The Swedish Research Council (VR) employs seven part-time secretaries general who are active scientists. They are part of the agency’s management team and initiate, promote and follow up on issues in their respective areas. It has now been announced that Ulrika Ådén will be its new Secretary General for Medicine and Health.
Ulrika Ådén holds the Joanna Cocozza Professorship in Children’s Medicine at Linköping University and is a senior consultant in paediatrics. She is also a professor at Karolinska Institutet and a senior consultant in neonatology at Karolinska University Hospital. Her research focuses on how the basic functions of the brain develop during childhood.
“I believe my experience of both pre-clinical and clinical research at various universities is a good background for leading the work in medicine and health at the Swedish Research Council,” says Ulrika Ådén in a press release from the Swedish Research Council.
She has also held various management assignments within and outside academia, and has a broad international network of contacts.
“I know how important it is to promote collaboration with researchers in other countries,” she says.
Ensuring that research results have an impact is another driving force:
“I want to contribute to a stronger impact of research in health care, policy and society.”
Ulrika Ådén will take up her post as the new Secretary General for Medicine and Health on 1 September 2026. This post was held by LiU’s Vice-Chancellor Jan-Ingvar Jönsson during 2016–2020.
