7th conference of the Digital Life Norway Research School
7th conference of Digital Life Norway Research School
The first joint conference for Digital Life Norway Research School and the Centre Digital Life Norway is held at Solstrand Hotel & Bad on 6-8 September 2023
Image credits: Solstrand Hotel & Bad
Registration is closed!
Note: registration for the DLN Research School conference covers the whole conference 6-8 September. You do not have to register for Digital Life 2023 in addition.
All submissions are closed.
This is the conference for and by members of the research school – a great opportunity to build your network, exchange research ideas, share your experiences and have a lot of fun – join us at Solstrand Hotel & Bad in September!
This conference is all-inclusive. The research school takes care of hotel bookings and covers travel costs.
- 11:30
09:30 - 11:00 Arrival Bergen airport
11:00 - 12:00 Bus trip to Solstrand Hotel & Bad
12:00 - 12:30 Check-in
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch
13:30 - 19:00
13:30 - 13:45 Welcome
13:45 - 15:15 Amani Said - Workshop: How to use your career as a vehicle for growth & impact.
15:15 - 15:30 Coffee break
15:30 - 17:00 Amani Said – Workshop: How to use your career as a vehicle for growth & impact.
17:00 - 19:00 Free time
19:00 Dinner
More about the speakers
Dr. Amani Said from Success Beyond The Lab
As a founder of Success Beyond The Lab, I am on a mission to empower 10 million scientists within the next 10 years in launching dream careers while making an impact in our society. My curiosity and passion for understanding life led me to pursue a Ph.D. in Developmental Biology at the Max-Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany. Having dealt with burnout and mental health challenges in my career brought me to discover the field of personal development. Traveling all across the globe I learned from the best coaches and trainers in the field of personal growth. This helped me to uncover my potential and develop a growth mindset to create a dream career and life. Applying these same tools I have been privileged to coach and train over a thousand scientists in career & personal development. During this workshop you will learn; How to gain more clarity on your career path, How to create a career vision & plan, How to uncover your core values and main skills, How to develop a growth-mindset to achieve any career goals you have in
mind.
PROGRAMME THURSDAY 7 SEPTEMBER: IMPACT WITH SCIENCE COMMUNICATION & CAREER POSSIBILITIES
07:00 - 09:00 Breakfast
09:00 - 12:15
09:00 - 10:30 The Online Scientist – Interactive lecture: IMPACT with Science Communication
10:30 - 10:45 Coffee break
10:45 - 12:15 The Online Scientist – Interactive lecture: IMPACT with Science Communication
12:15 - 13:15 Lunch
13:15 - 17:00
13:15 - 14:15 VIS innovation - Innovation in academia
14:15 - 15:15 VIS innovation - Innovation in academia case-based workshop
15:15 - 15:30 Coffee Break
15:30 - 16:00 Henrik Lund - How to explore and get a job in private or public Life Science industry - QA
16:00 - 17:30 Poster & Image session
18:00 - 20:00 Dinner
20:00 - 21:00 Evening talk - Prof. Virginijus Šikšnys
The evening talk will delve into the promises and uncertainties of CRISPR technologies, as well as the ethical and societal implications associated with their use. Experts from various fields will discuss topics such as CRISPR research, potential applications, and social and ethical concerns within the context of Responsible Research and Innovation. Further information and participants will be announced soon.
More about the speakers
Liesbeth Smit, MSc from The Online Scientist.
Liesbeth makes science sexy and helps researchers create more impact with their work. She learned how to design and create websites during her research and PhD in nutrition science at Harvard School of Public Health and VU University. Since founding The Online Scientist in 2012, she has created over 150 websites and dozens of infographics, animated video about science. She has taught hundreds of researchers all over the world how to create better scientific presentations, posters and graphical abstracts. Her goal is to create impact with science communication that is visually appealing and user-friendly.
Stephan van Duin, MSc from The Online Scientist.
Stephan started in science communication right after graduating as a biologist, and he now commits himself to improving the discipline of science communication or ‘scicomm’ even further. Not only by working for and with scientists, but also as co-chairman of the Dutch science communication association SciCom NL. His main goal is to connect the practice and science of scicomm, and to help researchers implement it though workshops. Stephan’s vision is that both science and society can benefit from clear science communication when it’s done the right way.
Lars Grønnestad, MBA is a senior business developer at Vestlandets Innovasjonsselskap (VIS), the technology transfer office in Bergen. His job is to help make products and service on publicly funded research, on behalf of local research institutions. Before Lars joined VIS, he studied environmental chemistry, HESQ and ended up on a master in technology based entrepreneurship. During his time in VIS, he has worked on everything from pharmaceuticals, to new coatings and big data. He’s also crashed two start-ups before he joined VIS, and this is something he is proud of.
Henrik Lund MD, PhD senior innovation advisor for DLN. Henrik graduated from UiO, obtained a PhD in cell biology, completed a postdoc at UCSF in San Francisco, and later contributed significant time to clinical research at AstraZeneca, GE Healthcare, and Aventis. He actively engaged in public-private ventures including Oslo Cancer Cluster and a 10-year tenure on the Senter for Expertise board. As chairman for the past 5 years, he spearheaded startups within and outside the Oslo Stock Exchange. Henrik serves as a part-time EU Commission Expert, evaluating innovation, including roles with the European Innovation Council and Innovation Radar. Having successfully placed numerous PhDs and postdocs, he offers insights into effective early career transitions, sharing valuable "do's" and "don'ts" based on his experiences.
Professor Virginijus Šikšnys is a distinguished Professor of Vilnius University and serves as Chief scientist/head of the department at the Institute of Biotechnology. He is also the Director of EMBL partnership Institute on Genome Editing at the Life Science Center of Vilnius University. His research focuses on the structural and molecular mechanisms of antiviral defense systems in bacteria and the development of novel genome editing tools. Prof. Virginijus Šikšnys’s research on CRISPR-Cas has had a major impact on the field of gene editing. He published seminal papers on Cas9 biochemistry that were the foundation for the translation of CRISPR-Cas bacterial immune system into a powerful genome-editing tool. His work has been recently recognized with several awards and prizes.
PROGRAMME FRIDAY 8 SEPTEMBER: THE DNA OF INNOVATION
07:00 - 09:00 Breakfast / check-out
09:00 - 12:45
09:00 – 10:00 Session: The Future of Research Funding in Norway - The future of research funding in Norway is currently a debated topic. The session will feature key stakeholders discussing the future of research funding in Norway.
10:00 – 10:15 Coffee break
10:15 – 12:30 Workshops
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Workshop option 1: Scenario building workshop - Think-A-Thon - In this workshop, we will guide you through a thought-exercise to build a scenario of a day in the future when your research has made sufficient impact to assess its side-effects, both desirable and undesirable.
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Workshop option 2: Meet & Greet with keynote speakers - have a conversation with Professor Virginijus Šikšnys, the founders of BioBot Analytics and more.
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Workshop option 3: Meeting space for projects collaborating with the pharma/medtech industry
12:30 – 12:45 Closing remarks & announcement of Best Poster & Best Scientific Image prizes
12:45 - 13:45 Lunch
13:45 - 15:00
13:45 - 14:15 Prepare for departure
14:15 - 15:00 Bus trip to Bergen airport
More about the speakers
Professor Virginijus Šikšnys is a distinguished Professor of Vilnius University and serves as Chief scientist/head of the department at the Institute of Biotechnology. He is also the Director of EMBL partnership Institute on Genome Editing at the Life Science Center of Vilnius University. His research focuses on the structural and molecular mechanisms of antiviral defense systems in bacteria and the development of novel genome editing tools. Prof. Virginijus Šikšnys’s research on CRISPR-Cas has had a major impact on the field of gene editing. He published seminal papers on Cas9 biochemistry that were the foundation for the translation of CRISPR-Cas bacterial immune system into a powerful genome-editing tool. His work has been recently recognized with several awards and prizes.
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Dr. Mariana Matus is CEO and co-founder of Biobot Analytics. Mariana received her Ph.D. from the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT in Computational Biology, where she specialized in the emerging field of wastewater epidemiology. In addition to her doctoral studies, Mariana cofounded the MIT Underworlds Smart Sewers Project, leading the vision and funding for an interdisciplinary research project with collaborators from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. This work led to the creation of Biobot Analytics and set the scientific foundation for Biobot's wastewater intelligence platform—now serving the CDC and communities across all 50 US states. Mariana plans to expand Biobot’s venture-backed platform into countries all over the globe.
Newsha Ghaeli is President and Cofounder of Biobot Analytics, the first company in the world bringing wastewater epidemiology to market. Biobot's customers include federal, state, and local governments, Fortune 100 companies, and International Aid Organizations. In North America alone, Biobot has worked with over 700 communities generating data to help better track and manage COVID-19. In 2022, Time Magazine named Biobot one of the 100 Most Influential Companies of the year. In 2020, Ghaeli was the recipient of the University of Waterloo's Faculty of Engineering Young Alumni Achievement Medal.
Scientific image competition
All participants at the conference are encouraged to join the scientific image exhibition and competition. The image competition gives you a unique opportunity to present your work in a new format, as it is only your own creativity setting the limits. Your contribution can be artsy or realistic, colourful or black-and-white, at system- or nano-level. We encourage participants from all corners of biotechnology to contribute, as the diversity will only make it more interesting. The images will be exhibited throughout the conference, and the winner is selected through a vote among all participants.
The prize for best scientific image is NOK 5000.
Submission is closed.
Poster session
All participants at the Research School conference are encouraged to present a poster sharing their research (completed results or planned work). Presenters are responsible for printing and mounting the poster at the conference.
Poster presenters are expected to stand at their poster during the poster session Thursday 7 September from 16:30-17:30.
In order to make the poster fit on the board, we recommend that the poster does not exceed the following measurements: W 120 cm x H 180 cm.
The prize for best poster presentation is NOK 5000.
Submission is closed.
Practical matters
The conference is organized for and by members of the research school. If you are not a member yet, you need to apply for membership in advance. The research school is open to PhD students and postdocs who feel that their project is related to digital biotechnology and life sciences.
Accommodation
The research school takes care of room bookings and payments at Solstrand Hotel & Bad.
Travels
The research school covers travel costs for all participants. Please wait with booking flights until further notifications from us. We will organize transport by bus from Bergen airport to Solstrand Hotel & Bad.
Scientific Committee
Mary-Ann Jallad, postdoctoral fellow, UiO/OUS
Anum Masood, postdoctoral fellow, NTNU
Roya Doshmanziari, PhD candidate, NTNU
Questions?
For Research School matters, please contact Rosalie Zwiggelaar
For Digital Life Norway matters, please contact Christopher Hals