Grants 2023

In 2023 Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation awarded grants of SEK 203 million to different programs and projects. During the year, around twenty projects were granted within the social sciences, twelve of which were research projects aimed at a sustainable society. Additionally, the Foundation's support for strategic and long-term programs has continued.

Focusing on social sciences

The Foundation primarily grants funding for projects related to social sciences. From time to time, the Foundation also initiates strategic projects and scholarship programs like WASP – HS.

Strategi and long-term programs

Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program – Humanities and Society (WASP-HS) Promote new interdisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences on the subject of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems and their impact on human and social development. Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation and Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation jointly invest in the program, totaling SEK 660 million over ten years.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences “The Anthropocene Laboratory”. The laboratory aims to gather researchers from various scientific disciplines with an understanding of the human role in the biosphere. The initiative seeks to shape the research forefront on the biosphere, the sum of all ecosystems, and develop science for sustainable development, as well as foster a new generation of young researchers. The project is funded jointly with Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation, with a total of SEK 60 million over a five-year period.

Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), a grant of a total of SEK 30 million over the years 2023 to 2027 for the program "Iso Lomso" – a program for talented young African researchers.

Total amount almost SEK 3.6 billion

Since the establishment of the Foundation, over SEK 3.6 billion has been granted in the form of project grants, scholarships and funding of research positions, of which SEK 984 million over the past five years.

The Wallenberg Foundations

In 2023, the Wallenberg Foundations granted a total of just over SEK 2.7 billion in grants.

The Wallenberg Foundations is the collective name for the 16 non-profit foundations funded by, or in honor of individual members of the Wallenberg family.

The three largest of the Wallenberg Foundations is Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, which promotes scientific research within the natural sciences, technology and medicine, Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation (scientific research mainly within the social sciences) and Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation (scientific research mainly within the humanities).

Project grants

Grants 2023

In 2023, the Foundation granted funding totaling SEK 226 million for programs and projects. Some of the grants are listed below:

Stockholm University/Stanford University, funding of SEK 20 million for the project “Advancing the Research Frontier of Biosphere Stewardship”

Stockholm School of Economics, funding of SEK 15 million for "Professorship in Leadership", a contribution in connection with the Majesty the King's 50th year on the throne.

Linköping University, funding of SEK 9.9 million for the project “UPSCALED: Ecocycle analysis for upscaling of future energy conversion technologies”.

Linköping University, funding of SEK 9.5 million for the project “Data-Driven Service Transformation in Industrial Ecosystems”.

Stockholm University, funding of SEK 9.4 million for the project “Corporate Accountability in Global Supply Chains? The Effectiveness of Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence Regulations”.
Corporate accountability in global supply chains

Stockholm University, funding of SEK 8.4 million for the project “Shapin the Online Public Sphere: How and Why do Democracies Regulate Social Media Platforms and with what Consequences?”
How and why do democracies regulate social media platforms and what are the consequences?

Stockholm University, funding of SEK 8 million for the project “Trade-offs in Demand-side Climate Mitigation: Political Feasibility, Justice, and Legitimacy”.
Climate mitigation – just, legitimate and politically feasible?

Lund University, funding of SEK 7.8 million for the project “Sustainable Carbon Capture, Transportation and Storage: Liability and Governance in Light of International and EU Law”
Legal governance of carbon dioxide transport and storage at sea

Uppsala University, funding of SEK 7.8 million for the project “Does the welfare state shape public support for climate action? A cross-country experimental assessment”.
How to design welfare systems to increase popular support to climate policy

Stockholm University, funding of SEK 6.4 million for the project “AI for society: Towards socially just algorithmic decision making”.
Transparency and accountability vital for just AI development

The Marcus Wallenberg Foundation for Promoting Scientific Research in the Forest Industry, funding of SEK 6 million for Marcus Wallenberg Prize.

KTH Royal Institute of Technology, funding of SEK 5.9 million for the project “New and old friends in the circular economy transition: Analyzing circular business models and circular supply chains in the Swedish process industry”.
Analyzing circular business models and circular supply chains in the Swedish process industry

Lund University, funding of SEK 5.1 million for the project “Integrated GEOlogical and SocioPolitical Assessment of Storage solutions for carbon dioxide removal (GeoSPAS)”.
How carbon dioxide capture as a solution to climate problems entered the public debate

Luleå University of Techology, funding of SEK 5 million for the project “Developing Markets for Increased Recycling of Critical Metals: Historical Lessons and Novel Challenges”.
How to increase the recycling of critical metals

Wallenberg Clinical Fellows

Wallenberg Clinical Fellows 2020

This year’s Wallenberg Clinical Fellows aim to find new methods for treating cancer

Two physicians will be appointed Wallenberg Clinical Fellows; they are researching why cancer is more common in patients with systemic rheumatic diseases, and studying whether it is possible to develop new methods for treating pancreatic cancer.

The purpose of the Wallenberg Clinical Fellows program is to encourage clinical research by Swedish physicians. Funding is for three years. The program is supported by the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is responsible for the scientific evaluation.

Marie Holmqvist: Associate professor at the Clinical Epidemiology Division, Department of Medicine at Karolinska Institutet in Solna and resident physician in rheumatology, Karolinska University Hospital.
Project: Cancer in systemic rheumatic disease – occurrence, genetics, prediction and consequences.

Compared to the general population, patients with systemic rheumatic disease have significantly increased mortality. Cancer is one of the most common causes of death and the most frequently occurring diseases in these patients, but there is limited knowledge about why this group develops cancer.

Marie Holmqvist wants to investigate the genetic and clinic characteristics of cancer in patients with systemic rheumatic disease and the prognosis for the affected patients. Thanks to an international cooperation with several universities in the Nordic countries, her research group will track patients over time to see if they develop cancer. They will first undergo genotyping to determine their exact genetic characteristics, and modern epidemiological methods will be used to examine which types of cancer affect these patients and the role of individual genetics in this context.

Daniel Öhlund: MD at the Department of Radiation Sciences, Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine, Umeå University, and resident physician in oncology at University Hospital of Umeå.
Project: Targeting tumor-stromal interactions in pancreatic cancer

Cancer of the pancreas has a very poor prognosis. One reason for this is that the disease is resistant to all the currently available forms of treatment, another is that it is often discovered at a late stage and has been able to spread to other areas of the body.
Pancreatic tumors are characterized by clusters of cancer cells surrounded by connective tissue, often referred to as the stroma. This consists of different stroma cells, such as fibroblasts (a type of connective tissue producing cells), nerves and a microbiome – which consists of microorganisms – providing the cancer cells with important signals that regulate tumor growth and survival. The stroma also functions as a type of barrier that prevents drugs from reaching the tumor.

The project run by Daniel Öhlund aims to gain greater understanding of the functional role of the stroma, to find novel targets for pharmaceutical treatments and new biomarkers that may make it possible to discover the disease at an early stage.

Using analysis methods based on mass spectrometry and single cell sequencing, the researchers want to take a closer look at composition of the stroma. Their hope is that they can find and develop new treatment methods that target the interaction between the cancer cells and the surrounding stroma. This could eventually lead to the clinical introduction of entirely new methods for treating pancreatic cancer.

Photo: Margareta Bloom Sandebäck och Mattias Pettersson.