ScanBalt Forum – Two days of high level networking and science

Even before the official start of the ScanBalt forum a new phase of development for ScanBalt had begun with the signing of the statutes – marking the start of ScanBalt as an independent not for profit organisation. After this exciting event the delegates were officially welcomed to the conference by representatives from Turku and it’s business community. Bo Samuelsson, the chairman of ScanBalt gave the plenary lecture, entitled ‘ScanBalt – metaregionalisation and EU’, which was followed by a whole day of discussion provoking lectures on a wide variety of lifescience subjects. These included a presentation of the recently funded ScanBalt Competence Region project and sessions on Venture Financing and Environmental Biotech.

The second day started with a presentation of the ScanBalt Campus session providing a useful discussion of education and mobility within the metaregion. This was followed by a presentation by Waldemar Kütt from DG Research who gave an enlightening and clearly delivered insight into the current EU funding mechanisms. The afternoon included a very popular session on Stem Cells, which included a talk by Stephen Minger, Kings College London. The afternoon sessions also included presentations of the Boosting Baltic FP6 project and an open paper session from the authors of the best three abstracts from the well attended poster session. Conferences, despite such a good attendance and content, do not run themselves and it is important to acknowledge the staff of the Turku Science Park, who provided excellent technical support as well as genuine warmth and hospitality.

The nature of the lectures, their content and the speakers clearly demonstrates the vitality and critical mass of enthusiasm that exists within the ScanBalt metaregion. It was notable, not only from the formal discussions but also the numerous informal gatherings and meetings which took place, that the ScanBalt forum is not just another annual conference but a unique meeting place of regions and individuals. From the success of this conference, the consistent quality of the presentations, and its new identity as a membership organisation, ScanBalt can certainly look forward to a promising future.

You can now read some of the presentations from the ScanBalt Forum by clicking here.