We would like to welcome a new founding member of ScanBalt - Södertörns högskola (Södertörn University College) from Sweden and a new institutional member- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research from Denmark.

Södertörns högskola (Södertörn University College) was founded in 1996 and since then has endeavoured to create an organisation with a high standard of teaching and research, prepared to act in innovative ways. Currently, there are 12 000 students and 750 staff.
 
Södertörns högskola offers more than 30 academic programmes within the Humanities, Social Sciences, Life Sciences and Education. In addition, there are over 400 courses that students may choose to study independently. The university college has the right to confer Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and hopes to be granted full university status within the near future.
 
The concepts of multiculturalism, and multidisciplinary and civic education are evident in all activities. Students and staff work across subject boundaries and strive for depth and breadth in teaching and research. Many of the courses and programmes deal with issues of ethnicity, migration and nationalism in modern Europe and require understanding and respect for cultural and social diversity.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research is currently being established at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, to promote basic and applied discovery research on human proteins of medical relevance. The establishment of the centre announced in April 2007 has been made possible by a donation of 600 million DKK (~118 MUSD) from the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

The centre will comprise a wide range of expertise and skills within its six research departments, with activities in the areas of disease systems biology, proteomics, high throughput protein production, chemical biology, disease biology, and protein therapeutics. The Center will also contribute to the progress of translational research within medicine and provide fundamental insights which can be used to promote drug discovery and development.