Steering and funding

Funding

The SciLifeLab national infrastructure is financed through grants from the Swedish government, including distinct funding for our Drug Discovery and Development platform. We also receive governmental funding through our host universities within the scope of Strategic Research Areas (SFO). In addition, SciLifeLab also benefits from funding for certain initiatives such as the efforts in combatting Covid-19 and the Data-Driven Life Science program, from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

Read more about the Swedish government’s efforts to strengthen life science:

SciLifeLab management

The SciLifeLab Board

The SciLifeLab Board started its assignment during spring 2013, in accordance with directives from the Swedish government. The Board includes one representative each from the four host universities, three representatives from other Swedish universities, one representative from the industry, and is led by chairman Ylva Engström, appointed by the Swedish Government. The Board is responsible for the national infrastructure, the management and the communication of SciLifeLab.

• Ylva Engström, Professor at the Department of Molecular Biosciences at Stockholm University and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
• Christoph Varenhorst, AstraZeneca, Government appointed Industry representative
• Annika Stensson Trigell, Professor, Vice President KTH Royal Institute of Technology
• Mats Larhed, Professor, Vice-rector Uppsala University
• Henrik Cederquist, Professor, Deputy Vice President for Science, Stockholm University
• Anders Gustafsson, Deputy Vice President, Karolinska Institutet
• Katrine Riklund, Professor, Pro-vice-chancellor, Umeå University
• Carina Mallard, Professor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Gothenburg
• Lena Eliasson, Professor, Vice Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University
• Gunilla Westergren-Thorsson, Professor, National SciLifeLab Committee Chair, Lund University, Co-opted member

International Advisory Board

• Jan Ellenberg, Chair, EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
• Sören Brunak, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
• Jo Bury, VIB, Belgium
• Yoshihide Hayashizaki, RIKEN Omics Science Center, Japan
• Sirpa Jalkanen, University of Turku, Finland
• Janet Jansson, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA
• Jonathan Knowles, FIMM, University of Helsinki, Finland
• Svante Pääbo, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
• Aviv Regev, Broad Institute, MIT, USA
• Sarah Teichmann, EMBL-EBI & Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK

Management Group

Integration Directors

Operations Office

SciLifeLab and Wallenberg National Program for Data-Driven Life Science

Steering Group

• Olli Kallioniemi, Program director, Professor at Karolinska Institutet, Director SciLifeLab
• Siv Andersson, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
• Oliver Billker, Professor at Umeå University, Director MIMS
• Niklas Blomberg, Director ELIXIR
• Matts Karlsson, Professor at Linköping University
• Erik Kristiansson, Professor Chalmers/University of Gothenburg
• Janne Lehtiö, Professor at Karolinska Institutet
• Erik Lindahl, Professor at Stockholm University
• Tuuli Lappalainen, Professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology
• Fredrik Ronquist, Professor at Museum of Natural History
• Gunilla Westergren-Thorsson, Professor at Lund University/WCMM, Chair of National SciLifeLab Committtee
• Carolina Wählby, Professor at Uppsala University

National reference group

• Ann-Sofie Cans, Chalmers University of Technology (deputy: Ross King)
• Anna Martling, Karolinska Institutet (deputy: Martin Bergö)
• Sebastiaan Meijer, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (deputy: Amelie Karlström)
• Per Dannetun, Linköping University (deputy: Karin Wårdell)
• Jonas Larsson, Lund University (deputy: Marianne Jansson)
• Vivi Vajda, NRM (Museum of Natural History)
• Lena Mäler, Stockholm University (deputy: Marc Friedländer)
• Sara Hallin, SLU (deputy: Pär Ingvarsson)
• Lars Nyberg, Umeå University (deputy: Johan Trygg)
• Christina Jern, University of Gothenburg (deputy: Margit Mahlapuu)
• Mats Larhed, Uppsala University (deputy: Anna Qvarnström)

Boards and committees

National SciLifeLab Committee

• Gunilla Westergren-Thorsson, chair, SciLifeLab Board
• Maria Fällman, Umeå University
• Martin Olsson, Lund University
• Jan Stenlid, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
• Carina Mallard, University of Gothenburg
• Maria Jenmalm, Linköping University
• Tommy Olsson, Umeå University/WCMM

SciLifeLab committees at host universities

SciLifeLab committee Karolinska Institutet

• Urban Lendahl, Chair
• Janne Lehtiö
• Lars Engstrand
• Katja Petzold
• Kristina Broliden
• Carsten Daub
• Erdinc Sezgin, Representing SciLifeLab Fellows

SciLifeLab committee KTH Royal Institute of Technology

SciLifeLab committee Stockholm University

• Henrik Cederquist
• Lena Mäler
• Martin Jakobsson
• Berit Olofsson
• Tom Britton
• Catarina Rydin
• Joakim Edsjö
• Christos Samakovlis
• 2 representatives from the student organization

SciLifeLab committee Uppsala University

• Eva Tiensuu Janson, Chair
• Karin Forsberg Nilsson
• Mathias Hallberg
• Anna Qvarnström
• Peter Lindblad
• Karl Michaelsson
• Staffan Svärd
• Deputies:
• Anna Rosling
• Anna Dimberg
• Carolina Wählby
• Aristidis Moustakas
• Kristina Edström (Co-opted)
• Anne-Sophie Fröjmark (Co-opted)
• Jenny Alfredsson (Co-opted)

International Evaluation Committee

• Geert Van Minnebruggen, Chair, Head of VIB Core Units, Head of VIB Science & Technology Unit, VIB, Belgium
• Janna Saarela, Co-chair, Professor of Medicine at University of Oslo, Director of the Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM), Norway
• Ellen Berg, Chief Scientific Officer, Translational Biology at Eurofins Discovery, USA
• Justin Bryans, Executive Director, Drug Discovery at LifeArc, UK
• Rainer Pepperkok, Director of Scientific Core Units and Scientific Services, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Germany
• Michael Sattler, Professor of Biomolecular NMR, Dept of Chemistry, Technical University of Munich, Head of Institute of Structural Biology, Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany
• Hanno Steen, Associate Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Director of Proteomics at Boston Children’s Hospital, USA
• Riitta Lahesmaa, Academy Professor, Director of Turku Bioscience Centre, University of Turku | Co-Director of BioCity Turku Centre for Life Span Research, Finland
• Rolf Apweiler, Director of European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) United Kingdom

Organization and management of infrastructure

Platforms and units

SciLifeLab offers advanced technologies, knowhow and support to researchers in Sweden. These technologies and services are provided by units, which each represent a certain area of expertise. The units are organized into platforms that represent areas of research where a combination of technologies is generally used. Each platform has a Platform Advisory Board responsible for the service offering, strategic decisions and priority management. You can read more about the steering of the national infrastructure in the document to the right (in Swedish and English).

SciLifeLab has ten national platforms, each offering technologies and services through one to eight units. Researchers from all over Sweden can apply for technologies and service using the national platforms. Pricing may differ between different units, but in general a cost-of-reagents pricing is used.

Each platform is managed by a Platform Director with a Vice Platform Director when applicable who take part in the Platform Advisory Board meetings.

Each unit is managed by a Platform Scientific Director and a Head of Unit. The Platform Scientific Director ensures the scientific leadership of the platform. The Head of Unit is responsible for the every day operation of the unit.