Sweden's SciLifeLab to Become National Research Institute for Molecular Biosciences and Bioinformatics. (April 9, 2012)

SciLifeLab, Sweden's Science for Life Laboratory, a 2-year-old collaboration between Stockholm University, the Karolinska Institutet, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Uppsala University will become in 2013 Sweden's national research institute for major research in molecular biosciences and bioinformatics, and will be expanded from a current staff of 300 to about 1000 scientists and have a turnover of about 1 billion SEK (A$143 million) "within a few years".

At his April 3, 2012 media conference, Jan Björklund, Sweden's minister for education, said: "We have high ambitions to gather the sharpest brains and lay the foundation for new and major breakthroughs."

In 2010 the four universities received just over A$70 million to set up SciLifeLab which has now attracted a 5-year grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation of A$33 million as well funding from pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca of between $A5 million to A$10 million annually over the next 5 years.

ScienceInsider reports: "The Stockholm center [of the consortium] will add 4000 square meters of laboratory and office space in June and will add another new building next year, officials say. Similar expansion is under way in Uppsala, where construction is expected to begin in May on additions that will push total lab and office space to 11,000 square meters by 2013.

Eva Åkesson, president of Uppsala University says: "This investment will enable us to attract leading scientists and innovative research to come to Sweden," while Mathias Uhlén, director of SciLifeLab, told ScienceInsider: "Since we started 2 years ago, we [have] set up all the necessary infrastructure, [now we] want to use the tools … to move forward to more clinical projects and personal medicine." As an example his initiative to map all human proteins, the Human Protein Atlas, is now about two-thirds of the way to its goal, with plans to finish in 2015.

Neuroscientist Ola Hermanson of the Karolinska Institutet, however, sounds a note of caution with regard to the expanding initiative: "I feel ambivalent, [while] I welcome the initiative of our minister to give his attention to genetics and molecular biology, but I really hope that the government money will not just go directly to SciLifeLab but rather be distributed through a peer-reviewed competition process." And Christian Broberger, vice president of the Young Academy of Sweden, a part of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said: "The goal to recruit researchers from abroad is very welcome" but according to ScienceInsider he warns that to attract outside talent Swedish universities will need to implement reforms, including "a sorely lacking transparent tenure-track system."