The Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP), Sweden’s largest individual research programme, has been extended by three years and will receive a further research grant of nearly SEK 1.3 billion.

The decision to extend WASP has been recently taken by the board of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, and means that the programme, which started in 2014, will continue until 2029 with a total budget of SEK 5.5 billion. The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW) will provide SEK 4.2 billion, and the remainder will be provided, as previously, mainly from the five partner universities and industry.

Currently WASP funds 35 PhD students, 16 industrial PhD students, 7 postdocs, 1 full professor, 2 associate professors, 1 assistant professor, 7 professor equivalents for PhD supervision and research, and 1.5 professor for program management and execution at Lund University. An additional 4 PhD students are currently affiliated with WASP.

"The extension and expansion of WASP allow researchers at Lund University to apply for projects and recruitment packages from WASP for three more years up until the end of 2029.  A plan for how the expansion will be used is currently under development by the new WASP leadership consisting of Sara Mazur - chair of the WASP board from 1 January 2020 - and Anders Ynnerman - program director for WASP from 1 July 2020", says Karl-Erik Årzén, Chair of the WASP Program Management Group (PMG) that is responsible for WASP-AS - the Autonomous Systems and Software parts of WASP and also University representative for Lund University in WASP.

Read more about the extension and expansion of WASP at: https://wasp-sweden.org/