Scanbalt Newsletter December 2003

Contents:

ScanBalt Marine Biotech network to meet in January 2004
ScanBalt attracts attention in Stockholm
NATO Forum on Business and Security
PharmacoGENOMICS – A new Era of Medicine?
EU calls and publications
EU policy focus
Life Science events
Deadline

Scabalt Marine Biotech Network to Meet in January 2004

Funded by Norfa, the ScanBalt Marine Biotech network will meet for a 2-days working session in January 2004. The meeting will be aiming on the establishment of a strategy for strengthening the development of the network. For more information please contact Professor Peter Aleström, Norwegian School of Veterinary Science: or Lise Vinkel, ScanBalt secretariat:

Scanbalt Attracts Attention in Stockholm

ScanBalt attracted significant attention in Stockholm at the BioTech Forum Science Conference, November 26-28 2003. The occasion was used for constructive discussions with a number of different regional networks in ScanBalt Bioregion and for project group meetings. As ScanBalt chairman Bo Samuelsson explained it in an interview to the Danish newspaper Børsen during the conference ”Individual bioregions can have difficulties to create critical mass at an international level. Today there are maybe 200 micro regions in Europe, but in 10-20 years there will probably only be 5-10 meta-regions – and ScanBalt shall be one of them”. The CEO of Medicon Valley Academy, Bent Christensen adds in the interview ”Working places move out at a terrific speed – this is the greatest challenge for our society today. The only solution is borderless coorperation to create a base for more knowledge intensive production”.

NATO Forum on Business and Security

The NATO Forum will provide a unique opportunity for representatives from organizations and governments to meet international counterparts who are confronted with similar challenges, in order to create linkages which will strengthen organizational security and public safety and security. In this way delegates will gain a better understand of cross-sector security issues, the potential implications for an organization and crucially, introduce them directly to the solutions providers. There will be a specific focus on bioterrorism and the medical countermeasures that are being developed to counteract the threat of a bioterrorist attack from biological or chemical agents, both at the Forum and in the book, NATO – Business and Security. Further information: http://www.nato.int  or Nigel James, NATO Project Director, Tel: 44 207 419 1000 Fax:44 207 419 1050

Pharmacogenomics-A New Era of Medicine?

The conference is the first interdisciplinary and international conference on “personalized” drugs. The conference will be held from March 24 to 26, 2004 in Hamburg. About 100 speakers and experts from the US, China, Japan, Israel, France and Great Britain will discuss in lectures and workshops the relevant scientific and economic, legal and cultural issues of this emerging field of life science. We expect ca. 250-400 participants. A press conference and two public events will be included to offer the discussion to a public audience. Further information’s about registration, lectures and workshops are available
www.pharmacogenomics-2004.de

EU Calls and Publications

Calls
Support for Research Infrastructures
Calls for proposals in the area of ‘food quality and safety’
The call has now expired.

Publications

R&D expenditure and personnel in the EU [2002]
High-tech and knowledge-intensive sectors (KIS) creating employment in Europe
Link has now expired.

EU Policy Focus

Mid term review of new FP& instruments
EU to fund embryonic stem cell research
70 per cent budget increase for FP7
Strong and balanced response to first FP6 calls
Commission secures FP6 advice from leading European academics
Commission takes action to raise SME participation inFP6

Life Science Events

CORDIA-EuropaBio Convention
Representatives from European life science clusters and development
Challenges to European Competitiveness – Industrial Performance and Policy Responses
Managing industrial property rights in biotechnology
Conference on early stage researcher mobility in Europe
UN´s Global Biotechnology Forum, March 2004,Chile

Deadline for Scanbalt News

Deadline for the next issue of ScanBalt News is 30 December.
Editor: Peter Frank