Common retreat for the three internal boards of KI

2017-02-26

This week the three internal boards – board of research, board of doctoral education and board of higher education – had a common retreat, a very important signal that there is one KI where our core activities are mutually dependent on each other. I was invited to give a few remarks to start up the retreat. I choose to focus on some of the important topics that were to be covered. One of the topics, which presently occupy a lot of attention, and which is highly relevant for all three boards, is the tight dependence of the Stockholm County Council, SCC, and KI on each other. KI needs the health care sector and in particularly SCC to provide an arena for our education and research activities. And in return, we provide the health care sector and SCC with highly educated staff and research results and innovations for implementation in the health care sector. With the transforming health care landscape, characterized by a transfer of healthcare out from the hospitals, particularly the highly specialized focus of the Karolinska University Hospital and the inclusion of private health care providers. KI needs be proactive to assure that we can provide high quality professional training and that we can maintain high quality research environments. In this, a constructive dialogue with the SCC at all levels is important. Our activities are often dependent on patient volumes so we must assure that these are not too fragmented.

Minister visiting Swetox

I left the retreat to go to Swetox in Södertälje which was hosting a visit by the Minister for the Environment, Karolina Skog, together with Undersecretary Per Ängquist and the Political Advisor Anders Wankler. It is very important to highlight the role of Swetox as a national expert center for competence development, analysis and research in toxicology, not least in relation to the environmental challenges that the world is facing. Environmental challenges is a prioritized area in the latest government research policy and the visit by the minister was very important and welcome. More about the visit at Swetox website.