Karolinska Institute (KI)

Basic facts

The Karolinska Institute (KI) applied for seven SRAs and received six. Furthermore, KI receives funding as co-applicant from two other funded SRAs.

In total, KI was allocated approximately 631 million Swedish Crowns by the government for the SRAs (2010–2014).

During 2014, the SRA funding corresponded to 8% of the basic funding for education and research given to KI from the government.

General comments

At the beginning of the SRA process, KI had already identified a strategy for improving research quality. This included an initiative to develop bibliometric monitoring of research outputs, identifying strong research areas and an emerging focus on translational medicine. The completion of current construction projects (Biomedicum and University Hospital at the Solna campus) in 2018 will see 60% of KI research staff at the Solna campus in new premises (1700 researchers) with a likely reorganisation of traditional departments. Consequently the SRA initiative was generally aligned with KI planning. The Panel did not explore the means by which KI chose which SRA applications to submit or how the university leadership was involved in this process. The operating SRAs are virtual centres embedded in departments for administration purposes. Each SRA operates with a governing board that meets regularly with the KI Board of Research and the Deans office.

Strategic management and use of the SRA funding – Excellent

It was clear that many of the SRA actions, e.g. around prioritisation of SRA funds, faculty renewal, innovation, and teaching, are responding well to overall KI strategic priorities and support. Hence, it is evident that KI set a clear strategic framework within which the SRAs operate with a large degree of autonomy.

The primary strategy for the use of SRA funds has been to focus on recruitment of world class junior faculty (though this has not been followed by all SRAs). Recruitment is (quite rightly) seen as an investment rather than just a cost. Areas for recruitment, and potential target candidates, are identified by the SRA leadership, with the final recruitment decisions resting with KI management (departments, faculty, President or Vice Chancellor, depending upon level). All recruitments are done through open international competition. Positions are not linked to specific departments and the successful candidates can often choose his/her location. Links to clinical practice are encouraged, driven by current KI strategy. SRA funds have been used to develop attractive start-up packages to attract good candidates (several examples were provided). It is worth mentioning that, in anticipation of continuing rather limited university core funding, current (published) KI strategy is to reduce the overall number of professors (through retirements) in order to provide better support to faculty staff and allow recruitment of junior researchers at the highest level.

Innovation is recognized as important at a high level within the organisation and the institute is addressing this through the appointment of a deputy Vice Chancellor for Innovation. KI also supports 3 innovation officers

to work directly with the SRAs, but acknowledged that there is room for improvement in this particular area.

Highlights in this area are direct links to the health care system, recent spin-out companies (related to

regenerative cardiology) and the joint research center set up with AstraZeneca to explore regenerative medicine treatments to treat heart failure.

For the next 5 years the KI strategy is to continue to support the current SRAs, and they are expected to align with the overall KI strategy for 2014–2018. This includes the relationship and co-funding with partner

universities. A full review of the SRA areas will be carried out after 10 years.

Improving international collaboration is a goal for the future, supported by closer working with and between the 6 Swedish medical faculties where KI expect to take a leading (coordinating) role. KI is the first non-Danish university with a Novo Nordisk Postdoctoral programme; other international alliances will be announced soon.

University outcomes and excellence – Excellent/good

KI management indicated that all SRAs are (and were) seen as internationally competitive and new recruitments are seen as a means of strengthening this through adding new competences, new technology expertise and through the expansion of collaboration networks. The current quality of the SRAs was not uniformly supported by the expert reviewers and Panel, but overall the quality of the KI SRAs was impressive.

KI has provided leadership training for department heads and recognises the need to provide this for group/centre leaders in the future.

In identifying best practice across the SRA, KI highlighted the work in regenerative cardiology; emphasising the commercial alliances that had grown out of this work, including direct collaborations with AstraZeneca and the cross university doctoral initiatives with Oxford, Copenhagen and others.

Not all faculty at KI teach, but it is acknowledged that this is an important opportunity and will be

increasingly required as a part of the KI strategy as it moves forwards. The SRAs are intentionally focused on post-graduate teaching but at least one SRA has had, and continues to have, a significant influence on

undergraduate teaching through the recent reorganisation of the KI medical curriculum.  

Added value of the SRA funding instrument – Excellent

SRA funding is generally a small component of funding in KI strategic areas, but very important as it is the only grant⁴ that can be used strategically for given research areas (i.e. not tied to specific projects or problems).

Priorities for the future of SRA funding are to continue to develop and support a tenure track system, infrastructure, and national and international collaboration.

Summaries of the individual SRAs

CancerKI

Performance: Excellent Strategy: Excellent

Added value: Excellent/good

The SRA leadership claim to have an excellent international standing for their research, a view which is generally supported by the referees. They acknowledge that closer interaction with the health care system could further strengthen this, but this would partially depend on more appreciation for the need of research within the latter and a merging of clinical oncology and cancer biology. The SRA has strong strategic planning which is focused on new junior faculty recruitment and infrastructure. Priorities for funding were identified by SRA staff and supported by international peer review processes. The SRA has been well supported by KI

management and Stockholm County Council investments. There is collaboration with the other national Cancer

SRAs (U-CAN and BioCare), recognising the need for national coherence and standards, and coordination in several developments. The SRA was clearly contributing to broader coherence in cancer research, and had a significant effect on graduate teaching and establishing a pro-active programme of faculty renewal.

DiabetesKI

Performance: Excellent Strategy: Excellent Added value: Excellent

This is a historically strong research area at KI that remains excellent, with a number of distinguished leaders holding significant international roles (e.g. chair of European Association for the Study of Diabetes). 50% of the PIs are clinicians and one PI is member of the board of the national diabetes association, helping to ensure relevant focus for research activities and public visibility. The SRA is well supported by KI (and nationally) through infrastructure investments such as SciLifeLab. Four or five of the PIs have their own biotech spin-out companies to exploit the research developments. Research developments are passed on to graduates and undergraduates through endocrinology teaching and graduate courses. Joint courses are run between Umeå and KI. Support for life science innovation which is generally funded through a national VINNOVA programme and based on collaboration between KI, Umeå, Lund and Uppsala, would probably not have happened without the critical mass supported through the SRA programme.

EpiKI

Performance: Excellent Strategy: Excellent/good Added value: Excellent/good

This is a strong SRA, rated very highly by reviewers. It has a strong bibliometric performance and strong engagement with the business sector, where the high quality cohort data opens opportunities for innovation in clinical epidemiology. SRA funds have been focused on faculty renewal, but there has been strong

infrastructure support for this SRA from KI e.g. in the form of biobanking and the LifeGene Project. Although challenging to initiate, this SRA has a very significant impact on the education of medical students, responsible for the scientific development component of undergraduate education and the Master’s examinations as well as graduate courses. The future strategy is to continue the successful approach to data, with a focus on recruitment and education, including an initiative for an advanced research school in epidemiology and a research education program in clinical epidemiology for clinicians

NeuroKI

Performance: Good Strategy: Excellent/good Added value: Excellent

The major focus of the SRA has been on infrastructure renewal for neuro-imaging (PET etc.). The reviewers expressed some concerns that the SRA represented a loose consortium of existing experts rather than a close collaboration, but acknowledge the world leading work of the group. The improved infrastructure has seen increasing collaboration within the SRA, which is based around the method platforms, and has attracted increasing external interest and potential for future collaboration. Perhaps the best example of existing collaboration is the National Magnetoencephalography (MEG) platform (funded as a research infrastructure).

Umeå and KI have collaborated on development of a new PhD programme and provide medical imaging courses at both universities. Societal relevance of the SRA work is through the fact that the PIs are embedded in university hospitals (clinicians). This is also the way to ensure that developments are exploited. One recent innovation is a new patent regarding the treatment of brain tumours, which has helped create a new company funded with $5 million by investors. Another PI has developed a compound to treat glioblastoma, which should move into phase I trials shortly.

StamKI

Performance: Excellent Strategy: Excellent/good Added value: Excellent

This SRA includes several groups which are rated among the best in the world, with 5 ground-breaking contributions listed by the expert referees. Their strategy to stay at the forefront of research is focused on recruitment and retaining the best researchers, with recent high profile recruitments arriving from Oxford and Imperial College. KI support (described as ‘phenomenal’) has been vital to these efforts. An area for

improvement is the relationship with KI hospital; however, all recent recruitments include a built in clinical aspect. Possible future areas of focus (e.g. kidney) have been identified through a combination of relevance to Swedish society and assessment of opportunities for stem cell/regenerative medicine contribution. The SRA also sees increased interest from industry, reflecting their high academic profile. The SRA director

acknowledged that the processes for identifying future priorities (including stakeholders) and improving collaboration with industry are areas that could be improved. AstraZeneca staff are already active at KI. This could be extended to other companies’ in the future, however, careful thought is needed on how to manage these different business collaborations (balancing independence with need for an exploitation pathway).

VårdKI

Performance: Good/inadequate Strategy: Good/inadequate Added value: Good

This SRA is supporting research which is improving in quality, assessed as ‘reaching international standards’

by reviewers. The SRA has strong links to Stockholm county and run national PhD schools focused on care sciences. The focus for the first 5 years has followed the original proposal and priorities identified in the original 2008 Government Bill. An external advisory board has been in place since the beginning and has advised on resource allocation, however, overall this was by far the weakest of the KI SRA in terms of research quality and planning/strategies for the future. The impact of the SRA initiative was clear, and significant, but this relatively new area would clearly benefit from more support for strategic planning and building a strong research agenda and practice. For example, it was stated that a recent change in KI policy made it impossible to recruit at a professor level; a view not supported by discussions with other SRA.

The SRA has a strong connection to education, with all faculty engaged in teaching and it has direct

involvement in all professional training programmes of KI. Recent highlights include putting their research into practice for the treatment of elderly people. There is a growing acceptance of evidence base care, and new information tools have been developed for elderly care (e.g. a Mobile app for PARK patients). A strong focus on software-related opportunities has stimulated growing collaboration with KTH. In general, small software businesses are the major collaborators.