Excellent research
Researchers at the University of Gothenburg within many disciplines contribute to the solution of societal problems. In order to provide our researchers with the best possible conditions and to support excellent science, one important goal is to increase our international research funding.
The University of Gothenburg’s Vice-Chancellor provides co-financing for the researchers who receive funding from the following particularly strategic research programmes: ERC, Wallenberg Academy Fellows, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Project, Wallenberg Scholars, the RJ programme, Pro Futura and The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, SSF.
Some of our excellent researchers
Since 2021, researchers at the university have been granted over 100 grants from the EU's current framework program Horizon Europe, over 20 grants from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and over five co-financed grants from the Riksbanken Jubileumsfond. Some researchers who have received funding from external financiers – who are co-financed by the vice-chancellor – are presented here.
European Research Council - ERC
The European Research Council (ERC), which is part of the EU's research and innovation program, promotes high-quality, researcher-driven research across all scientific disciplines through comprehensive and long-term funding. ERC supports cutting-edge research, multidisciplinary projects, and groundbreaking ideas in new and emerging fields
ERC Starting Grant
Individual grants for young promising researchers, 2–7 years post-PhD, with groundbreaking research ideas and strong potential to become future research leaders.
2024 Lina Bergman, Sahlgrenska Academy
2023 Aksel Sundström, Faculty of Social Sciences
2022 Christine Howes, Faculty of Humanities
2022 Anne Björkman, Faculty of Science
ERC Consolidator Grant
The ERC Consolidator Grant targets researchers who are 7–12 years post-PhD and have recently established a research group, aiming to strengthen their role as research leaders.
2024 George Birchenough, Sahlgrenska akademin
2024 Jesper Björklund, Naturvetenskapliga fakulteten
ERC Advanced Grant
The grant is aimed at established researchers with significant research efforts in the last ten years, a prominent position as leading researchers in their fields, and with groundbreaking project ideas.
2022 Randi Hjalmarsson, School of Business, Economics and Law
2022 Claes Ohlsson, Sahlgrenska Academy
2022 Fredrik Bäckhed, Sahlgrenska Academy
ERC Synergy Grants (SYG)
The purpose of the ERC Synergy Grant is to bring together researchers with different expertise from various institutions to work on highly complex problems that no single researcher or institution can solve alone.
2024 Laura Bristow, Faculty of Science
2024 Joel Speerstra, The Artistic Faculty
Read the article: Unlocking the Secrets of Historical Keyboards
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation - KAW
The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation is one of the largest private research financiers in Europe, and finances research in Sweden. The foundation supports "nation-wide, long-term, free basic research", which is judged to have the potential to lead to future scientific breakthroughs. The foundation has a primary focus on medicine, natural sciences and technology, although the personal excellence grants to individual researchers invite candidates from all scientific fields.
KAW Project Grant
The foundation supports projects of high scientific potential, above all in medicine, natural science and technology, which are judged to have the potential to lead to future scientific breakthroughs. The projects must normally be of a basic scientific nature and focused on a coherent scientific question, where the complementary skills of the participating researchers provide increased opportunities to attack the selected research question.
Wallenberg Clinical Scholar
The goal of the program is to strengthen Swedish clinical research by identifying the best clinical researchers, giving them good opportunities to conduct their activities and achieve an impact for the results of the research, both in science and healthcare.
Wallenberg Scholars
The program aims to support and stimulate some of the most successful researchers at Swedish universities. The idea is to give leading researchers freedom and resources to motivate them to stay in Sweden.
New 2024:
Ruth Palmer, Sahlgrenska Academy
Johan Åkerman, Faculty of Science
Extensions 2024:
Thomas Nyström, Sahlgrenska Academy
Andrew Ewing, Sahlgrenska Academy
Richard Neutze, Faculty of Science
Fredrik Bäckhed, Sahlgrenska Academy
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond - RJ
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond supports research in the humanities and social sciences. The aim is to enable Swedish research within the foundation's scope to achieve a prominent position internationally.
Pro Futura Scientia
Pro Futura is a postdoctoral advanced research program that provides exceptionally talented junior researchers with the opportunity to dedicate an extended period to free research. The program is a collaboration with the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, SCAS, one of Europe's foremost institutes for advanced studies.
As Pro Futura researchers, they receive five years of research time, three at the University of Gothenburg, one year at SCAS in Uppsala, and one year abroad at a leading institute.
RJ Program
The RJ Program refers to a joint and well-coherent research task in the social sciences and humanities that a group of qualified researchers with connections to Sweden carries out over a longer period of time. The researchers are free to define their research task themselves. The programs require a highly qualified research environment for a research group that is well anchored in the international research community and makes significant contributions to national and international research.
2024 Kajsa Yang Hansen, Faculty of Education
2023 Martin Lövdén, Faculty of Social Sciences
The Swedish Foundation for
Strategic Research - SSF
The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) supports research in science, technology and medicine with hundreds of millions a year. SSF is a free, independent player in the public research funding system. The goal of the foundation is to promote the development of strong research environments of the highest international class with significance for the development of Sweden’s future competitiveness.
Future Research Leaders
The program is intended to support and promote young researchers who have the ability to become future leaders of academic and/or industrial research in Sweden. The foundation's vision of a future research leader is a young researcher with the highest scientific and pedagogical qualifications who also shows a potential for leadership and management. He or she shows ambition to implement research results and is prepared to take responsibility at a later stage of his/her career for a complete academic environment and constellations larger than his own research group. The announcement is made every three years.
2021 Carolina Guibentif, Sahlgrenska Academy
2021 Julia Morud Lekholm, Faculty of Science
2021 Anne Björkman, Faculty of Science
