Assistant Professor in Data-Driven Cardiovascular Medicine

Join a global community of excellence

Are you a bold, creative researcher ready to shape the future of medical science? Karolinska Institutet (KI), one of the world’s foremost medical universities, is launching a major recruitment initiative in 2026. KI is looking for up to 21 outstanding early- career researchers to join us as Assistant Professors in a wide range of subject areas.

At KI, we foster a vibrant and international academic environment that values curiosity, collaboration, innovation, and high quality research. We are looking for inspiring scientists who are motivated to contribute to and further develop strong research and education environment, and who demonstrate high quality science and potential for academic leadership.

The research at our department is embedded within the clinical setting at Sweden’s largest acute cardiology hospital, with ongoing clinical research within coronary heart disease, arrhythmia, heart failure, haemostasis, vascular medicine and prevention. This offers a unique opportunity to develop independent, high-impact, clinically integrated research at the intersection of cardiovascular medicine, advanced imaging, epidemiology, and applied artificial intelligence. In addition, the successful candidate will have access to exceptionally rich Swedish data sources, including the SCAPIS cohort, detailed cardiovascular imaging and physiological measurements, clinical chest pain cohorts, SWEDEHEART with linkages to a multitude of Swedish national registries as well as a strong pre-clinical environment at Karolinska Institutet.

The position is situated within a highly collaborative environment with direct connections to acute cardiology, preventive cardiovascular medicine, emerging medical technologies, national and international research partners, and an established group of clinically active AI researchers. We welcome applicants who aim to leverage emerging data-driven methods to improve cardiovascular risk prediction, diagnosis, prevention, and implementation, with the ultimate aim of improving patient outcomes

What do we offer?

If you meet our requirements and propose a groundbreaking research project, we are prepared to employ you as an Assistant Professor for six years and support you with a generous funding package of 9 MSEK to cover your salary and other research costs. KI offers the opportunity to be promoted from a time-limited (six-year) position as Assistant Professor to permanent employment as Senior Lecturer. You can read more about it here.

At KI, you will be part of an interdisciplinary research community. Our researchers work across a wide range of fields and methodologies within medicine and health, creating rich opportunities for knowledge exchange and cross-disciplinary collaboration. You will also benefit from close connections with healthcare providers, ensuring your research remains closely aligned with real-world clinical practice.

As a governmental authority, KI offers a comprehensive benefits package governed by collective agreements. These include annual salary reviews, supplementary insurance, and opportunities to participate in institutional decision-making.

A successful research career is supported by a strong personal foundation. Sweden is known for being a family-friendly country, offering a high quality of life, generous parental leave, and excellent childcare and education systems — creating a welcoming environment for both researchers and their families.

At KI, we value differences in backgrounds and perspectives, and diversity, equity and inclusion are parts of our core values. KI is dedicated to our work for equal opportunities and rejects all forms of discrimination.

Learn more about what KI and Sweden can offer, and the different calls!

Location: Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital

Description of the subject area 

Data-driven cardiovascular medicine is an emerging field that combines medicine, clinical epidemiology, imaging, physiological measurements, artificial intelligence, and data science to improve prevention, diagnosis, risk stratification, follow-up, and clinical decision-making. The subject area is broadly aligned with, and extends, our ongoing research in risk stratification, coronary artery disease, cardiovascular imaging, physiological signal analysis, multimodal artificial intelligence, and clinical decision-support systems. 
Research within this area may address, for example, the identification of individuals with clinically relevant coronary atherosclerosis; the use of imaging and physiological biomarkers to improve prediction of cardiovascular events; and the integration of multimodal data, including clinical, registry, imaging, and biosignal data, to support prevention, diagnosis, follow-up, and clinical decision-making.
The use of state-of-the-art machine learning, artificial intelligence, and, where relevant, large language model-based methods is encouraged, particularly for research that integrates heterogeneous data sources and aims to develop robust, clinically interpretable, and deployable models. The subject area offers opportunities to use and build on exceptionally rich and unique Swedish data resources, including SCAPIS, clinical cardiovascular cohorts such as SWEDEHEART, advanced imaging data, physiological measurements, structured clinical data, and Swedish national registries.

Your mission 

This Assistant Professor position offers excellent opportunities to build a strong academic profile—primarily by developing your independence as a researcher, while also gaining valuable teaching and pedagogical experience.

As Assistant Professor, you are expected to develop an independent research programme in data-driven cardiovascular medicine, broadly aligned with the subject area described above.

You should have, or demonstrate strong potential to develop, expertise in applied machine learning for clinical data, including model development and validation, multimodal data integration, and methods to ensure robustness, calibration, and clinical utility.

You are expected to attract national and international research funding, publish in leading scientific journals, supervise research students and early-career researchers, contribute to education to a limited extent, and collaborate with researchers and clinicians within KI, the cardiology department, and national and international networks spanning cardiovascular medicine, artificial intelligence, and data science

Eligibility requirements 

To be eligible for an appointment as Assistant Professor, you must demonstrate good scientific skills according to KI’s eligibility criteria as follows:

• A PhD (or equivalent degree) in a relevant subject area
• At least two peer-reviewed original scientific publications as first or last author, in addition to the doctoral thesis

Priority is given to those who were awarded a PhD (or attained equivalent competence) no more than seven years prior to the expiry of the deadline for the application.

Those who have been awarded a doctoral degree or attained equivalent research competence earlier will also be considered if there are special circumstances for absence from research (deductible time), such as: parental leave, long-term illness, positions of trust in trade union organizations or mandatory service in total defence.

The circumstances, dates and extent must be clearly specified in the application and verified by relevant documentation.

For this call, exceptions are made from all pedagogical requirements specified in the instructions regarding the Appointment procedure for teachers at KI. However, you must complete three weeks of higher education pedagogical courses in accordance with the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions’ recommendations, no later than two years after starting your employment as an Assistant Professor (unless you can certify that you have completed equivalent training before starting the position). 

Assessment criteria

Candidates will be evaluated based on both scientific and pedagogical qualifications, with greater emphasis placed on scientific excellence. The full set of assessment criteria is outlined in the instructions regarding the Appointment Procedure for Teachers at KI.

Particularly meritorious is:

• the scientific quality, originality, and feasibility of your research plan within the relevant subject area
• documented experience in research environments outside KI, with special consideration given to international research experience
• experience with large-scale clinical data such as cohorts, national registries, electronic health records, or linked health datasets such as imaging, biosignals, or omics, within cardiovascular medicine
• proficiency with modern AI/ML methods such as deep learning, multimodal modelling, LLM or explainable AI, applied to cardiovascular biosignals such as ECG or photoplethysmography, or to imaging modalities such as coronary CTA, photon-counting CT, or echocardiography, including image analysis, imaging biomarkers, radiomics, or plaque characterisation
• a demonstrated ability to develop independent research questions and lead interdisciplinary collaborations across cardiovascular medicine, engineering, and data science, with the potential to translate data-driven research into improved prevention, diagnosis, or treatment

These criteria reflect our commitment to fostering university with diverse and globally recognised researchers who contribute to high quality science and excellent academic citizenship.

The criteria listed will form part of the overall assessment of the applicant. All criteria will be assessed but they should not individually be seen as requirements.

Offers will be extended to the best candidate based on an overall assessment of the applicant’s expertise and merits in relation to the subject area.

Application guidelines

All applicants are expected to follow the application instructions carefully. Failure to comply with the guidelines or misrepresentation of qualifications may negatively impact on the evaluation of your application.

The application shall consist of the following documents, written in English:

• A personal letter (maximum 1 page)
• Application form, including your research project (Application form)
• Up to ten published papers and optionally one manuscript, in PDF format
• PhD certificate
• If you have a PhD that is older than seven years and want to claim deductible time, you must attach a certificate of deductible time in Swedish or English.

Welcome to apply no later than August 31, 2026 (time 23.59 CEST).

KI applies individual and differentiated salary setting in accordance with our collective agreements RALS and RALS-T.

Want to make a difference? Join us and contribute to better health for all.

-Want to make a difference? Join us and contribute to better health for all!

1. Tomas Jernberg, [email protected]
2. Jonas Spaak, [email protected]