Ole Petter Ottersen, president Karolinska Institutet 2017-2023

One way to summarize the high quality work in research and education performed by the vast majority of our personnel, the Karolinska Institutet Annual Report 2015 is now finalized with 2015 closing as yet another successful year for KI. The turnover increased by 5.2 percent compared to 2014, mainly due to an increase in the level of external grant funding. Last year saw strong support and generosity to KI in the form of donations and other contributions from private individuals, foundations and other sources of research funding. I am particularly grateful for this support.

Quality before quantity is one of the important principles in KI’s Strategy 2018 and we are working to create a comprehensive quality management system. The aim is to create clear goal-related and measurable criteria. It is with pleasure that I can also report that the proportion of females among newly appointed professors and guest professors during 2015 was 45 percent, compared to 35 percent during the previous year.

Monday 22 February the Professors’ Collegium, an open forum for all of KI’s professors, met for the first time in some time and I am very happy to learn the Collegium considers themselves an important resource in the work that lies ahead of us, to enforce our position as an internationally renowned university recognized for high quality research and education that rests on a foundation of strong ethical values. The faculty is really the heart of the university.

Last week I visited the Junior Faculty, our future, and a very important discussion partner. The planned title “Visions of a pro-vice-chancellor” had to be changed to “Visions of a pro-vice-chancellor and immediate tasks for an acting vice-chancellor”, yet the discussions were very fruitful and I really hope to be able to keep a constant dialogue with the Junior Faculty.