NEWS Eight researchers from Umeå University have been appointed group leaders within the government's initiative SciLifeLab. Six of these are research leaders within UCMR at Umeå University.
Niklas Arnberg, professor at the Department of Clinical Microbiology and principal investigator at UCMR at Umeå University.
Image Mattias Pettersson
Felipe Cava, professor at the Department of Molecular Biology and principal investigator at UCMR at Umeå University.
Image Mattias Pettersson, simon ohman jonsson inhousebyran
“It is a great opportunity to contribute to and also apply the excellent facilities and expertise Scilifelab offers”, says Professor Gerhard Gröbner, professor at the Department of Chemistry and research leader at UCMR at Umeå University.
Image Mattias Pettersson
Richard Lundmark, professor at the Department of Integrative Medical Biology (IMB) and principal investigator at UCMR at Umeå University.
Image Mattias Pettersson
Malin Nording, Associate professor at the Department of Chemistry at Umeå University.
Image Alvar Linder
Linda Sandblad, researcher at the Department of Chemistry, Director of SciLifeLab Site Umeå and principal investigator at UCMR at Umeå University.
Image Mattias Pettersson
“Being included as a group leader is an opportunity to increase the connections between Umeå University and the wider SciLifeLab community and to communicate the excellent research that takes place in Umeå”, says Nathaniel Street, professor at the Department of Plant Physiology at Umeå University.
Image Kathryn Robinson
Yaowen Wu, professor at the Department of Chemistry and Director of UCMR at Umeå University.
Image Mattias PetterssonAs SciLifeLab group leader, the doors are opened to a network of fantastically enthusiastic researchers throughout Sweden!
The Science for Life Laboratory, SciLifeLab, is one of the government's major investments in national research infrastructures. SciLifeLab's vision is to enable ground-breaking, interdisciplinary research within molecular life sciences that would otherwise not be possible to carry out in Sweden and to promote that the research leads to societal benefit.
"We encourage our research leaders within UCMR to actively join SciLifeLab or participate in its activities to expand their national and international research networks", says Professor Yaowen Wu, director of the Umeå Center for Microbial Research, UCMR, at Umeå University, and one of the appointed SciLifeLab group leaders.
The six appointed group leaders at UCMR are Professor Niklas Arnberg, Professor Felipe Cava, Professor Gerhard Gröbner, Professor Richard Lundmark, researcher Linda Sandblad and Professor Yaowen Wu. The other two group leaders at the university are senior lecturer Malin Nording and professor Nathaniel Street.
Open doors to networks
SciLifeLab's operations are run by the four founding universities KI, KTH, Stockholm University and Uppsala University as well as via nodes at higher education institutions throughout the country to strengthen the national mission.
In 2021, Umeå was commissioned to establish a SciLifeLab Site to coordinate functions for research infrastructure, such as collaborations between infrastructure and Umeå's researchers, to welcome visiting researchers who come to Umeå to use national research infrastructure, information and data management. The director of SciLifeLab Site Umeå is Linda Sandblad. She is also one of the researchers appointed as group leader:
“As SciLifeLab group leader, the doors are opened to a network of fantastically enthusiastic researchers throughout Sweden! I hope that my research group will have better opportunities, and future research grants to develop methods and the use of cryo-electron microscopes and correlative microscopy methods”, she says.
Over 300 group leaders
A SciLifeLab group leader is responsible for a research group within life science, or for a platform or unit within SciLifeLab's infrastructure.
“They have a strong, documented commitment to and connection to SciLifeLab by actively contributing to research and infrastructure, the scientific development of SciLifeLab, and to affiliate with SciLifeLab in their publications”, says Disa L Hammarlöf, research coordinator at SciLifelab.
The new group leaders are regularly appointed following nominations from the nodes and decisions by SciLifeLab's management group.
“We are very happy that through nominations from SciLifeLab in Umeå, Linköping, Gothenburg and Lund in 2022 we now have group leaders at all of SciLifeLab's nodes. Today, we have a total of over 300 affiliated group leaders”, says Disa L Hammarlöf.
Communication important
Being a SciLifeLab group leader means gaining access to a strong network within life science and the opportunity to participate in tailored activities, for example retreats, with the aim of further strengthening and supporting collaboration and exchange between the group leaders. SciLifeLab has targeted announcements, for example, for support for events organized by the group leaders and exchange with SciLifeLab's partner EMBL.
“The communication part is also important. We inform about announcements and events of interest to the community and we work to ensure that our group leaders gain visibility on SciLifeLab's website, in the news and in social media channels”, says Disa L Hammarlöf.
The universities connected to SciLifeLab are Umeå University, SLU, Uppsala University, KI, Stockholm University, KTH, Örebro University, Linköping University, Gothenburg University, Chalmers, and Lund Universities.
