News

René Medema, Director of Research of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, has been appointed the new chair of EU-LIFE, an alliance of thirteen leading life science institutes in Europe, as of 1 January 2020.

The EU-LIFE Community meeting held in Milan in November gave the opportunity to organize a roundtable discussion on Open Science focused on Open and FAIR data with Sabina Leonelli, professor of Philosophy and History of Science, University of Exeter, Giuseppe Testa, Group Leader at IEO and Henri van Luenen, Director of Operations at NKI.

After the EU-LIFE Visiting Scientist programme, EU-LIFE is launching a new programme to stimulate interaction and collaboration between the scientists of the alliance. The Visiting Postdoctoral EU-LIFE seminars programme is offering a great opportunity for Postdocs to visit other EU-LIFE institutes by giving a talk about their work.

Europe is at a critical crossroads. While new major societal challenges emerge, the EU is at the same time called to revisit its founding values and questioned on its role in Europe and the World. Therefore, refocusing on real beacons of the EU ideal is needed to secure and nurture the EU added value for citizens.

EU-LIFE points out the increasing lack of opportunities for collaborative research in biomedicine at a European level and highlights how this is endangering long-lasting, positive impact in health research for the benefit of citizens. 6 recommendations aim at contributing to improvement for the upcoming seven-year cycle of Horizon Europe.

Today, our chair Geneviève Almouzni, Director of the Research Center of the Institut Curie from 2013 to 2018 and honorary director since then, has been appointed member of the Scientific Council of the ERC for a function period of 4 years.

Today, Jo Bury, managing director of the EU-LIFE member institute VIB, the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology, has been appointed by the EU Commission as member of the European Innovation Council Advisory Board.