Anna Maria Birgersdotter

My name is Anna Birgersdotter and I work as a Project Director, Senior Project Manager and Process Lead at the Unit for Bioentrepreneurship (UBE) at Karolinska Institutet.

My work focuses on how knowledge can be translated into action, value and societal change. Since joining UBE in 2017, I have initiated, designed and led projects at the intersection of education, innovation, science communication, public engagement and advocacy. A recurring theme in my work is creating interfaces between different perspectives, organisations and sectors; spaces where people can meet, learn from one another and develop new ways of acting together.

Education and capacity building

I was recruited to LIME in 2017 to strengthen competence in science communication and facilitation, building on my previous experience at Tom Tits Experiment. Since then, I have developed and led Master's and doctoral education in communication, engagement and bioentrepreneurship, as well as capacity-building initiatives for researchers and professionals.

Examples include Empowering Women in Health Innovation, the development of educational concepts such as the Co-Up Lab and Empathy Lab, and new approaches to communication, public engagement and collaborative learning.

My approach to education is strongly influenced by entrepreneuring. Rather than viewing entrepreneurship primarily through its conventional output – the creation of a start-up – I am interested in the entrepreneurial process as a way of navigating uncertainty, mobilising resources and creating change together with others. We cannot know exactly what challenges tomorrow's health and life-science professionals will face. We can, however, strengthen their capacity to navigate complexity through skills such as communication, collaboration, facilitation, stakeholder engagement and strategic action.

Public engagement, advocacy and research impact

A second strand of my work concerns the relationship between research and society: how research, evidence and expertise can contribute to meaningful change.

In 2020, I was commissioned by the President of Karolinska Institutet to develop a practice for public engagement at KI. This work has included experimenting with new formats and spaces for dialogue and co-creation between researchers, students and different parts of society.

I have also been involved in developing advocacy and systems-change initiatives, including the creation of a national organisation bringing together actors working towards systemic transformation. This work reflects my broader interest in moving beyond dissemination of knowledge towards understanding how evidence can inform agendas, mobilise stakeholders and contribute to change in complex systems.

Another example is The Cell, a new museum and public engagement arena developed at the intersection of science, culture and society, which I was involved in creating. The Cell represents an approach that is central to much of my work: creating new interfaces where scientific knowledge can encounter other forms of knowledge, experience and expression.

Creating spaces for change

My personal drive is to create spaces that bridge different realities through encounters, conversation, experimentation and reflection.

Sometimes that space is a classroom. Sometimes it is a temporary educational pop-up that takes students outside academia to work with local stakeholders. Sometimes it is a capacity-building programme designed to challenge established ways of thinking. And sometimes it is a museum, a network or a national initiative for systems change.

Across these different settings, I am interested in the same underlying question:

How do we create the conditions for knowledge, people and ideas to move and ultimately contribute to change?

My roles at UBE have consequently been varied, with informal titles ranging from Head of Bioentrepreneurial Culture and facilitator to project manager for EIT Health initiatives and, following my public engagement assignment, Head of Public Engagement. Several of the initiatives I have led or developed have been supported through EIT Health.

A return to the same place

There is also a personal connection to where I work today. This is the third time I have found myself at almost exactly the same spot at Karolinska Institutet.

In 2008, I carried out my PhD research in a laboratory located here, with almost the same view that I now have from my office. And in 1979, I visited the same place while my father was completing his PhD in that laboratory, although in a different research group and field.

The third time is the charm.

Current research and teaching interests

Knowledge transfer, impact and value creation from research and evidence, storytelling,  

Education and former research
Many small project based employments within research (2010-2011), one collaboration with KTH, one with KI fonder to evaluate findings from PhD thesis
Post doc at deparment of internal medicin, KS (2009)
Focusing on  3D culture systems and macrophage infiltration in tumour tissues
PhD at MTC, KI (2008)
My thesis was called "Transcriptome analysis of Hodgkin Lymphoma, insights into the microenvironment". The thesis contain the world's first article on lymphoma cells cultured in 3D matrix. It was defended at MTC in 2008.

Karolinska Institutet

Current:

Course director for the PhD course "Mastering science communication and public engagement; from research to resonance"

Course director for Master's course "Communication in bioentrepreneurship"

Guestlecturing in several programmes.

Archive:

Course director of 2 master's courses at the "Masters programme in bioentrepreneurship":
  Communication in Bioentrepreneurship 1 (2020-2025)
  Communication in Bioentrepreneurship 2 (2021-2026)
Course director of the PhD course "Communicating Science in Various Contexts, Focusing on Visual and Oral presentation.
Lecturer at several other courses and local events. (2020-2023)
KI responsible for the case competition "Skillbridge".

EIT health (2017-2022)
Developed designed and partly faciliated The Stockholm E-lab  (The Cocreation Pop-Up Lab) (2019-2020)
Developed and faciliteted the "Empowering Women in Health Innovation" (2017-2020).

In this project I have also facilitated workshops in European partner instituions like IESE (Barcelona Business school), TUM (Tecnical university Munich) and National University Galway (Ireland).
Partly developed and faciliated "The Stockholm E-lab" network (2017-2018)
Developed, designed and delivered modules "Communication and collaboration" and "How to engage; insiders view to value creation in the project "From scientist to innovator for industry" (SCI FI) (2021-2022)

SSES, weekend workshops
Developed and delivered a course; The Power of Storytelling (2018)
Developed and delivered "Entrepreneurial storytelling" in (2021 2022)
Co-developed and co-delivered "Impactful engagement" with Samer Yammine, 2023