“A privilege to promote Swedish research”

When did you take up the position of President? And why did you get the job?

“I took over as FoI Director in June 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, when my predecessor Jan Andersson was due to retire. According to the statutes, Region Stockholm is supposed to lead the work of the steering group and thus the light fell on me as Jan had held the assignment before. I had previously been dean at KI and was at the time head of the Center for Psychiatry Research and had worked in the borderland between care and research for a long time, crossing Solnavägen back and forth throughout my career. In addition, I had been a member of KI’s management, which was probably seen as an advantage.”

What has been most fun, or most interesting, about leading MedTechLabs?

“What has been most fun is that I have gained insight into fantastic research with the potential to really make a difference for patients. And to have been able to fund strong Swedish research, I see it as a privilege to be able to distribute such large amounts of money. At MedTechLabs Research Day, which is held every year, you get to hear so many skilled and enterprising researchers talk about their work. These are really passionate about what they do. I would say that one of the most enjoyable things about leading MedTechLabs has been meeting these researchers who are people with the potential to change the lives of the rest of us.

What has been the most challenging? Can you give an example?

“Well, the first was the pandemic, which meant that neither researchers nor patients could come to our premises in BioClinicum. It knocked out the idea of us sitting together in MedTechLab’s premises. This has continued to be the case, except for our CT lab. Another important challenge has been to make MedTechLabs something more than just a research funder. To drive collaboration, innovation and exchange of ideas, to build a young faculty with junior researchers who are exposed to new ways of working. MedTechLabs has become an opportunity for researchers at different stages of their career to come together around these issues.”

How do you see MedTechLabs as a model for creating societal benefits from research?

“The most important contribution, beyond the research results themselves, is to shorten the time for implementation of the solutions developed. The entrepreneurial culture of the center is also crucial, with many of the researchers starting their own companies and/or choosing early on to collaborate with companies that make a marketable product or service based on the solutions developed. The training of healthcare professionals that we engage in also creates a concrete societal benefit.“

How do you hope MedTechLabs will develop after you leave?

“MedTechLabs contributes to strengthening Stockholm’s life science sector and I would like to see it double in size in five years. This is provided that the basic idea is kept alive – that is, that the center will clearly strengthen the medical technology development in Stockholm in five years. Also, that the center can continue to be an arena for cross-border projects and collaborations between academia, health care and industry.”

What will you do yourself, now that you are leaving your position?

“I will now devote more time to my own research. I am a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry, and my research group has received a large grant from the Swedish Research Council for a multicenter study in suicide prevention, where five regions in Sweden will test a new model for care. In addition to research, I will serve as a senior advisor in life science to KI’s management, and I will also work on issues related to health data and AI in TEF-Health, an EU project that aims to support small and medium-sized companies and organizations to use AI solutions in health.”