Wallenberg Foundations

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The Wallenberg Foundations refers collectively to the 16 public and private foundations formed on the basis of donations from members of the Swedish Wallenberg family, or created with funds raised in honor of Wallenberg family members.

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The Foundations award grants to excellent researchers and research projects whose purpose is for the benefit of Sweden. Over the past ten years the Foundations have awarded funding of just over SEK 17 billion. Total funding since the Foundations were established is approaching SEK 33 billion. The three largest foundations awarded SEK 2.2 billion in 2018. The emphasis of funding is on medicine, technology and natural sciences, but the Foundations also support social sciences, the humanities and archaeology.

Structure

Sixteen individual foundations form the basis for what is collectively called the Wallenberg Foundations. [1] The three largest Foundations – Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, and Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation jointly own FAM AB, an unlisted company whose purpose is to own and manage its direct holdings, and function as an active owner with a long-term commitment. The three foundations also have substantial holdings in the listed company Investor AB which holds positions in international companies, most of them with Swedish roots. [2]

The Wallenberg Foundations collectively hold 50% of shares in Investor AB and 100% of shares in FAM AB. [3] They also controlled 7.5% of Swedish national carrier SAS, however, their involvement in the flag carrier ended as part of the airline's restructuring after COVID-19. [3] [4]

Active engagement in these companies forms the bulk of the Wallenberg family's activities with most assets held through foundations tightly controlled by the family who invest the assets in family-run operating companies. The family's assets generate approximately $160 billion in annual revenue. [5] Dividends from the holdings are used to fund research and education grants in line with the Wallenberg's stated goal of working for the benefit of Sweden or "landsgagneliga". [2] [5] [6]

The foundations combined award funding of just over SEK 2.2 billion each year for Swedish research and education. The foundations are Sweden's largest private funder of research and also holds the title at a number of universities including Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet. [7] [8] The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation is itself the second-largest backer of basic scientific research in Europe, distributing $2.7 billion (SEK 24 billion) in its first 100 years of existence as of 2017. [2]

Human Protein Atlas

The Wallenberg Foundations funded the Human Protein Atlas in 2003 at a cost of SEK 900 million which had, as of 2013, mapped 15,000 proteins largely through the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. [9] The project involves hundreds of scientists including from Karolinska Institute, Stockholm University, Uppsala University and the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology forming the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab). [9] The foundations provide SEK 120 million annually to support the SciLifeLab. [9]

Wallenberg Scholars

In 2009, the foundations began the Wallenberg Scholars program to fund Sweden's leading senior researchers with 5-year grants that can be used for research without restrictions. The program was started because "researchers need long-term funding without the distraction of pressure to secure external grants in order to carry out world-class research" according to the foundations. [10] There were 118 Wallenberg Scholars as of 2024. [10]

Related Research Articles

The Wallenberg family is a prominent Swedish family renowned as bankers, industrialists, politicians, bureaucrats and diplomats, present in most large Swedish industrial groups, like Ericsson, Electrolux, ABB, SAS Group, SKF, AIK, Atlas Copco, Saab AB, and more. In the 1970s, the Wallenberg family businesses employed 40% of Sweden's industrial workforce and represented 40% of the total worth of the Stockholm stock market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Wallenberg Sr.</span> Swedish businessman (1926–2015)

Peter "Pirre" Wallenberg Sr. was a Swedish business leader who was chairman of Investor AB for ten years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SAS Group</span> Airline holding company based in Sweden

SAS AB, trading as SAS Group, is a Swedish airline holding company headquartered in Solna Municipality, Sweden. It is the owner of the airlines Scandinavian Airlines, SAS Link, and SAS Connect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nobel Foundation</span> Private institution managing the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes

The Nobel Foundation is a private institution founded on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. The foundation is based on the last will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stockholms Enskilda Bank</span> Swedish bank (1856- 1972)

Stockholms Enskilda Bank, sometimes called Enskilda banken or SEB, was a Swedish bank, founded in 1856 by André Oscar Wallenberg as Stockholm's first private bank. In 1857, Stockholms Enskilda Bank began to employ women, claiming to be the first bank to do.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation</span> Swedish research foundation

Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW) is a Swedish public and private foundation formed in 1917 by Knut Agathon Wallenberg and his wife Alice Wallenberg. It was created to support research in the natural sciences, technology and medicine by awarding long-term grants to basic research of the highest international class.

Höganäs AB is a Swedish company which is the world's largest producer of powdered metals. Based in Höganäs, it develops and markets powders for customers in metallurgical industries.

Foundation Asset ManagementAB is a Swedish asset management company, founded by the three largest Wallenberg foundations in order to manage their assets, by means of direct ownership as well as through management and consultancy agreements. It is chaired by Marcus Wallenberg who also chairs Wallenberg Investments AB, which is the holding company that directly owns FAM AB.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob Wallenberg</span> Swedish banker and industrialist (born 1956)

Jacob Wallenberg is a Swedish banker and industrialist from the Wallenberg family who currently serves as a board member for multiple companies. He was described by The Guardian as a “prince in Sweden's royal family of finance”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Science for Life Laboratory</span>

SciLifeLab is a world-leading Swedish national center for large-scale research and one of the largest molecular biology research laboratories in Europe at the forefront of innovation in life sciences research, computational biology, bioinformatics, training and services in molecular biosciences with focus on health and environmental research. The center combines frontline technical expertise with advanced knowledge of translational medicine and molecular bioscience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcus Wallenberg Sr</span> Swedish banker (1864 – 1943)

Marcus Laurentius Wallenberg, Sr. was a Swedish banker and industrialist. He was CEO of Stockholms Enskilda Bank (SEB) from 1911 to 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mouna Esmaeilzadeh</span> Swedish neuroscientist (born 1980)

Mouna Esmaeilzadeh is an Iranian medical doctor, neuroscientist, entrepreneur and TV personality. She has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stockholm Brain Institute at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. Her expertise and know-how has been covered on Swedish national television where she's invited to talk about science, technology, neuroscience and investments/entrepreneurship. The previous secretary of the Nobel Committee Alf Lindberg, said that Esmaeilzadeh is one of the leading authorities within the "future of health". She was awarded the "MENSA award of the Year" as well as the "Fact-based Optimist of the Year Award" which was handed out in partnership with Google by Warp Institute, amongst many other awards and recognitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Wallenberg Jr.</span>

Peter “Poker” Åke Wallenberg is a Swedish businessman, chair of eight of the sixteen public and private foundations formed by the Wallenberg family or established in memory of family members. The foundations, which are known collectively as the Wallenberg Foundations, annually award funding of approximately SEK 2.2 billion, largely for research and education at Swedish universities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate Impacts Research Centre</span> Swedish research center

Climate Impacts Research Centre (CIRC) is a research institute based at the Department of ecology and environmental science (EMG) at Umeå University, Sweden, but primarily operative at Abisko Scientific Research Station which is run by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob Wallenberg (1892–1980)</span> Swedish banker (1892–1980)

Jacob "Juju" Wallenberg was a Swedish banker and industrial leader. Wallenberg held various central positions in Stockholms Enskilda Bank. He was also chairman of the board of several companies, including Stora Kopparbergs Bergslag and Orkla Mining Company. From 1934 to 1944 he was a member of the Swedish governmental commission for trade with Germany.

Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation was formed with a donation from the banker Jacob Wallenberg in 1960. The original donation was SEK 442,000.

Kenneth R. Chien is an American doctor and medical scientist who has been a research director at Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm, since 2013. Chien has several papers with over 1,000 citations and a h-index of 132. His area of expertise is cardiovascular science. His research into regenerative cardiovascular medicine, specifically while director of the Cardiovascular Program of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, led to his co-founding, in 2010, of ModeRNA Therapeutics. In 2018, the company re-branded as Moderna, Inc. Chien is a recipient of the Walter Bradford Cannon Award of the American Physiology Society and the Pasarow Award. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh.

Siv Gun Elisabeth Andersson is a Swedish evolutionary biologist, professor of molecular evolution at Uppsala University. She is member of both the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and of Engineering. She is also Head of basic research at the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and has been co-director of the Swedish national center for large-scale research Science for Life Laboratory between 2017 and 2021. Her research focuses on the evolution of bacteria, mainly on intracellular parasites.

Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP), launched in 2015, is Sweden’s largest individual research program.

Birgitta Henriques Normark is a Swedish doctor and researcher, focusing on the field of host-bacteria interactions and pneumococcal infections. She is a professor of Clinical Microbiology at the Karolinska Institute and is the head physician at the Karolinska University Hospital. She is a member of a number of academies including the European Academy of Microbiology, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, of which she was elected president in 2022.

References

  1. ↑ "The ecosystem | Wallenberg.com". www.wallenberg.com. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Wallenbergs: where money meets Swedish science". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  3. 1 2 Milne, Richard (5 June 2015). "Meet the Wallenbergs". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  4. ↑ Rasmussen, Louise (4 October 2023). "SAS stock dives 95% as restructuring announced". Reuters.
  5. 1 2 "The investor who believes in giving back to his homeland". I by IMD. International Institute for Management Development. 2023-01-03.
  6. ↑ BoreliusText, Krönika:Maria (2024-04-03). "Modiga stiftelser lyfter Sverige". Dagens industri (in Swedish). Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  7. ↑ "The Wallenberg Foundations - Uppsala University". www.uu.se. 2024-06-17. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  8. ↑ "Funding from the Wallenberg foundations | Karolinska Institutet". ki.se. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  9. 1 2 3 Smaglik, Paul (2013-10-30). "Europe: Swedish success story". Nature. 502 (7473): 711–712. doi:10.1038/nj7473-711a. ISSN   1476-4687.
  10. 1 2 "Wallenberg Scholars – by university | Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation". kaw.wallenberg.org. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
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