Today sees the launch of Karolinska Institutet Innovation, in which staff and students can obtain help testing out their ideas. The ultimate aim is to ensure research is converted into innovations that serve the public and patients' best interests.
Karolinska Institutet Innovation gathers together the various activities that form the university's innovation system to help researchers find the innovation support they need.
"Collecting these activities under one name will hopefully make things clearer for KI's researchers and s as well as for the surrounding ecosystem," says Johan Weigelt, CEO of Karolinska Institutet Innovation.
Martin Bergö, Karolinska Institutet's vice president, stresses how important it is for this initiative to be launched now.
"We're strengthening an already strong innovation system and making it more accessible and integrated," he says. "Karolinska Institutet Innovation clarifies the architecture of the support we provide, from idea to implementation."
A single point of access to innovation support
The aim is to give researchers, staff and students at KI a clear entrance point for taking their ideas to the next level. Dr Weigelt acclaims the holistic strength of Karolinska Institutet Innovation, in that having all innovation resources under the same roof generates synergies and flexibility.
"That position is what we now want to clarify and make as accessible as possible," he says.
Dr Weigelt describes how Karolinska Institutet Innovation offers a comprehensive package that includes the entire chain from the validation and evaluation of business ideas and startup incubation to financing and capital acquisition.
"We also offer inspirational networking and community activities featuring our member companies," he adds.
For instance, 21 April is Karolinska Institutet Investor Day. Here, 13 KI startups will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to investors and to promote themselves and connect with potential investors.
Examples of how research reaches patients and society
Even though Karolinska Institutet is a researching university, Dr Weigelt emphasises the fact that it takes entrepreneurial drive and commercialisation for novel medical technology devices and products to reach the patients, citing by way of example AnaCardio AB, which is developing a new heart-failure drug.
"It's currently in phase II tests and up until 2025 received private financing worth half a billion kronor," he says.
Another example is SEQURNA AB (founded 2022), a KI company that has developed a new type of RNase blocker.
"They were bought up last summer by a Swedish reagent company with global distribution channels, making their product available to researchers the world over," says Dr Weigelt.
From idea and innovation to practical application
Dr Weigelt explains that a good innovation concept solves problems or caters for needs that have not been addressed before.
"Or solves them in a better way - faster, cheaper, more sustainably or with higher quality," he says. "But for the idea to be an innovation, it needs to be useful on a market, which is where we come in."
Karolinska Institutet Innovation simplifies and expedites the process for researchers.
"We work with our clients, guiding them and making sure they avoid pitfalls along the way," he says.
Dr Weigelt describes Karolinska Institutet Innovation as a unique environment straddling the academic, healthcare, commercial and financial sectors in which ideas and startups can thrive and grow.
"It's ultimately about giving more research-based innovations a chance to grow into robust companies and sustainable and genuinely effective solutions," he says.
"For us, it's about creating for our researchers the best possible conditions for converting knowledge into solutions that make a difference for patients and society alike," says Professor Bergö by way of conclusion. "If KI is to remain a leading actor in life science and health, it needs a strong innovation system."
Karolinska Institutet Innovation
- Karolinska Institutet Innovation launches its website today, giving researchers with a potential innovation concept access to support to help them take it further. (LÄNK)
- Karolinska Institutet Innovation comprises KI Holding AB, KI Science Park AB and KI Innovations AB.
- Karolinska Institutet Innovation provides professional support along the entire innovation chain, evaluating and validating ideas and helping researchers to identify commercial opportunities, draw up business plans, start and incubate companies, and gain access to capital.
Innovation at KI: some numbers
- Every year, hundreds of ideas are evaluated and validated, 5 to 10 of which go on to form the basis of new companies.
- 20 companies are currently in the incubator, where they gain the support they need to grow.
- There are currently 80 companies on the Solna campus and over 180 companies in the vicinity. Karolinska Institutet Innovation arranges around 50 networking events for university and commercial representatives every year.
- Karolinska Institutet Innovation's company incubator was given a top ranking by Vinnova in 2025, and received financing of SEK 29.3 million in four years.
Text: Lotta Fredholm
