As 2021 turns towards its end, we can look back on the many positive events we managed to land together this year. In particular,
- We have awarded salary support for Ph.D. students and young group leaders, which has broadly benefitted our community.
- We have formed a networking group composed of young researchers (the “Young MultiParkers”) with the task to organize opportunities for social gathering and professional development.
- We have appointed an external advisory board of prominent scientists, with whom we will have the pleasure to interact already from January next year.
In addition to these network-internal achievements, individual MultiPark researchers have done incredibly well on many levels. Three out of four of the most cited researchers at Lund University turned out to be MultiPark members, and we are doing quite well at attracting prestigious competitive funding. This year, MultiPark members obtained more than 31 MSEK as free project grants from Vetenskapsrådet. From the same organization, Malin Parmar has just been awarded the very competitive Distinguished professorship grant. A couple of days later, Daniella Rylander Ottosson was awarded the prestigious Wallenberg Academy Fellow grant. In addition, MultiPark members have gained leading roles in newly initiated international collaborative projects (the Lundbeck grant for transnational collaboration and a large EU project).
Looking forward to 2022, we will kickstart the year with the MultiPark retreat on January 20 and 21, important days for strengthening and updating our network. We hope to see as many MultiPark members as possible there. Make sure to note the PI meeting on January 21 at 9-12 in your calendars. During this meeting, we will discuss on how to re-shape our working groups.
Other events to look forward to during the upcoming year are:
- The MultiPark Café, together with Alzheimer Sverige on April 6, a popular science event reaching out to patients and general public.
- The professional development workshop “Forming multidisciplinary collaborations and moving them forward” on April 7.
- A physical retreat in a nice venue in late summer (definitely more inspiring than Medicon Village, although this was the best option for the time being).
In closing, I would like to express my sincere gratefulness to Diana Jerman and Martina Svensson, our excellent collaborators in the management group, who are always doing their best for keeping our large network well-aligned and well-looked after! And big thanks to all of you who generously work for our large research environment, which bridges the most important levels of investigation in the field of Parkinson´s, Alzheimer´s and other brain diseases. It is quite a unique environment we have; let’s continue making it strong together!
With best Season Greetings and New Year wishes, to all of you and your families,
Your coordinator, Angela