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The Times Rankings and research grants

Stockholm University comes out well, as number two in Sweden (after Karolinska Institutet, KI), and 103 worldwide (compared to 117 last year) in the recently published World University Rankings from Times Higher Education. As always when ranking results are published, the results are welcomed by those institutions that come out well, while the problems of ranking tend to be in the spotlight when institutions don't obtain hoped-for results. Irrespective of whether or not one likes the methods used to rank universities, the results do have an effect in practice and they do affect the perception of a university, particularly internationally. But the ratings, as we know, are not the truth; they are based on indicators that are limited and often unstable.

Peer assessment provides a more secure foundation. Therefore, it is particularly gratifying to note that researchers from Stockholm University came out well when Forte, the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare announced their project research grants late last week. Stockholm University is there among the top universities with KI, with 15 approved projects worth between SEK 2-4.5 million (SEK 55 million in total to Stockholm University) distributed across a number of social science departments and institutes with research in the field of health, labour and welfare. The Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) came out best of all, with three assigned projects and two junior research grants, totalling SEK 12 million. All of this is exceptionally good, and shows that our research has scientific rigor in these areas.
 
Today we received more good news from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation that Stockholm University has been awarded two substantial projects. Jesper Sollerman at the Department of Astronomy has been granted SEK 33.4 million for the five-year project, "Zwicky Transient Facility", and Peter Brzezinski at the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics has been granted SEK 39.1 million for the five-year project, "Architecture and functional dynamics of the cellular power plant." 
 
Congratulations all round!

Last updated: October 4, 2013
Source: Vice-Chancellor's Office

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