NEWS The Chemical Biological Centre (KBC) organises every year an interdisciplinary conference highlighting scientific achievements of the past year. This year, a special focus of the conference is put on biodiversity and bioenergy - two actual topics that will be addressed in a panel discussion. The conference will be online and is still open for registration.
We try to address the needs and interests of the researchers working in our environment.
The purpose of the KBC DAYS is to highlight important events that took place in the KBC environment during the last year, but also to focus on topics that are of interest to a highly interdisciplinary audience. This year, biodiversity and bioenergy were chosen as topics. They will be addressed by keynote lectures and a panel discussion focussing on wood resources, bioenergy, and biodiversity. The Moderator of the panel discussion will be Malin von Essen, an experienced moderator with a strong communication background in forestry.
“There is a very intensive debate going on at the moment about how we can sustainably use our forests to provide the necessary material for the industry but also take care of biodiversity,” says Judith Lundberg-Felten, who is member of the organising committee and contact for the panel discussion. “We invited experts with different perspectives on the debate, but we do not want to polarise. Our goal is to find common points and to discuss rather than debate how the way ahead could look like including the many different actors"
Forest diversity and ecosystem functioning will also be the topic of one of the three keynote lectures. The other two will tackle completely different aspects of biodiversity and bioenergy: the effect of diet on the diversity of gut bacteria and the diversity of microalgae and how they can be used for various applications. Speakers from the KBC affiliated departments who, for example, became new faculty members, received an award, or were granted some major funding in the past year complement the programme. Their topics are more widespread and not only related to bioenergy or biodiversity, reflecting the diversity of research fields addressed by KBC scientists.
“The primary goal of the KBC DAYS is to update each other on new developments in the KBC environment and to stimulate networking and collaboration,” explains Stefan Björklund, scientific coordinator of KBC. “We try to address the needs and interests of the researchers working in our environment. That is why we also asked the Umeå Postdoc Society to organise one session of the programme, and we also give research infrastructures the opportunity to present their services. We hope that everyone finds something interesting in the programme!”
It is the second time the KBC DAYS are arranged as online conference. Therefore, PhD students and junior postdocs were offered a course in science communication given by Gabrielle Beans Picón and invited to submit pre-recorded research pitches that they produce during the course. The short video pitches will be shown during the conference and be available on the conference platform, instead of the usual poster session.
The Chemical Biological Centre (in Swedish “Kemiskt Biologiskt Centrum”, KBC) is an interdisciplinary research centre for life/natural sciences and medicine at Umeå University (UmU) and the Swedish University for Agricultural Science (SLU). The centre is unique in its collaborative structure and offers an excellent scientific infrastructure with several state-of-the-art technical facilities. The goal is to promote a positive, creative, and interdisciplinary research environment combined with an excellent graduate and undergraduate education.
Since 2009, KBC is organising annually the KBC DAYS, an interdisciplinary conference mainly targeted to researchers working in Umeå. About 200-300 people participate every year and listen to presentations from scientists working at KBC affiliated departments and from research infrastructures supported by KBC. The KBC DAYS 2021 will take place on the 9th and 10th of November.
https://www.umu.se/en/chemical-biological-centre/kbc_events/kbc-days-2021/
Last day to register is the 25th of October. The registration is free of charge.
For questions regarding the KBC DAYS 2021, please contact the KBC Communications Office at info.kbc@umu.se.