The two new research centers at Lund University that have been granted long-term funding from Forte will be led by Ulrika Bejerholm in the area of Severe Mental Illness, and by Lao Saal and Sophia Zackrisson in the area of Women’s Health and Disease.
Project: Centre for Mental Health and Recovery across the Life Course for persons with Serious Mental Illness (45 million SEK)
Project leader: Ulrika Bejerholm, Professor of Psychiatric Health and Care Research
What does this grant mean to you?
“For me, it means an enormous amount. I care deeply about individuals affected by mental ill-health, who often face the risk of social marginalization. Beyond precision medicine and access to treatment, the only way to truly help is to listen, be responsive, and offer opportunities for personal recovery that the individual themselves defines as meaningful.”
In their most recent research, Ulrika Bejerholm and her colleagues have seen that increased participation helps many people regain stability in their lives and continue their life path, despite the disruption that illness can bring.
Why is this research / the establishment of a center important?
“The center is a transdisciplinary initiative bringing together leading researchers, clinicians, and people with lived experience to create more coherent, participatory, and meaningful support for individuals with severe mental illness. The goal is to improve care processes and life situations by understanding how severe mental illness can be interpreted and evolves across the life course, and by co-creating person-centered care models. We envision organizing our work into four thematic tracks:
- Developing inclusive leadership, governance, and research capacity among all members of the center
- Transforming prevailing perspectives and narratives about mental health and severe mental illness
- Jointly developing and testing innovative care models
- Translating knowledge into national and international policy and practice
By combining scientific research, experiential knowledge, and real-world practice—initially within Region Skåne and Region Kronoberg—the researchers aim to contribute to more effective, equitable, and inclusive systems for mental health both nationally and internationally.”
What are the next steps?
“Now we will translate the foundations of our application into concrete goals and strategies, and begin dialogue with national and international reference groups. After that, it will be essential to take in the experiences of service users, staff, and organizations to prioritize the right research questions and projects. We also have a strong health economic focus, as cost-effectiveness is central to shaping the future of psychiatric care.”
Project: CIRCE – Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Cancer and Equity in Women (70.6 million SEK)
Project leaders: Lao Saal, researcher in translational oncogenomics, and Sophia Zackrisson, professor of radiology with a focus on cancer
What does this grant mean to you?
“We are honored to receive the trust and mandate from FORTE and VR to establish CIRCE, to have stable funding to pursue large-scale research on women’s cancers that bridges between disciplines and can contribute to more personalized cancer screening, earlier diagnosis, safer treatments, fairer access, and improved return to life after cancer. This will be a game changer", says Lao Saal project leader.
Sophia Zackrisson agrees: it means a great deal to the researchers and to the local research ecosystem working on breast cancer and gynecological cancers, as well as other malignancies that are more common in women.
“We are grateful for the strong support from FORTE and the Swedish Research Council, and in the end it is the clinical practice and the patients who will benefit the most from this,” she says.
What is the value of having a dedicated center for female cancers?
"This center allows us to bring together epidemiology, economic demography, genomics, imaging, oncology, surgery, radiotherapy, gynecology, psychology, rehabilitation, gerontology, and computational biology, and to work together with societal stakeholders, to affect change in public policy and clinical practice", says Sophia Zackrisson.
What’s your next step?
"We’re going to get going right away, with our first steering group meeting already now before the holidays, to discuss and launch the first work streams, and plan for the first batch of hires of new PhD students, postdocs, and other staff. We have an ambitious research agenda, and in total we plan for more than 25 new co-workers within CIRCE over a 10-year period, who can be part of the next generation of transdisciplinary leaders that can carry on the torch", conclude the researchers.