The process is now underway to nominate recipients of the Hasselblad Foundation’s grant for female researchers’ further qualification for 2020. The grant gives two younger female researchers at the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers one million SEK each for career development. The University of Gothenburg may nominate three recipients, where the Faculty of Science may nominate two persons and Sahlgrenska Academy may nominate one person, preferably someone with research that is close to the natural sciences.

At Sahlgrenska Academy, each institute may nominate a candidate, through the head or equivalent. If you have a proposal for a person who may be nominated, you can forward this to your head of institute. The institute must announce its nomination to the faculty no later than April 14th, at 14:00. After preparation by the Research Council, the dean decides who is nominated from Sahlgrenska Academy.

• Since the grant may not be charged with indirect costs, co-financing from the institution or faculty is required for the grant granted.
• This year, the applicant must have submitted a thesis on July 1, 2014 or later.
• The nomination process takes place according to this management arrangement (Swedish): https://gubox.box.com/s/zwkg1nn6h1m76t9icncntpdl0a8tx8kc

 

 

 

On April 3-6, an official covid-19 hackathon will be given, on the initiative of the Swedish government. The task is to design, test and implement creative ideas and develop concepts to create solutions that will take us further in the ongoing resistance. “Hack the crisis” is open to contributions from all community members: the public sector, the private sector, academia, non-profit organizations and citizens, who want to help in the fight against the spread of infection. More info: https://www.hackthecrisis.se/

The Gothenburg Medical Society (GLS) has decided that all Wednesday meetings in March and April are canceled. After the AU group’s meeting in mid-April, it will be announced if the meetings will start again in May, or if more meetings need to be canceled.

The University Library is making adjustments to provide services remotely, limits access to the study environments and reduces the opening hours. The goal is to reduce the spread of contagion, while continuing to support research and remote studies at the University of Gothenburg. The Humanities, Biomedical and Social Sciences Library have limited access on weekdays 12:00-16:00. Study environments and collections are closed. It is still possible to request, borrow and return books. All libraries (including closed libraries) have phone hours on weekdays 10:00-16:00 and can be contacted online via the contact form. Seminars, lectures and other activities are adjusted to be performed online as much as possible. More information about changed library services

The Covid 19 pandemic complicates and affects large parts of medical research both in Sweden and abroad. As a result of the current situation, the Swedish Society for Medical Research, SSMF, is now changing its conditions to facilitate the researchers granted funding from SSMF. The changes include that recipients can postpone their project start or pause during the current grant period. For those who have ongoing postdoctoral fellowships, SSMF offers, in addition to extended disposition time, the opportunity to apply for an extended grant of up to two months. Read more at www.ssmf.se.

 

 

 

 

The work of researching vaccines and drugs against covid-19 is slowed down by the lack of laboratory animals needed. In a feature in the Swedish Broadcasting Cooperation’s Science show Vetenskapsradion Associate Professor Ali Harandi states that it researchers have to wait for a s long as seven months for access to transgenic mice. In connection with the first SARS infection in 2002, a company in the United States developed genetically modified mice for research, where the mice received the ACE2 receptor that the virus uses to infect cells. At that time, vaccine research became a setback, and the company closed down its mouse breed. For a few weeks now the mice are available again, but the waiting times are very long. Read more in the journal Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00698-x

Since research on Covid-19 is of great importance to public health, all Healthcare Principals’ biobanks in Sweden, have reached a joint decision that biobank applications related to Covid-19 shall be given priority until further notice. Several biobanks can also offer prioritised sample collecting. Several inquiries are already being processed around the country and all Biobank Coordinators and Regional Biobank Centres (RBC) will assist in managing the applications to shorten the processing time as much as possible.
The goal is to have applications ready within a week. Read further: https://biobanksverige.se/inlagg_eng/covid-19-priority-for-biobank-applications-in-connection-with-covid-19/

The EU Commission has collated all EC-funded research and innovation projects focusing on COVID-19 on a new website.

There is also information on extended deadlines and when a Horzon 2020 project can apply the “force majeure” clause during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

If you have comments or suggestions, please contact Stéphane Hogan (stephane.hogan@ec.europa.eu).

From Saturday, March 21, the Biomedical Library will be open for loan and return of literature, as well as some services such as printing, scanning and copying, searching and ordering and getting help in information counters. This applies for the time being. Open weekdays from 12:00 to 16:00. Group rooms, reading rooms and other study environments are closed. Teaching continues at a distance via zoom. Search quests are ordered via the existing routes, https://www.ub.gu.se/sv/tjanster-och-stod/sokhandledning.