish basic research and education, mainly in medicine, technology and the natural sciences. This is achieved through grants to excellent researchers and to projects.
During the Foundation’s 100 years SEK 24 billion has been awarded in grants, of which SEK 1.7 billion yearly in recent years, to excellent research and education, making the Foundation the largest private funder of scientific research in Sweden and one of the largest in Europe.
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