The Young Academy of Sweden is an independent, cross-disciplinary forum for some of the most promising young researchers in Sweden in all disciplines. The Academy was formed May 27, 2011 at the initiative of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Qualification requirements for election are scientific excellence and an expressed engagement in Young Academy of Sweden’s areas of interest.

Anna Dreber Almenberg is a behavioral economist. Most of her work is interdisciplinary and done in collaboration with researchers in for example psychology, anthropology, endocrinology and mathematical biology. With economic experiments where participants make decisions with monetary consequences, Anna and her coauthors explore why certain individuals are more risk taking or altruistic than others, and how these behaviors are affected by hormones and norms.

Anna also studies cooperation in the “prisoner’s dilemma” game, to understand how cooperation evolves and which strategies individuals use when the game theoretical predictions are unclear. In several projects, Anna investigates whether published scientific results are reliable. Anna and her collaborators perform replication studies and explore to what extent it is possible to predict whether specific results will replicate or not. Using prediction markets, they let experts in different fields bet, with real money, on the outcome of the replications. This makes it possible to study how likely published hypotheses in different fields are “true”.

Karl Wennberg's research focuses on entrepreneurship and organizational dynamics. He has in numerous academic articles and books studied the entry, growth , and exit of startup firms - mainly knowledge-intensive technology companies - and how they affect the industry and the region in which they operate. He is also interested in the relationship between organizational dynamics and economic growth, as well as universities' potential role in the commercialization of innovations.

Karl's current research focuses on the cultural and demographic diversity in both startups and established companies, group dynamics in the development of start-ups, as well as macro-oriented analyzes of entrepreneurship and economic inequality.

Despite his own research being fairly applied in nature, Karl is a strong advocate for the importance of independent basic research in Sweden, especially in the social sciences.