A desire to contribute to the benefit of society

My journey at SciLifeLab started in 2017, and every day is still filled with new opportunities. As Director of the centre SciLifeLab at Uppsala University, Medfarm, and Head of Operations for SciLifeLab’s national operational support Operations Office, I am proud to be part of a dynamic community of researchers and partners. Collaboration sums up the goal of SciLifeLab both at Uppsala University, where the activities include Medfarm and Teknat, and SciLifeLab’s national mission.

Collaboration in three points

What drives me and my colleagues at the Operations Office is the desire to contribute to the benefit of society. For me, it comes down to three points about the importance of collaboration between research, infrastructure and society:

1. Making infrastructure available: SciLifeLab has a national mandate from the government to make research and data infrastructures available. SciLifeLab has the collective expertise and advanced technology to meet the needs of cutting-edge life-science research.
2. Addressing societal challenges: Collaboration between academia, healthcare and society helps tackle societal challenges in areas such as health and the environment. Therefore, SciLifeLab has focused efforts on precision medicine, planetary biology and pandemic laboratory preparedness. Through multidisciplinary initiatives combined with SciLifeLab’s infrastructure, researchers can seek innovative solutions to complex problems.
3. Developing competencies: Development requires education and lifelong learning. Recently, we launched a research school within the SciLifeLab & Wallenberg National Program for Data-Driven Life Science to prepare the next generation of researchers for tomorrow’s data- and AI-driven research. SciLifeLab’s national competence centre, Training Hub, was launched in 2023 with the goal of enabling knowledge transfer from the infrastructure to researchers by bringing together knowledge, experts and training materials.

Navet – a good place for meetings

It’s easy to go to work when the goal is visionary and the impact high. SciLifeLab is more than a workplace – it is a research environment where expertise and passion go hand in hand to shape the future of science. The Operations Office is home to many of the most talented and dedicated employees, passionate about creating change. That’s how it is for me. Welcome to Navet at BMC, SciLifeLab’s meeting place in Uppsala. Many good ideas start with a meeting over a cup of coffee.

Jenny Alfredsson, Director of SciLifeLab at Uppsala University and Head of Operations for SciLifeLab’s Operations Office