Winners of ScanBalt Bridge Award 2009 Announced

Bridging academia and SME’s in the Baltic Sea region based on smart growth is a pillar of the ScanBalt Strategy “Innovation on Top of Europe 2008-2011”. This requires strengthened links between academia clusters and innovation which will be highlighted by the ScanBalt Bridge Award.

The ScanBalt Bridge Award is granted by the ScanBalt Academy and the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund together with Greifswald University and Lund University.

THE FOUNDERS

In 1996 the Medical Faculties of the Universities of Greifswald and Lund introduced a bilateral award emphasizing the significance of mutually rewarding exchange in supranational regions and the growing importance of the Baltic Sea Region in life sciences. In 2009 the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund, an academy of Natural Science, Medicine and Technology, is joining the founders together with the ScanBalt Academy, both forming in different ways an independent think tank, ”Ideenschmiede” of international reputation, cross-border team builder of science centers, enterprises and political organizations, the most innovative clusters in biotechnology, life sciences and medicine around the Baltic sea.

THE INTENTION

The award seeks to highlight the Nordic dimension of the European Union and encourage cooperation between project leaders of research groups in life sciences, any of several branches such as biology, medicine, anthropology, or ecology, that deal with living organisms and their organization, life processes, and relationships to each other and their environment. Priority will be given to project groups who have or are starting their cross-border cooperation with the spirit of global competitiveness, making use of the Nordic-Baltic Expatriate Forum and having in mind the economical potential of their cooperation.

THE WINNERS 2009

Prof. Almut Kelber and Colleagues,
Lund/Sweden

Prof. Susanne Iwarsson and Colleagues,
Lund/Sweden

Prof. Daumantas Matulis and Colleagues,
Vilnius/Lithuania

Cancer Politics Study Group
Greifswald/Germany

THE LAUDATIO

Almut Kelber and her co-worker Prof. Denhardt in Rostock cooperate on colour vision in seals. Denhardt has the seals and Kelber the equipment and expertise on colour vision. Also Prof. Kröger in Lund, specialist in eye optics is involved in the project. Their cooperation is established in joint publications. Kelber especially states the use of the grant in the sense it was intended, i.e. regular meetings of groups and in her case also for performing experiments.

Susanne Iwarsson´s project relates to how the home environment affects health trajectories along the process of ageing. It is studied in depth in Sweden and Latvia. The project is unique and the methods developed being introduced in an east European country (Latvia) under transition. Iwarsson has a well established cooperation with Latvia, resulting in an upcoming PhD thesis, as well as other Baltic universities.

Daumantas Matulis´s project relates to anti-cancer drug design and in vitro testing. He reports successful cooperation with a number of academic as well as industrial laboratories around the Baltic Sea. The programmatic intention of the award to bridge academia and SMEs is perfectly performed.

Cancer Politics is bridging medicine, social sciences, humanities and arts in the Baltic Sea health region. The project is a textbook of medical cancer prevention, debating health visions from the interdisciplinary points of view and is performing as a piece of literature and arts to pamper the reader´s attention.

Contact
Prof. Hans-Robert Metelmann at