NEWS The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation grants over SEK 57 million to two projects managed by the researchers Stefan Björklund and Helena Edlund at Umeå University. The Umeå researcher Jürgen Schleucher is also co-applicant to a large project at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). All research projects are deemed at highest international level with the chance at future scientific breakthroughs.
“This news is so exciting – grants of this magnitude contribute to the long-term scope that groundbreaking research requires. The projects that have now been allotted financial support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation fall under some of our really strong research areas that also address serious questions regarding diabetes and plant stress tolerance. The same goes for the project where researchers from SLU are main applicants, with co-applicants from Umeå University. This also mirrors the very successful research collaboration that exists between our universities,” says Lena Gustafsson, Vice-Chancellor at Umeå University.
The applications to Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation have been evaluated by the leading international researchers in each field. The Foundation has, based upon these evaluations, decided to grant a total of SEK 759 million to 25 different research projects spanning over several years.
“It is always a pleasure for the board to grant funding applications for projects of high scientific quality. As its name implies, basic research lays the foundation for future breakthroughs. It gives us new knowledge on which to build, and in some cases, it also leads to applications that none of us could have imagined. For instance, the hunt for the Higgs particle gave birth to technology now used in the health sector. There are myriad examples of this kind,” observes Peter Wallenberg Jr., Chair of the Knut och Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Project: “Evolutionarily conserved mechanisms of stress response that converge on mediator and chromatin structure”
Grant: SEK 39,700,000 over five years
Main applicant: Stefan Björklund, Professor at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Umeå University
Co-applicants: Åsa Strand, professor at Umeå University, Hans Ronne, Claudia Köhler and Jan Stenlid, all professors at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Uppsala.
Fore more information, please contact: Stefan BjörklundProfessor at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Umeå UniversityPhone: +46 70-216 28 90
Email: stefan.bjorklund@umu.se
Project: “Prevention of beta-cell failure in Type 2 diabetes”
Grant: SEK 17,600,000 over three years
Main applicant: Professor Helena Edlund, Umeå University
Co-applicant: Thomas Edlund, Professor at Umeå Centre for Molecular Medicine (UCMM), Umeå University
For more information, please contact: Helena EdlundProfessor at Umeå Centre for Molecular Medicine (UCMM), Umeå UniversityPhone: +46 90-785 44 29, +46 70-673 9986
Email: helena.edlund@umu.se
Project: “Physiological branch-points with ecosystem consequences: carbon and water in boreal forests”
Grant: SEK 39,450,000 over five years
Main applicant: Torgny Näsholm, Professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Co-applicant: Jürgen Schleucher, Professor at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Umeå University and Hjalmar Laudon, John Marshall, Matthias Peichl at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).
For more information, please contact: Jürgen SchleucherProfessor at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Umeå University
Email: jurgen.schleucher@umu.se
Lena GustafssonVice-Chancellor at Umeå UniversityPhone: +46 73-079 42 91
Email: lena.gustafsson@umu.se
Editor: Anna Lawrence