INYS (International Networking for Young Scientists) is an exciting British Council initiative aimed at promoting the exchange of ideas and knowledge between young researchers from the UK and other countries.
The initiative is targeted specifically at post-doctoral fellows or researchers who have been tenured for ten years or less. Through face-to-face meetings, INYS creates a forum for building new interdisciplinary and lasting internatiional connections that are vital for future scientific excellence and make INYS participants successful applicants for national and European grants.
By supporting the mobility of young scientists in high priority research areas, we have a key role to play in helping to create and maintain lasting relationships between the next generation of scientists.
To date British Council Sweden has run four INYS workshops:
- March 2004 – INYS on stem cell research at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm
- March 2005 – INYS on diabetes and cardiovascular biology at Lund University
- November 2005 – INYS on climate modelling and data series studies at Lund University
- March 2006 - INYS on biodiversity at the Swedish Musem of Natural History, Stockholm
- November 2006 - INYS on functional food at Lund University
- July 2007 - INYS on taxonomy and systematics at Natural History Museum, London
The sixth INYS workshop on taxonomy and systematics was held at the Darwin Centre in London from 2-4 July 2007 and run in partnership with the Natural History Museums in London and Stockholm. This workshop was organised as part of the 2007 Linnaeus tercentenary celebrations, to mark the 300th anniversary since the birth of Carl Linnaeus, the founder of modern biological nomenclature, the process of naming organisms. The event was designed to bring together young Swedish and British scientists from a range of disciplines to explore the progress and problems in modern systematic studies. Twenty-two participants from the UK and Sweden took part in this workshop, representing some of the best young researchers in the field of taxonomy and systematics in their countries.
Speakers at the event included Professor David L Hawksworth, Dr Peter Forey, Dr Sandra Knapp and Dr Chris Humphries. As part of the workshop participants visited Kew Gardens, where they had a tour of the Herbarium and the Jodrell Laboratory as well as the ‘Rare books room’ and DNA labs at the Natural History Museum. The group also visited the Linnaean Society and had the opportunity to see some of Linnaeus’ rarely-seen work and collections.
For further information about our work in science, opportunities for research collaboration, and publications and resources visit our UK science website.
