Successful DDLS Industry dialogue initiated

One of the long term goals of the SciLifeLab & Wallenberg National Program for Data-Driven Life Science (DDLS) is to boost data-driven life science through partnerships with industry. This entails the recruitment of at least 90 industry PhDs and Postdocs to facilitate collaborations across sectors and disciplines. The DDLS academic and industrial PhD students and postdocs will all be enrolled in the DDLS Research School promoting acquisition of high competence and skills.

A digital industry dialogue meeting was arranged on November 30 with a focus on collaboration and to encourage industry participation in the DDLS Research School and the DDLS program through various activities. A national representation with 50 participants from large companies, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and academia, discussed different aspects of their contribution to the DDLS program and vice versa.

The meeting was highlighted by presentations from Wallenberg foundation, about their research support programs; AstraZeneca, with a large corporate perspective on DDLS; IQVIA, with reflections on companies working on health care data and their challenges; and SwedenBio, with perspectives on benefits and difficulties that can arise when the SMEs are involved in a PhD program and how their collaborations usually look like.

Mojgan Seraji, Collaboration Manager at SciLifeLab was very pleased with the meeting’s outcome and discussions.

“It is obvious that this collaboration is equally important for both academia and industry with mutual benefits” she says. She continues with a smile, citing Humphrey Bogart: “This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”