Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have been allocated a combined total of SEK 128 million following the Swedish Research Council’s General Call for Applications in the fields of medicine and health. The sum awarded is equivalent to just over 13 percent of the total amount granted by the Council within the field; a decrease of five percentage points compared with last year.
This year’s smaller allocation by the Research Council is a step backwards for the University of Gothenburg; the funds awarded it following the Council’s 2013 General Call for Applications within the fields of medicine and health are on a par with the sum it received in 2011. Compared with last year, the university’s share decreased by five percentage points.
The largest individual grant was awarded to Helena Carén, a researcher at Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, who received SEK 10 million in the form of a project grant for distinguished young researchers. Carén returned to Sahlgrenska Academy at the beginning of the year after completing her PhD at UCL in London, and is currently assembling her own research group. Carén is investigating epigenetic regulation. Cells determine which genes will be expressed through epigenetic processes. If this regulation goes awry, however, cancer can occur.
“Receiving ten million kronor from the Swedish Research Council will give me a sense of security as a researcher; I can take the time to think long-term and can tackle larger problems,” explains Carén, who works in close cooperation with Sahlgrenska’s Department of Neurosurgery and with attending physicians at Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital. Among other things, Carén works with primary cell cultures, which she produces from cells taken from patients with brain tumors: “I collect tissue from patients who undergo surgery and then culture and study the cells in the lab. These are resource-intensive experiments that require a lot of time and expensive reagents.”
In this year’s application round, grants were approved to fund ten half-time positions for researchers in clinical environments, one of which will be at the University of Gothenburg. “We received many strong applications. This type of grant is one of the Scientific Council’s most important means for supporting clinical researchers,” says Mats Ulfendahl, Secretary General of the Swedish Research Council’s Scientific Council for Medicine and Health. As concerns projects aimed at bridging knowledge gaps in healthcare, four University of Gothenburg applicants were granted funding.
Funding Granted Following the Call for Applications for Natural and Engineering Sciences
Three researchers based at Sahlgrenska Academy were also granted funds in connection with the Swedish Research Council’s Call for Applications for Natural and Engineering Sciences. Claes Gustafsson will receive SEK 4 million for his project on mitochondrial epigenetics, Göran Niclas Karlsson was awarded SEK 3.2 million for his project on sulfated carbohydrates related to pathology, and Martin Lidell received a project grant for distinguished young researchers of SEK 3.6 million for his project entitled “The forkhead transcription factor FOXC2 and its target genes and co-regulators as modulators of adipose tissue composition”.
In total, the Swedish Research Council awarded SEK 965,957,000 in funding. This year, the largest share of these funds went to researchers at Karolinska Institutet, followed by Lund University. The University of Gothenburg ranked third highest among the educational institutions allocated funding under the Call for Applications.
Read more about the Swedish Research Council’s General Call for Applications, Medicine and Health here: http://www.vr.se/inenglish/researchfunding/fundinggranted/generalcallforapplications/medicineandhealth.4.405c4f3813823f65fee4f17.html
