Funding allocated to research by the Wallenberg Foundations in 2020 totaled almost SEK 2.6 billion. Most of the funding by the Foundations is awarded by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, which focuses on basic research in the fields of medicine, science, and technology. But the Wallenberg Foundations also award substantial grants in other fields, including social sciences, humanities, education and archaeology.
The Wallenberg Foundations is the umbrella name for 16 Foundations formed by the Wallenberg family or established in memory of family members.
Out of the total of almost SEK 2.6 billion, the three largest foundations – Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation and Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation – awarded research funding of SEK 2.5 billion.
Each year, to provide an overall picture of the funding awarded by the foundations to Swedish research and education, the Wallenberg Foundations publish a list outlining the grants awarded by the three largest Foundations during the preceding year.
“The main purpose of the Foundations is to support research that provides new knowledge about the world we live in. It is satisfying that in 2022 the Foundations have been able to grant Swedish research the largest total amount to date. This is possible thanks to the dividends the Foundations receive through the ownership of the owner company FAM and our investment in Investor AB,” says Peter Wallenberg Jr, Chair of Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Grants awarded by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW), Marianne och Marcus Wallenberg Foundation (MMW), and Marcus och Amalia Wallenberg Foundation (MAW):
Time and time again the Foundation awards grants specifically for basic research and competence building, thereby supporting the development of new knowledge and technology capable of furthering Sweden’s long-term development as a center of research and an industrial nation.
The following long-term strategic initiatives are ongoing:
Wallenberg Initiative Material Science for Sustainability, WISE
To achieve our climate and environmental goals, we need to reduce our environmental and climate footprints from the materials we use in our day-to-day lives and in industry. The aim of the Wallenberg Initiative Material Science for Sustainability is to create the conditions for a sustainable society by researching next generation of ecofriendly materials and manufacturing processes. This will also facilitate better technology for energy systems of the future, and to combat pollution and toxic emissions.
Wallenberg Wood Science Center, WWSC
Research at Wallenberg Wood Science Center focuses on creating potential for new products from Swedish forest raw materials by utilizing more of the wood’s components and the fiber’s properties. The focus is on products such as sustainable packaging, organic electronics and renewable materials to replace oil-based products. In addition, the Foundation supports long-term initiatives in the fields of forest genetics, forest biotechnology and forest management.
Wallenberg Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems and Software Program, WASP
WASP represents a huge commitment to basic research, postgraduate education and recruitment in the AI, autonomous systems and software development sectors. The research program is intended to contribute to competence building and knowledge development in a large number of areas, in which intelligent vehicles, robots and complex software-intensive systems achieve autonomy in interaction with humans. This knowledge is essential if Swedish research is to keep abreast of developments towards the internet of things, in which more and more systems will also become autonomous.
A key part of the program is the establishment of a platform for academic research and education that can interact with Swedish industry. The WASP program will recruit more than 80 research teams to Sweden, and run a graduate school with up to 600 PhD students.
Wallenberg Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems and Software Program – Humanies and Social Sciences, WASP-HS
A complement to the Wallenberg Foundations’ WASP initiative was launched in 2019 under the name of WASP-HS. Its aim is to realize excellent research and develop competence on the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems with a strong investment on research in humanities and social science.
The program is a joint initiative by Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation and Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation, and its primary mission is to analyze the potential ethical, economic, labor market, social and legal dimensions of the technological transition.
Wallenberg Centre for Quantum Technology, WACQT
The aim of the Center is to establish broad skills and expertise in the fields of quantum computers, quantum sensors, quantum simulators, and quantum communication. Its specific goal is to build a Swedish 100-qbit quantum computer.
Like WASP, WACQT emphasizes long-term competence building by establishing a large graduate school and recruiting young researchers to Sweden from the rest of the world. The Center also collaborates with Swedish industry.
At the end of the year a decision was made to finance a test bed, a copy of the existing quantum computer, with SEK 75 million. The test bed makes it possible for researchers and companies to run algorithms. The purpose is to raise Sweden’s competence level in quantum technology and lower the threshold for using quantum computers.
MAX IV Laboratory
The MAX IV Laboratory at Lund University is a Swedish national synchrotron laboratory, and a world-class scientific facility. Since the first Max Laboratory was built, the Foundation has contributed over SEK 1 billion to the MAX facilities.
Life Sciences
Large grants have been awarded in this field for many years. As a result, the Foundations have helped Sweden to become a prominent life-science nation. A decision was made in 2014 to make a further major concerted commitment to life sciences. Initiatives in this area include medical and forest research, along with the latest major initiative for data-driven life science.
Data-driven Life Science, DDLS
Rapid technological developments in life sciences, combined with strides made in data processing and AI, have ever greater implications for research and innovation, and impact all branches of science and medicine. Data-driven life science research is based on a description of large quantities of data that are then analyzed. The program builds on, and is being carried out in collaboration with, the expertise in mathematics, data and AI developed under WASP.
The program is being hosted by SciLifeLab in collaboration with the Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine at the universities of Gothenburg, Lund, Linköping and Umeå, along with the Swedish research universities.
Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine, WCMM
WCMM is a national initiative to strengthen Swedish life science research in molecular medicine, experimentally and clinically. The four centers in Lund, Gothenburg, Linköping and Umeå have different specialties, and conduct research in fields such as cancer, infection biology, neuroscience, metabolic diseases including diabetes, regenerative medicine, genomics, bioscience, and the border between medicine and technology.
Wallenberg Center for Protein Research, WCPR
Wallenberg Center for Protein Research (WCPR) is a concerted initiative on research into proteins and biomedicines. In the future it is expected that many more diseases will be treated using biological molecules based primarily on antibodies.
The Anthropocene Biosphere Laboratory of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The focus of the lab will be on transformations into stewardship of human actions as part of, and dependent on a resilient living planet.
The laboratory will act as both a think tank and a meeting place for collaborations, virtual and in real life, gathering key researchers internationally on key topics of high relevance and always involving younger scientists.
Support to Ukrainian researchers
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation and Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation have supported 32 Ukrainian researchers as guest researchers at Swedish Universities.
In addition, support for building up the Centre for Health Crises, with a special focus on Ukraine has been awarded grants together with support for several NGOs.
Wallenberg Academy Fellows
The program represents a long-term commitment to young researchers, who are given resources for five years so they can concentrate on their research. The program also helps to make the Swedish research environment more international. After the first five years an evaluation is carried out, with a potential extension of funding for a further five years. Since 2017 calls for research proposals are made every other year.
A total of 203 young researchers have received Fellow grants. The Foundation plans to fund up to a further 100 young researchers over the next few years. Twenty-seven new Wallenberg Academy Fellows were appointed and fifteen previously appointed were awarded grant extensions in 2021.
Wallenberg Scholars
This is a five-year program with the possibility of a five-year extension. The program is aimed at Sweden’s best researchers, proven to be internationally competitive. There are currently 84 active Wallenberg Scholars. A new call is planned for May 2023.
Wallenberg Clinical Scholars
The aim of the program is to strengthen Swedish clinical research by identifying the best clinical researchers, and giving them ample scope to conduct their research, so their findings will have an impact, both in the scientific world, and in medical care. A total of 24 researchers are being funded under the program.
Mathematics Program
Excellent mathematics researchers are being funded during 2014–2029 so that Sweden can regain an internationally leading position in mathematics. Fifteen appointments were approved under the program in 2022.
Young Senior Mathematics Researcher
The funding of recruitment of young senior mathematics researchers to Sweden complements the Mathematics program.
Postdoctoral Scholarships
The scholarships are intended for young researchers who have recently received their PhD, and are awarded for a two-year spell abroad, with the possibility of two years’ funding of a research position at a Swedish higher education institution upon their return.
Fifteen young researchers have been awarded scholarships at various departments of Stanford University, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and also in life sciences at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Karolinska Institutet, funding of SEK 39.1 million for a project entitled ”Sex matters in autoimmune disease”
Uppsala University, funding of SEK 38. 2 million for a project entitled ”The Routes of Glioblastoma and their Patient-Specific Vulnerabilities”
Lund University, funding of SEK 36.5 million for a project entitled ”Decoding Dynamics and Energetics of Allosteric Signaling”
Uppsala University, funding of SEK 36.1 million for a project entitled ”Harnessing orbital angular momentum for novel orbital electronics”
Karolinska Institutet, funding of SEK 32.2 million for a project entitled ”Immunology human organ donor programme (IHOPE)”
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, funding of SEK 32.2 million for a project entitled ”Decoding cell fate with positional information”
Karolinska Institutet, funding of SEK 32 million for a project entitled ”Metabolic control at the stem cell’s point of no return”.
Karolinska Institutet, funding of SEK 32 million for a project entitled ”Proprioceptive control of motor action sequences”.
Stockholm University, funding of SEK 31.1 million for a project entitled “Feedbacks between a changing climate and vegetation”.
Lund University, funding of SEK 31 million for a project entitled ”Resolving the anti-tumor effects of tertiary lymphoid structures”.
University of Gothenburg, funding of SEK 30.2 million for a project entitled ”Unravelling the legacy of historical, emerging, and future groundwater pollution to the ocean”
Linköping University, funding of SEK 30.2 million for a project entitled ”Turning the Air into an AI Computer”.
Stockholm University, funding of SEK 30 million for a project entitled ”Learning the molecular component of the cell”.
Chalmers University of Technology, funding of SEK 29.1 million for a project entitled ”Nanochannel Microscopy for Single Exosome Analysis”.
Stockholm University, funding of SEK 27.5 million for a project entitled ”Tuning into Dark Matter”.
Lund University, funding of SEK 27.3 million for a project entitled ”The molecular mechanism and thermodynamics of chaperone action”.
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, funding of SEK 27.1 million for a project entitled ”From atom to organism: Bridging the scales in the design of ion channel drugs”.
Chalmers University of Technology, funding of SEK 27 million for a project entitled ”Light strongly interacting with mechanical motion”.
Chalmers University of Technology, funding of SEK 27 million for a project entitled ”Stable Doping of Organic Semiconductors”.
Stockholm University, funding of SEK 26.7 million for a project entitled ”Fia multidisciplinary assessment of the impact of human arrival on faunal biodiversity”.
Chalmers University of Technology, funding of SEK 26.2 million for a project entitled ”Extreme Plasma Flares”.
Lund University, funding of SEK 26.1 million for a project entitled ”Entanglement and decoherence in ultrafast electron spectroscopy and microscopy”.
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, funding of SEK 25.2 million for a project entitled ”Light-matter interaction in the ultrafast regime”.
Karolinska Institutet, funding of SEK 15 million for a project entitled ”Centre for Health Crises, with a special focus on Ukraine”.
Chalmers University of Technology, funding of SEK 13 million for a project entitled ”EDU-WACQT – a program to strengthen Swedish undergraduate education in quantum technology”.
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, funding of SEK 12.5 million for a project entitled “ KTH Future Humanities Initiative,”.
Uppsala University, funding of SEK 9.1 million for a project entitled “Enabling climate-resilient development”.
Linköping University, funding of SEK 8.2 million for a project entitled “Exploring the Transformative Power of Digital Technologies in Global Environmental Governance”.
Stockholm University, funding of SEK 7.5 million for a project entitled “Novel methodologies for analyzing complex causality in human-environment systems”.
Örebro University, funding of SEK 6.1 million for a project entitled “Ensuring Sustainable Substitution: Learning from the corporate phase-out of PFAS in outdoor clothing”.
Stockholm School of Economics, funding of SEK 6 million for a project entitled ”Professorship in sustainability research”.
The Marcus Wallenberg Foundation for Promoting Scientific Research in the Forest Industry, funding of SEK 6 million for Marcus Wallenberg Prize.
Linköping University, funding of SEK 5.7 million for a project entitled “Megabytes vs Megawatts: Understanding Infrastructural Frictions between Data Centers and Energy Grids for Sustainable Digitalization”.
Stockholm University, funding of SEK 5.6 million for a project entitled “Sustainability, Emotions and Intelligent Machines”.
Stockholm School of Economics, funding of SEK 5.1 million for a project entitled “The impact of the EU Emissions Trading System on firm behavior and CO2 emissions”.
Stockholm University, funding of SEK 5,1 million for a project entitled “Adapting to climate change in the northern Baltic Sea region, AD 1500–1900”.
Södertörn University, funding of SEK 5 million for a project entitled “Unexpected Genealogies? Genealogical Research, Identity, Memory and Kinship in Sweden”.
Linneaus University, funding of SEK 5 million for a project entitled “Swedish embodied pronunciation training (SwEmP)”.
Stockholm School of Economics, funding of SEK 4.9 million for a project entitled “Time to act sustainably: How temporal structures condition the development of sustainable work practices”.
Linköping University, funding of SEK 4.5 million for a project entitled “The symbolism of climate-friendly financial decisions”.
Linköping University, funding of SEK 4.5 million for a project entitled “Negotiating climate emergency: understandings of temporality in science, public debates and politics”.
Lund University, funding of SEK 4.5 million for a project entitled “A closer look at knowledge acquisition in the digital era”.
Stockholm University, funding of SEK 4.5 million for a project entitled “Let's talk about non-verbal communication: Investigation of interpersonal psychotherapeutic interactions and their effect on treatment outcomes using AI and time series analysis”.
Umeå University, funding of SEK 4.5 million for a project entitled “Data Is the New Oil” (DINO): Digital transformation - negotiating societal benefits and personal integrity”.
Umeå University, funding of SEK 4.5 million for a project entitled “Identification of mechanisms underlying the impact of formative assessment on student achievement in mathematics”.
Uppsala University, funding of SEK 4.5 million for a project entitled “Inception: The Birth of Nordic Fascism”.
Luleå University of Technology, funding of SEK 4.1 million for a project entitled “From conflicts to understandings: designing online platforms to support inclusive and constructive dialogues on the Green transition”.
Stockholm University, funding of SEK 4 million for a project entitled “Communication in adolescents with ADHD: investigation of Neural mechanisms and Development (CommAND)”.
Mälardalen University, funding of SEK 4 million for a project entitled “Operationalizing usage-based learning: a cognitive architecture approach”.
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, funding of SEK 3 million for a project entitled “The character of social engagement in the climate transition: how arguments work in a social context”.
Stockholm University, funding of SEK 2.4 million "Research regarding climate change and biological diversity”.
Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), funding of SEK 55 million for expansion of research areas.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, funding of SEK 50 million for Development of research and meeting places for cross disciplinary workshops and seminars.
Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), funding of SEK 30 million for the program ”Iso Lomso” – young researchers.
The Nobel Foundation, funding of SEK 25 million for five years for the ”Nobel Prize Laurate Network”.
Ideella föreningen Jobbsprånget, yearly funding of SEK 7.5 million for education and training for young newcoming people from other countries.
The Swedish Crown Princess Couple’s Foundation, funding of SEK 5 million for the project “Generation Pep”.
Raoul Wallenberg Academy for Young Leaders, funding of SEK 5 million for the project ”Raoul Wallenberg Center”.
Svenska Fysikersamfundet, funding of SEK 5 million for ”Wallenbergs fysikpris”.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, funding of SEK 4.8 million for The Ingvar Lindqvist Prizes.
Dalarna University, funding of SEK 1,5 million for publication of the review journal “Respons”.