Two researchers appointed to RJ Pro Futura XX

The Board of the Riksbanken Jubileumsfond (RJ) has granted just over 30 million kronor and appointed five researchers to this year's RJ Pro Futura XX program and an extension of the program for another researcher. Within the framework of RJ Pro Futura, which is implemented in collaboration with the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS), young outstanding researchers in the humanities and social sciences are given the opportunity to conduct research under very good conditions. The researchers can conduct research and develop their expertise for five years; after that, they are offered tenure track positions at the nominating university. The researchers spend one of the five years at the SCAS institute in Uppsala to create networks and collaborations and participate in seminar activities. The program has been running since 1999. In the twentieth round of RJ Pro Futura, a total of 36 nominations from 15 universities were received, of which ten of these went on to interview. Of the nominees, five researchers were granted the fellowship, two of which are at Stockholm University.

Siska De Baerdemaeker

Siska De Baerdemaeker at the Department of Philosophy has been appointed RJ Pro Futura XX for the project Deciding on the Pursuit of Large Scale Experiments.

Big scientific experiments often require new infrastructure like space telescopes or particle experiments. These instruments can cost billions of euros, which means that they are rare and can influence research for decades to come. The central question of the project is: how should scientists collectively decide what large-scale experiments to pursue? The project will use draw on the recent history and philosophy of astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology to develop a comprehensive philosophical answer.
Siska De Baardemaeker also received an ERC Starting Grant in 2025 for research in the same area.
Read more about Siska De Baerdemaeker´s research
Read about Siska De Baerdemaeker´s ERC grant

Fredrik Renard

Fredrik Renard at the Department of Slavic and Baltic Languages, Finnish, Dutch and German, has been appointed RJ Pro Futura XX for the research project Falling Matters: On Weight and Gravity in and around the Modern German Novel.

He will explore the role of weight and gravity in literature. How does fiction deal with the fact that things and bodies fall to the ground in the absence of support? What creative potential can be extracted from gravity for storytelling? And how has this potential varied historically? A particular focus is on novels written around the turn of the century. One of the project's hypotheses is that the human body at this time takes on a new meaning as a weight-bearing form.
Read more about Fredrik Renard's research

Read about all researchers awarded RJ Pro Futura