In order to maintain high quality in healthcare we need cutting-edge clinical research. At the international level, competition is getting fierce and Swedish clinical research is losing ground; our cutting edge is growing blunt. The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation therefore invests up to SEK 600 million during a ten-year period in the program Wallenberg Clinical Scholars.
– Our objective is to boost Swedish clinical research by identifying the best clinical researchers and giving them ample opportunities to carry out their work and have their findings impact both science and healthcare, says Peter Wallenberg Jr, Vice-Chairman of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Swedish clinical research is losing ground internationally. Despite prominence in areas such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, pediatrics, stem cells and regenerative medicine, and brain and blood diseases, we are no longer at the very top. The backbone of Swedish clinical research is of high quality, but the cutting edge is losing sharpness. This is due to several things; efficiency requirements have increased, administrative burdens as well. Academic merit has become less important when recruiting for management positions, and many directors lack or have insufficient experience of conducting research themselves, which translates into a limited understanding of the need for internationally competitive research in healthcare.
– The initiative exclusively targets clinical researchers who are highly competitive at the international level, and will boost the status of clinical research. The program will also improve the quality of tomorrow's academic leaders in clinical settings, says Göran Sandberg, Executive Director of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Solid clinical research is the link between laboratory and patient; the work of clinical researchers guarantees that new knowledge is implemented in healthcare and that important problems are channeled back into research. One central objective in clinical research is to understand the mechanisms behind the emergence and development of diseases; another is to devise new methods of treatment. It is also important to devise new methods to monitor how diseases develop and how patients respond to treatment.
– The long-term funding made available by the program enables researchers to develop infrastructure at their clinics and establish close contacts with other clinical and preclinical researchers. Furthermore, they can engage in innovative and high-risk projects, increasing the potential for scientific breakthroughs, says Staffan Normark, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The program provides funding for 25 of Sweden's most prominent clinical researchers and will run for ten years. The estimated value of the initiative is SEK 600 million and each researcher obtains SEK 15 million for a period of five years, with possibility of extension for another five years. The call for nominations is open June 2nd–October 1st 2014.
Wallenberg Clinical Scholars is part of the SEK 1.7 billion initiative launched by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation in order to promote medical research over the next ten years. The full initiative was presented yesterday in the Opinions section of Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
Since eight years, the Wallenberg Foundations also support clinical research through the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation program Research Fellows in Clinical Medicine, which is aimed primarily at younger physicians.
Contact
Peter Wallenberg Jr, Vice-Chairman, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
+46 8 545 017 80, kaw@kaw.se
Staffan Normark, Permanent Secretary, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
+46 8 673 95 02, staffan.normark@kva.se
Göran Sandberg, Executive Director, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
+46 8 545 017 80, kaw@kaw.se
Perina Stjernlöf, Press Officer, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
+46 70 673 96 50, perina.stjernlof@kva.se