Uppsala University Introduces Five Research Environments

Five research environments at Uppsala University receive grants in the Swedish Research Council’s excellence initiative. It is about innovative research around the Viking Age, the chemistry of life, geometry and physics, extreme climate events and human prehistory.

In autumn 2022, the Swedish Research Council announced grants for centers of excellence. After an international panel assessed the 124 applications that came in, the Swedish Research Council has now decided to finance 15 research environments. As many as five of these are at Uppsala University, which receives a total of SEK 145 million in grants.

Each research environment will receive SEK 4–6 million per year for five years, and the plan is to provide the opportunity for another five years of funding after evaluation. These research environments at Uppsala University receive grants:

Center for geometry and physics – Tobias Ekholm, professor of mathematics
Center for Human Prehistory – Mattias Jakobsson, professor at the Department of Organismal Biology
The chemical mechanisms of life – Ingela Lanekoff, professor at the Department of Chemistry – BMC
Center of Excellence for the Effects of Extreme Climate Events during Global Climate Change – Gabriele Messori, Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences
The Viking Age World – Neil Price, Professor in the Department of Archeology and Ancient History
Center in the chemistry of life
At the research environment “Life’s chemical mechanisms” led by Ingela Lanekoff, researchers must combine knowledge in individual fields to understand in depth what is described as the chemistry of life. For example, the researchers will be able to study what kind of chemical mechanisms control the circadian rhythm – are they really single hormones and, if so, what is behind their increases and decreases? They also make it possible to study chemical interactions at a detailed level to understand what controls cancer development.

The center will hold seminars and workshops, and courses for students and doctoral students with the goal of creating a master’s program in the chemistry of life. A platform for combining data from different molecules and techniques is developed and will also be developed. The idea is for the center to function as a hub in a research machinery where researchers with different backgrounds and expertise can find collaboration partners across the traditional subject boundaries.