CALL FOR APPLICATION. Wallenberg Academy Fellows (WAF) is a program for young researchers in different fields, including medicine, funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW). Only basic research is supported, and scientific excellence is the sole evaluation criterion.

It is now time for the Sahlgrenska Academy to nominate candidates for the 2025 call. Those nominated for the current application round should have obtained their PhD after January 1, 2016. At least 50% of nominated candidates must be active outside of Sweden at the time of nomination. The deadline for the university’s application to KAW is February 15. The university’s internal nomination process now begins.

• Are you interested in being nominated? Contact the head at your institute.
• Do you have questions about the call or the nomination process? Contact the Research Support Office: research.support@sahlgrenska.gu.se
• For more information about the call: 2025: Nomination for the Wallenberg Academy Fellows program

Wallenberg Academy Fellows are aimed at researchers early in their careers with the potential to develop into tomorrow’s outstanding researchers and research leaders. KAW’s goal is to provide young researchers with a working situation that allows focus on research and the opportunity to address difficult and long-term research questions.

Institutes can nominate

Each of the Sahlgrenska Academy’s institutes can now nominate candidates for WAF 2025. When nominating, the following must be considered:

• Researchers nominated for the 2025 call must have obtained their PhD after January 1, 2016.
• KAW requires that at least 50% of nominated candidates are international, i.e., that they are active outside of Sweden at the time of nomination. When nominating, there may therefore be a majority of one internal candidate per external candidate at the most. (This means that if 1 external candidate is nominated, a maximum of 2 internal candidates may be nominated; if no external candidate is nominated, only one internal candidate can be nominated).
• KAW asks universities to aim for at least 40% of the nominated candidates to belong to the underrepresented gender.
• The international connection of the candidates is crucial, primarily through international recruitment, but for Swedish candidates also through longer postdoc stays abroad or international collaborations.
• Researchers who have received recruitment packages within KAW’s initiatives cannot be nominated for Wallenberg Academy Fellows.

Important dates

Names of nominated candidates must be sent to the Research Support Office by June 5. This is to enable research advisers to reach out to applicants with an offer of support during the work with the pre-application. Pre-applications must be sent to Research Support by September 5. (Research Support: research.support@sahlgrenska.gu.se)

The pre-application must include:

• Project description (max 6 A4 pages).
• CV (max 2 A4 pages). Include personal identification number (or date of birth if personal identification number is missing) and email address.
• List of all publications in peer-reviewed journals with the ten most significant publications highlighted.
• Brief biography (max 2 A4 pages).
• Letter of support from the institute (max 2 A4 pages).
• International candidates: Justification for why they want to establish their research at the institution (max 1 A4 page).
• Suggestions for external reviewers (to complement the Vice-Chancellor´s International Advisory Board). Proposed individuals should not have conflicts of interest with either the environment or the candidate; they do not need to be contacted.

Received applications will be reviewed by the Sahlgrenska Academy’s assessment group, which will then propose which candidates should be considered for the dean’s decision. On October 1, the faculty’s nominations will be submitted to the Research and Innovation Services (FIK). After expert assessment of the faculties’ nominated projects and candidates, the Vice-Chancellor will decide at the meeting on November 14 which of the faculty’s candidates will be nominated from the University of Gothenburg. The nomination space for the Sahlgrenska Academy is 9 candidates.

Note that research projects supported by KAW with a Wallenberg Academy Fellows grant are co-financed by the rector with 750,000 SEK per year.

BY: CHARLOTTA OLOFSSON