Excellent research
The Vice-Chancellor supports excellent research at the University of Gothenburg by providing funding to researchers who receive grants for strategically important cutting-edge research programmes.
Bo Rothstein
Bo Rothstein is a Senior Researcher and was appointed a Wallenberg Scholar in 2010 for his research on the quality of political institutions, trust, and corruption. Bo is one of the founders of The Quality of Government Institute (QoG). He received an ERC Advanced Grant 2013 for the research project The Performance of Democracies. In 2021, Bo Rothstein, the QoG Institute, and Carl Bennet AB concluded a cooperation agreement that provides the QoG Institute with SEK 12 million. Bo Rothstein held the August Röhss Professorship in Political Science at the University of Gothenburg from 1994 to 2021.
Staffan I. Lindberg
Staffan I. Lindberg is a Professor and was appointed a Wallenberg Academy Fellow in 2013 to lead Varieties of Democracy’s international research team, to develop the V-Dem Methodology, and to found the V-Dem Institute, for which he is Director. He received an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2017 for his research on democratization and the project Failing and Successful Sequences of Democratization.
In 2018, he received a Wallenberg Academy Fellow Prolongation to lead the research project Endangered Democracies: Sequences of Autocratization. Staffan has also received funding from the Swedish Research Council, a National Research Infrastructure grant in 2020 for Demscore, a consortium consisting of several high-profile research infrastructures in Sweden.
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Ellen Lust
Ellen Lust is a Professor and the founder and leader of the Governance and Local Development Institute (GLD). The research at GLD aims to explain variations in political governance and local development to promote global human welfare. Ellen Lust was a former professor at Yale University in the United States. She was recruited to the University of Gothenburg in 2014, with support from the Swedish Research Council. The recruitment took place within the framework of a government initiative that would enable Swedish universities to employ top international researchers.
Learn more: GLD
Ann Towns
Ann Towns is a Professor. Her research pivots around questions of norms, hierarchies, and resistance in international politics, generally with a focus on gender. She was appointed a Wallenberg Academy Fellow in 2013 for her research on gender and diplomacy. Ann is the Director of the research programme Gender in Diplomacy (GenDip).
Learn more: Gender in Diplomacy (GenDip)
Elin Naurin
Elin Naurin is a Professor and was appointed a Wallenberg Academy Fellow in 2017 for her research on how the individual’s views of society are impacted by pregnancy and childbirth. Elin is the Director of the Gothenburg Research Program on Pregnancy and Politics (PregDem).
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Ann-Kristin Kölln
Ann-Kristin Kölln is a Professor and has devoted a large part of her research to political parties and public opinion in Europe. In 2022 she received an ERC Starting Grant for her project The Benefits of Conflict: How Factions Can Enhance Political Parties’ Electoral Performance (INTRAPARTY).
Learn more: Prestigious ERC grant for research on political parties
Aksel Sundström
Aksel Sundström is Professor and was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2023. His research focuses on political representation, with a particular emphasis on the underrepresentation of women and young people in politics, as well as environmental policy in low-income countries. He will use the grant to launch the research project Female Leadership and Effects from African Droughts (Fem-LEAD) in which he will investigate how extreme weather conditions – such as droughts and other natural disasters – affect gender equality in African politics.
Learn more: ERC grant for research into extreme weather and gender equality in African politics
Florence So
Florence So is an Associate Professor. Her research interests include the behavioral consequences of the national economic condition, coalition politics, democratic attitudes, the consequences of gender bias, the political economy of elections, parties and elections, and game theory. In 2025, she was awarded an ERC Starting Grant for the project More Money, Different Problems? People’s Engagement with Politics during Good Economic Times (ECONENGAGE). She will examine the relationship between economic prosperity and political engagement.
Learn more: Political engagement in “good times” studied in ERC project
Kristen Kao
Kristen Kao is an Associate Professor of Political Science. Her expertise is survey methodology and experimental design in a Middle Eastern and African context. In 2025, she became a Wallenberg Academy Fellow for her research on how a country can heal after civil war, and for initiating and leading the project Bridging Injustice Gaps: Peace Enhancement After Conflict Ends (BIG PEACE).
Learn more: Political scientist appointed new Wallenberg Academy Fellow
Additional information about the grants
ERC Grants
The European Research Council's (ERC) mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, based on scientific excellence.
To the European Research Council's website
Wallenberg Scholars
The programme focuses on Sweden’s leading senior researchers. The research is funded by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Wallenberg Academy Fellows
Wallenberg Academy Fellows is a long-term programme that addresses young researchers. The research is funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.