The Program for Academic Leaders in Life Science (PALS)

As you probably know, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has granted funding of SEK 20 million to the Program for Academic Leaders in Life Science (PALS). The program is a collaborative effort with the four WCMM Centers, SciLifeLab and the DDLS program and follows the success and track record of the previous WCMM and SciLifeLab collaboration termed NMMP (National Molecular Medicine Fellows Program).

During the next period (2024-2028), the partners will expand the scope of the collaboration to include the diverse areas of life science that SciLifeLab and DDLS communities represent, with the PALS program covering 10 universities (Chalmers, GU, KI, KTH, LiU, LU, NRM, SLU, SU, UmU, and UU) and the Swedish Museum of Natural History (NRM).

The first PALS steering group meeting will take place at the 6th of October. At this meeting, questions about the program’s budget and activities, such as annual network meetings, calls with seed funding for collaborative projects and self-organized events, will be discussed. It was suggested at the Saltsjöbaden NMMP network meeting in April 2023 that the first PALS call will be launched this autumn, most probably in October!

PALS steering group

Lund WCMM Director Gunilla Westergren-Thorsson and Co-directors Lars Dahlin & Jonas Larsson
Gothenburg WCMTM Director J. Gustav Smith and Co-director Margit Mahlapuu
Linköping WCMM Director David Engblom and Co-director Fredrik Elinder
Umeå WCMM Director Andrei Chabesand Co-director Pernilla Wikström
SciLifeLab & DDLS Director Olli Kallioniemi and SciLifeLab Co-director Mia Phillipson
DDLS Director of Research School Marija Cvijovic (GU & Chalmers)
Campus Solna Director Per Ljungdahl
SciLifeLab Scientific Director Uppsala Aris Moustakas
Fellow reference group (adjunct to the steering group, 1+1 from each fellow ‘category’):
- SciLifeLab: Alexandra Teleki & Lars Behrendt (UU)
- DDLS: Cemal Erdem (UmU) & Abhishek Niroula (GU)
- WCMM: Silvia Remeseiro (UmU) & Claudio Cantù (LiU)

PALS Coordinators

WCMM Linköping | Lisa Dobrosch, lisa [dot] dobrosch [at] liu [dot] se (lisa[dot]dobrosch[at]liu[dot]se)
WCMM Lund | Lisa Karlsson, lisa [dot] karlsson [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se (lisa[dot]karlsson[at]med[dot]lu[dot]se)
WCMM Umeå | Mikael Stiernstedt, mikael [dot] stiernstedt [at] umu [dot] se (mikael[dot]stiernstedt[at]umu[dot]se)
WCMTM Gothenburg | Charbel Sader, charbel [dot] sader [at] gu [dot] se (charbel[dot]sader[at]gu[dot]se) and Camilla Skånberg camilla [dot] alexandersson [at] gu [dot] se (camilla.alexandersson@gu.s)
DDLS | Titti Ekegren, titti [dot] ekegren [at] scilifelab [dot] uu [dot] se (titti[dot]ekegren[at]scilifelab[dot]uu[dot]se) and Heidi Törmänen Persson, heidi [dot] t [dot] persson [at] scilifelab [dot] uu [dot] se (heidi[dot]t[dot]persson[at]scilifelab[dot]uu[dot]se)
SciLifeLab | Disa Larsson Hammarlöf, disa [dot] L [dot] hammarlof [at] scilifelab [dot] se (disa[dot]L[dot]hammarlof[at]scilifelab[dot]se)