Campus Solna Science Talks: Fostering collaboration, celebrating science, and strengthening community initiatives
On October 24, some 180 participants gathered for the third Campus Solna Science Talks – a meeting acknowledging and celebrating infrastructure, science, and community initiatives emanating from SciLifeLab Campus Solna. Campus Solna Science Talks is an annual event, the first took place in 2020.
Campus Solna Director Per Ljungdahl opened the symposium and introduced the concept of a VUCA World to the SciLifeLab community and related it to understanding the need to deal with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Accordingly, he challenged the meeting participants to accept the reality of these terms and to deal with the consequences by transforming the inherent challenges into strengths.
“Counter volatility with vision, meet uncertainty with understanding, react to complexity with increased communication, and fight ambiguity with agility,” said Per Ljungdahl and continued: “The aim of Campus Solna Science Talks represents one way forward bringing our fantastic community together to tackle the challenges of doing experimental science in a VUCA context. This meeting provides a forum for inspiration by exchange of ideas and acts as a breeding ground for new collaborations. I believe SciLifeLab Campus Solna community is successful in this aspiration.”
During the day, research presentations will be given by group leaders and junior researchers from Campus Solna.
“Today’s Science Talks really highlighted the width and breadth of science conducted at Campus Solna. We have had the opportunity to listen to presentations on Interaction proteomics to explore protein regulation in photosynthetic organisms, on how ion and water fluxes are required for T-cell migration, along with Machine learning of immune escape dynamics from single-cell and spatial tumour transcriptomics, as well as to enjoy networking around coffee breaks and poster session. The buzz and interactivity between participants are fantastic! We have all met at our common base – Campus Solna – and now have a golden opportunity to get to know each other better and to explore future collaborative efforts” said Isolde Palombo, SciLifeLab Operations Office.
In addition to presenting research and infrastructure based at Campus Solna, the meeting also emphasized the community’s strength in initiatives such as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion-committee, the Public Engagement Committee, the Coaching in Science Initiative, and the PhD- & Postdoc-council.
”We believe that well-being and mental health skills are human rights and of monumental importance to scientific excellence. The Coaching in Science Initiative provides learning opportunities to make this a reality for everyone, welcome as you are!” said Linda Kvastad, PostDoc at SciLifeLab and one of the persons behind the SciLifeLab Coaching in Science Initiative.
The meeting was organized, and the program was coordinated by the Scientific Committee, consisting of Erdinc Sezgin, Marcel Tarbier, Ute Hoffmann, Stefania Giacomello, Kristoffer Sahlin, and Per Ljungdahl. The Operations Office, represented by Isolde Palombo and Disa Larsson Hammarlöf, provided critical assistance in making this event a reality.
The full program of the day
