Stockholm Trio University Alliance

Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Stockholm University entered in 2019 into the university alliance Stockholm trio with the aim of developing and highlighting the internationally prominent research and education environment that the three universities form in the Stockholm region.

About the alliance

Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Stockholm University are prominent universities in their respective fields and together form a complete academic environment with the areas medicine, technology, science, humanities, law and social sciences.

Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Stockholm University conduct more than 30 percent of all academic research and postgraduate education in Sweden and have 15-20 percent of all students at the undergraduate and graduate level. Together, the universities have 5,200 doctoral students and SEK 12.4 billion in total revenues for research and research education and a total budget of SEK 17.3 billion. As a unified academic environment, the Stockholm trio are among the strongest in the world.

The three universities have been collaborating for a long time in a number of scientific fields and also offers joint educational programmes. The alliance agreement provides new conditions for in-depth collaboration and facilitates new university-wide research and education.

Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Stockholm University play a crucial role for the City of Stockholm and the Stockholm region when it comes to research, innovation and competence supply. With 17,000 employees and 55,000 students, the universities of Stockholm trio constitute one of the region's largest employers and workplaces. The universities’ activities are mainly gathered on a cohesive campus attracting many international students, doctoral students, researchers and teachers.

Common objectives

The creation of the Stockholm trio university alliance gives Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Stockholm University better conditions for closer cooperations in research, education and collaboration and outreach. Through the alliance, the universities become more competitive internationally in order to foster new international collaborations, to recruit leading researchers, and attract international students. The universities can also become a stronger force regionally and nationally by engaging decision makers, authorities, businesses and industry together.

The agreement has three general objectives:

  • Create new conditions for developing university-wide research and education by taking advantage of a complete academic environment
  • Clarify the excellence and internationally outstanding academic environment that the parties represent together and strengthen the universities' capacity to act jointly, regionally, nationally and internationally with the alliance cooperation as the basis
  • Coordinate and build common functions for administrative support in order to promote long-term conditions, professionalization and development capacity.

Steering Committee for Stockholm trio

The Stockholm trio is led by a Steering Committee consisting of the university's presidents and university directors:

  • Anders Söderholm, President, KTH
  • Annika Östman Wernerson, President, Karolinska Institutet
  • Astrid Söderbergh Widding, President, Stockholm University
  • Åsa Borin, University Director, Stockholm University
  • Kerstin Jacobsson, University Director, KTH
  • Veronika Sundström, University Director, Karolinska Institutet

Coordination Secretariat

The Stockholm trio steering group has appointed a coordination secretariat to prepare and coordinate the work within the university alliance. The Coordination Secretariat consists of a responsible and staff members from the three universities:

Joint representation in Brussels

Since 2020, the University Alliance Stockholm Trio (Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Stockholm University) has a joint representation in Brussels.

The office aims to contribute Brussels representation shall contribute to strengthening the three universities participation in various EU-funded research, education, and innovation programmes primarily within Horizon Europe and contribute to making use of opportunities within the ERA/EEA.

Two colleagues are based at the Brussels office and each university has a dedicated representative in Stockholm who works closely with the Brussels office and are responsible for the dissemination in Stockholm. The office is co-located with the Stockholm Region EU Office in Brussels, on Avenue Marnix 28 and have an extensive collaboration with their colleagues.

The main network in Brussels is Unilion consisting of more than 50 university office representing more than 150 universities. 

Contact in Brussels

Sanna Sjöblom
EU Policy Officer, Karolinska Institutet
sanna.sjoblom@ki.se  

Dan Andrée
Senior Advisor, Karolinska Institutet
dan.andree@ki.se

Contact in Stockholm

Carolina Kristell
EU Funding and Policy Specialist, Karolinska Institutet
carolina.kristell@ki.se

Jenny Wanselius
Head of Unit, Research Funding, KTH
jennywan@kth.se

Henrik Aspeborg
Research Officer, Stockholm University
henrik.aspeborg@su.se

Some facts about the Stockholm trio

61 900 students. Corresponds to 17 percent of Sweden's total 357 000 students

  • KI: 8 100
  • KTH: 14 100
  • SU: 36 700

SEK 13,5 billion in total revenues for research and postgraduate education. This corresponds to 28 percent of Sweden's total SEK 47,6 billion allocated to research and postgraduate education.

  • KI: SEK 6 339 million
  • KTH: SEK 3 668 million
  • SU: SEK 3 493 million

More than 17 500 employees (individuals). This corresponds to 22 percent of a total of 79 300 employees at Sweden's higher education institutions

  • KI: 6 250
  • KTH: 4 970
  • SU: 6 227

Almost 5 000 doctoral students. Corresponds to 29 percent of all 17 370 doctoral students in Sweden

  • KI: 2 087
  • KTH: 1 666
  • SU: 1 239

Source: Swedish Higher Education Authority’s (UKÄ) statistics database: Högskolan i siffror (Higher education in figures), 2021

Contact

Christina Murray
International strategist, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
tina@kth.se