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New Speaker announced for the Nordic EMBL Partnership

Professor Bernt Eric Uhlin, Director of MIMS, will replace Professor Kjetil Taskén, Director of NCMM

Photo credit: Mattias Pettersson

The Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine is delighted to announce that Professor Bernt Eric Uhlin has been named as the Partnership’s new Speaker.

Professor Uhlin is the Director of Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), and is also a professor at the Department of Molecular Biology at Umeå University. He was elected by the Partnership’s Steering Committee at the 8th annual Nordic EMBL Partnership meeting, hosted by the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) in Helsinki in September 2017.

New Speaker elected every three years

The speaker position rotates between centre directors every three years, and was previously held by Professor Kjetil Taskén, Director of Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM). Professor Taskén was appointed as the partnership’s first speaker in 2013, and was re-appointed for an additional year in 2016

Of his time spent as speaker of the Nordic EMBL Partnership, Professor Taskén comments,

“Since launching in 2008, the Nordic EMBL Partnership has come a long way. It now constitutes a Nordic powerhouse focused on molecular medicine and translational research, with more than 500 people in almost 50 research groups, and an aggregated budget of more than 50 million EUR at the four partner sites.

“We have seen great scientists develop, with an output of exciting data and tangible innovations. The partnership is also taking lead and national responsibilities in multi-partner grants on the Nordic (NordForsk) and European arena (Horizon2020, ESFRI, IMI). The core focus of the partnership is on human physiology and pathophysiology, and throughout my time as speaker we have worked on developing complementarity, collaboration and cohesion between the nodes and the EMBL in this area.

“I think the partnership is still on a steep upward trajectory and that there is also great potential for future important discoveries and outputs, and for further coordinated actions. The many young scientists that rotate through the partner centres and benefit from the greenhouse strategy for development of young talent will also constitute a powerful network of young scientists and Alumni that will also populate the wider environment.”

About the Speaker position

The speaker of the Nordic EMBL Partnership is responsible for representing all four of the Nordic nodes in any general matters, and also for speaking on behalf of the partnership where relevant. The speaker position also helps to promote international visibility of the partnership.

On his new appointment as speaker, Professor Uhlin comments:

“It is both an honour and a pleasure for me to act as the speaker during the next term of this rotating task within the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine. Now in its 10th year, the four Nordic partners include more than 500 scientists and staff that are joined in an effort to foster scientific excellence and facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations, as well as to share state-of-the-art research infrastructures, in a great partnership with the even larger EMBL organization.

“As our first speaker Kjetil Taskén at NCMM has represented the partnership in an excellent manner. I will certainly aim to follow Kjetil’s example in our work facilitating partnership activities and in making it increasingly visible among the international research community.”

The Nordic EMBL Partnership thanks Professor Taskén for his service as speaker, and wishes Professor Uhlin the very best for his time in the role.

About the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine

The Nordic EMBL Partnership brings together four research centres; the Danish Institute for Translational Neuroscience (DANDRITE), the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), the Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) and the Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM).

These national research centres combine the longstanding and strong tradition of translational molecular medicine in the Nordic countries with the operational model and core principles of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

The partnership is built on the Nordic countries’ ambition to enhance the outcomes of international biomedical research for the benefit of the Nordic and global scientific community. The partnership creates and accelerates dynamic and open Nordic collaboration in molecular medicine research, and exploits the complementary strengths of the Nordic countries, such as biobanks and registries.