Note: this article originally appeared on the NCMM website: https://www.med.uio.no/ncmm/english/news-and-events/news/2022/New-EMBL-programme-offers-opportunities-or-researchers-in-Norway

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is Europe’s leading life sciences laboratory. It has 27 member states, including Norway, and research units across Europe conducting cutting-edge biological research in state-of-the-art facilities. In addition to being one of the member states, Norway is the only EMBL member state that hosts  two EMBL Partnerships. NCMM is the Norwegian node in the Nordic EMBL Partnership for molecular medicine, together with sister centers in Denmark (DANDRITE), Finland (FIMM), and Sweden (MIMS). The second Norwegian EMBL Partnership involves the Sars International Centre for Molecular Marine Biology at the University of Bergen.

The Nordic EMBL Partnership creates access for Norway-based researchers to collaborate with the extensive network both internationally and nationally. Moreover, it also facilitates access for researchers to scientific infrastructure, training and services throughout the network.  

EMBL has recently launched their next five-year strategic programme ‘Molecules to Ecosystems’. It is an ambitious and thought-leading programme, which aims to push the boundaries of molecular life science through studying life in the context of our rapidly changing environment. The programme sets out a strategic plan and vision, which will guide all activities at EMBL, and enable innovative research that addresses the human and planetary health challenges we face, thus aiming to bridge the gap between molecular biology and other disciplines.

What Norway-based researchers can get out of the new programme

The launch of the new programme offers many training, education and work opportunities to life science researchers based in Norway. Researchers have the career boosting opportunity to go to EMBL as a PhD student or a postdoc. They can also apply for EMBL fellowships at all career levels. Norway-based researchers can also benefit from training, lab visits and conferences hosted at EMBL and across the nodes.

Plamena Markova, Head of International Relations at EMBL, shared her vision for how the Nordic EMBL partnership, and Norway in particular, can contribute to the new EMBL program.

— With the new Program EMBL kickstarts a new era of life sciences that will not only address new and unexplored research questions, but will also connect talent, disciplines, services and technologies like never before. It will create a unique collaborative ecosystem to deliver for science and society. The EMBL partnerships are an important conduit of this new way of doing science. They have the ability to translate EMBL’s vision and operational model into the national system, while at the same time they help channel unique national strengths, expertise and networks into EMBL’s work. This two-stream model ensures that we can continuously learn from each other and create research, services and training programs that are of mutual benefit but also of benefit for the society.

— Norway’s strengths in health and environmental research, both of which are represented also in the two partnerships we have, will feed into EMBL’s ambition to understand life in the context of its changing environment. In addition, Norway is one of the most innovative countries in Europe, which makes it an exceptionally well positioned partner to benefit from EMBL’s long-standing expertise in invention, innovation and technology diffusion.

To learn more about the opportunities available visit the EMBL website and the Nordic EMBL partnership website