The Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden, is a medical university. KI was founded in 1810 and consists of 22 departments that carry out research and offer graduate and postgraduate education in a diverse range of medical and allied clinical specialties. KI provides postgraduate training with over 2100 registered PhD students from around the world, active in both basic and clinical research.KI alone stands for about 45 percent of government-funded research in Sweden, and is one of the largest medical schools in Europe.The Nobel Assembly at KI awards the annual Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. The “Nationellt centrum for suicidforskning och prevention av psykisk ohälsa vid Karolinska Institutet”, or the National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental lll-Health (NASP) is a division of LIME (the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics) at KI.NASP is a WHO Lead Collaborating Centre for Prevention of Mental Health and Suicide, to the WHO Headquarter in Geneva, and to the European Regional Office in Copenhagen, as well as an advisory expert for the Stockholm County Council and the Swedish Parliament.

Research at KI has a strong European dimension, with participation in many projects within the EU’s now closed 6th Framework Programme (FP6), with a number of projects coordinated by KI.  As a major recipient of funds in the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), KI is coordinating 17 projects, three of which are coordinated by NASP, participating in around 120 projects and involved in ten European Research Council Grants.  NASP has been involved in the consultative platform on mental health and the production of several EU documents and guidelines including The European Commission's Green paper in 2005, "Promoting the Mental Health of the Population: Towards a Strategy on Mental health for the European Union", contributing the supporting documents for and at the high level EU thematic conference: Preventing Depression and Suicide, held in Budapest, Hungary 2009.

Since 1993, NASP has been building extensive databases in different research areas comprising of: GISS (Genetic Investigation of Suicide Attempt and Suicide); WHO/EU Multicentre Study on Attempted Suicide; Suicide in the world and in the former USSR; European wide projects such as MONSUE (Monitoring Suicidal Behaviour in Europe), SEYLE (Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe); WE-STAY (Working in Europe to Stop Truancy Among Youth) and SUPREME (Suicide Prevention through Internet and Media Based Mental Health Promotion). NASP databases contain information regarding several million biological/genetic observations, and over 42 million psychological and social observations on different populations, comprising of the entire life span and risk groups for suicide.  Results from research performed at NASP are used for high-level policy recommendations, on levels such as the EU and WHO. NASP plays a unique central policy recommendatory role in the prevention of suicide and mental ill-health.