“NordForsk is very pleased to be able to fund four new postdoctoral projects in neutron research,” says Arne Flåøyen, Director of NordForsk and continues:
“The purpose of the projects is to contribute to capacity building in the Nordic region and expand neutron research to also include research fields such as materials and nanosciences, life sciences, medicine and pharmacy. Through their new projects, the four young researchers get the opportunity to work at the neutron source in Lund.”
The call for postdoctoral research fellowships was issued on 12 August 2020 with deadline 29 September 2020. The aim of the call was to promote a new generation of Nordic neutron scientists and specialists through training at the European Spallation Source (ESS).
This is the last call in the Nordic Neutron Science Initiative. In their assessment of the proposals, the committee noted that the proposals had high quality, which indicated a good return of investment of the previous calls in the Nordic Neutron Science initiative and national initiatives. It is therefore, according to the committee, an excellent way to complete the Nordic Neutron Science Initiative.
“I am very happy that we now can support four strong Nordic postdoctoral projects closely linked to commissioning, early science and development of the European Spallation Sources,” says Fredrik Melander, chair of the Nordic Neutron Science Initiative.
“The projects are an important contribution to our portfolio and a strong complement to our previous investments in long-term competence building within neutron-based research in the Nordic Region,” he adds.
Funded projects
The four projects that receives funding are:
- Jenny Andersson, Lund University: Can bees help to treat cancer? Elucidating the anticancer mechanism of melittin from honey bee venom by cell membrane deuteration and neutron reflection/SANS.
- Nicolo Paracini, Malmö University: A multi-compartment solid/liquid cell to increase throughput of neutron studies of Langmuir interfaces
- Jakob Voldum Ahlburg, Aarhus University: Fast cooling and heating for diffraction and beyond
- Vijay Sharma, Stockholm University: Design of a Fundamental Physics Beamline for the ESS
About the initiative
The Nordic Neutron Science Initiative was launched in 2015. The objectives for the initiative are to increase the number of Nordic-region researchers skilled at utilising neutrons in scientific analysis and raise the competency level regarding neutron scattering.
In particular, it is an objective to raise the competency of younger researchers and other groups without extensive experience in this field. The initiative is funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Research Council of Norway, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education, and NordForsk. Five calls for proposals have been previously issued under the initiative.
