The first Nordic-Baltic Workshop of the VPHi was organised on 10th - 12th of June at Tampere University of Technology, in Finland.
The workshop kicked off with a get-together on Sunday evening, continued with a full day of science and networking on Monday with a sauna evening by the lake (a must for being in Finland!), and finished with an almost-full-day on Tuesday.
An esteemed trio of Plenary Speakers contributed to the workshop: Peter Hunter (ABI, NZ), Jérôme Noailly (UPF, ES) and Gunnar Seemann (UHC, DE). The programme was divided into four scientific sessions, including high quality presentations on a wide range of VPH topics from eight different research institutions in Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The programme details are still available at workshop website for those interested in checking it out.
After finishing the "hard science" part on Tuesday morning, the meeting continued in the afternoon with discussion about future of Nordic-Baltic VPHi activities. First, Jérôme Noailly provided an introduction of the VPHi and organization of the recently established UK chapter of VPHi. From there, discussions continued regarding different aspects of a possible Nordic-Baltic VPHi Chapter. It became evidently clear that such a local chapter would be highly beneficial, not only for bringing together the researchers of the field in this region, but also for asserting the position of the research field in the eyes of national funding organizations. Specifically, the recent and upcoming huge research and innovation investments in AI, big data, biobanks, etc. could provide significant resources also for the VPH-related efforts.
A second meeting will be organised soon. Moreover the possibility of organizing a VPH-specific session or sessions at the Nordic-Baltic Conference on Biomedical Engineering and/or Scandinavian Physiological Society Meeting in 2019 will be investigated.
We will keep you posted on further developments!
The VPHi is strongly supporting the creation of regional chapters. Any VPHi members interested in establishing their own local chapter of the VPHi are encouraged to get in touch with Martina: manager@VPH-Institute.org
