The Nordic EMBL Partnership – a paragon of collaboration

摘要

Scientific progress moves on a high‐speed train, creating an exponential growth in knowledge. Scientists unavoidably focus and specialize in their topic, digging into the depths of microscopic detail. While this is an essential approach towards discovery, the process of specializing will take the scientists’ vision further away from a comprehensive understanding, which takes us to the importance of collaboration. Funding agencies today encourage collaborations to obtain a broader vision and foster creativity through the bridging of disciplines. With this in mind, a partnership was initiated in 2007 between the University of Oslo, Ume? University, the University of Helsinki and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), with the aim of creating a highly competitive network of institutes and facilities dedicated to Molecular Medicine. The partnership was renewed in 2013 with the addition of a Danish node to the Network, upon the opening of the Danish Research Institute of Translational Neuroscience at Aarhus University. In addition to the partnership between the nodes, each of the Nordic research centres engages in collaborations with other national partners, including research and public health institutes, hospitals and research councils, to establish an extensive Nordic network for Molecular Medicine. We interviewed Jaakko Kaprio, who was interim Director of the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) until January 2018; Bernt Eric Uhlin, Director of Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS); Kjetil Taskén, Director of the Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM); and Poul Nissen, Director of the Danish Research Institute of Translational Neuroscience (DANDRITE) as well as Silke Schumacher, Director of International Relations at EMBL, to bring an exemplary model of collaboration into the limelight. Professor Jaakko Kaprio, former Director of FIMM. Photo: Veikko SomerpuroFIMMFIMM was founded in 2006 as an initiative to establish an international Molecular Medicine Research Centre in Finland. Besides the University of Helsinki, the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa and the National Institute for Health and Welfare were involved in the establishment of the Institute. The Ministry of Education as well as The City of Helsinki and several national foundations, provided financial support for the establishment phase. In the beginning of 2017, FIMM joined the University of Helsinki's new life science research centre, Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE), as a scientifically and financially independent operational unit.The mission of the institute is to improve the precise diagnosis and treatment of disease, and benefit public health, by promoting translational research and the adoption of personalised medicine in health care. To reach these goals, a new type of research institute was created, where molecular medicine research is integrated with cutting‐edge technology platforms and a biobanking infrastructure under one roof, strongly focusing on a few scientific ‘grand challenges’. These Grand Challenge programmes provide an opportunity to align the research projects on large and complex issues and draw researchers, technology experts and clinical collaborators together to achieve a common goal through collaboration.