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Sars International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology |
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Life processes in the ocean and their evolution represent fascinating opportunities for discoveries concerning fundamental questions in biology, including the provision of new model systems collected from the sea. The constant progress of molecular techniques, which today permit genome-wide studies of biological functions, allows molecular biology to spread from classical terrestrial model organisms to a variety of marine species and communities. Synergistic efforts in these directions are the aim of a partnership between the EMBL and the Sars International Centre for Marine Molecular Biology that was established in June 2003. The partnership will facilitate scientific exchange and support areas of common interest of the two institutes, opening up new directions for research training and collaborations.
The partnership will focus on several key areas:
A major goal of the partnership is to facilitate scientific exchange and collaborations. Joint scientific meetings will be organised to exchange information on current projects, stimulate in a bottom-up manner future collaborations and personnel exchange between the two institutions and others, and thus assemble a scientific community of critical mass interested in marine molecular biology. The institutes will also support joint funding applications.
The two institutes will provide mutual access to facilities and instrumentation
for visiting scientists, as well as to databases. These include the marine biology infrastructures of the Bergen area, EMBL's state-of-the-art facilities for genomics, proteomics, functional genomic and advanced light microscopy facilities in Heidelberg, and specialized Outstation facilities such as structural biology beamlines at Hamburg and Grenoble, and core databases at the EBI.
The Sars Centre will establish an International PhD Programme in Marine
Molecular Biology. Students will receive research training at the Sars Centre, while the University of Bergen and EMBL, along with other international institutes, will actively collaborate in the planning of the programme's theoretical and practical course work. An agreement for joint PhD degrees from the University of Bergen and EMBL has been concluded and has joined the growing list of partnerships that EMBL currently has with universities throughout its Member States.
EMBL will take an active role in advising and evaluating the development and progress
of the Sars Centre. |
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