Two new board members elected to the Board of directors of the Nobel Foundation
At a meeting on 24 April, the Trustees of the Nobel Foundation certified the Foundation’s annual report for 2025. Two new board members were also elected to the Board of directors of the Nobel Foundation: Ellen Moons, who started serving as the Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 1 January 2026, and Ingrid Carlberg, who will start serving as the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy this summer.
“Standing up for knowledge, at a time when the very concept is being questioned, is a responsibility the Nobel organisation has toward future generations. We see knowledge as a foundation for human development and dignity,” says Hanna Stjärne, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation.
“In 2025, decisive decisions were taken regarding the plans for a new Nobel house in Stockholm. This means that we are now approaching the start of construction of a world-unique house of knowledge, which will also become a future home for the unique legacy of Alfred Nobel.”
The Nobel Foundation’s asset management and results for 2025
The market value of the Nobel Foundation’s total invested capital amounted to SEK 6,744 million (6,797) at the end of 2025. The investment capital (i.e., excluding directly owned properties) amounted to SEK 6,532 million (6,600). The return on the investment capital was +0.9 percent (11.6). Over the past five years, the investment capital has offered returns of 7.7 percent annually and 7.6 percent annually over the past ten years.
“Despite major challenges in the global market in 2025, our asset management exhibited continued positive returns, albeit at a lower level compared to the previous year”, says Ulrika Bergman, Chief Investment Officer of the Nobel Foundation. “At the same time, developments over time indicate a stable and robust asset management well in line with our long-term goals while also contributing to securing the future of the Nobel Prize.”
The investment capital exposure was 56% (56) equity funds, 22% (24) alternative assets, 13% (12) fixed income assets and cash, 8% (9) property and infrastructure funds and 1% (−1) accrued results from currency hedging.
The goal of the Nobel Foundation’s investment activities is to achieve a return that maintains the financial base of the Nobel Prize and guarantees the independence of the work of the prize-awarding institutions in terms of selecting laureates. The ambition is also to carry out asset management that contributes to long-term sustainable development and adheres to good ethical principles.
Two new board members
At the meeting of the Trustees, Ellen Moons and Ingrid Carlberg were elected as new members of the Board of the Nobel Foundation.
Ellen Moons has since 1 January 2026 served as the Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and is a professor of physics at Karlstad University. She has been a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences since 2017, a member of the Nobel Committee for Physics 2022–2025 and served as the Committee’s chair in 2024. In her research, she thrives in the field where physics and chemistry overlap. Her research focuses on new materials with applications in optoelectronics, frequently molecular semiconductors. In recent years, she has focused on solar cells but also on LEDs in the past.
Ingrid Carlberg is an author who also used to work as a journalist. On 1 June 2026, she will start serving as the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, after having been a member of the Academy since 2020. Her published works include two extensive biographies: Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Saved Thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust (2012), which was awarded the August Prize for Best Swedish Non-Fiction book in 2012, and Nobel: The Enigmatic Alfred and His Prizes (2019).
The Board of directors of the Nobel Foundation as of 1 May 2026
Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Professor, chair
Hanna Stjärne, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation
Kristian Berg Harpviken, Professor, Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
Ingrid Carlberg, Author, incoming Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy
Ellen Moons, Professor, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Sven Nyman, MSc, Hon. Doctor of Business
Thomas Perlmann, Professor, Secretary of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet and the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine
Deputy members
Peter Brzezinski, Professor, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry
Ulf Danielsson, Professor, Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physics