On 17-18 October, the National Infection Biology (NIB) Network held its seventh meeting, NIB 2017, at the Djurönäset Conference Hotel outside of Stockholm. The meeting was preceded by NDPIA workshops on science communication and career planning, held 16-17 October.

In line with the NIB network’s ambitions, the meeting provided opportunities for young researchers to present their research and to network with scientists from all the various fields of infection biology research. The NIB 2017 programme featured international keynote talks, selected talks from submitted abstracts and two poster sessions. Among a total of 47 posters submitted by NDPIA members, 10 were selected for short presentations during meeting.

The international and well renowned trainers Billy Uber and Sarah Blackford provided appreciated interactive NDPIA workshops on science communication and career planning, topics selected to be highly relevant and useful for researchers at the PhD-student/postdoc career level. Link to information about the workshops and trainers.  

Link to material from the science communications workshop

Links to material from the career planning workshop:
slides summary, top personal skills, career choice indicator, 10 types of scientists, career brainstorm,

NIB network history and future: the first NIB network meeting was held 2005 in Linköping, initiated as a follow-up event to the “Infection and Vaccinology” programme, which was supported by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF). The following three NIB network meetings, held in Umeå (2006), Uppsala (2007) and Malmö/Lund (2008), were funded by a special grant for research networks obtained from VR. Since 2011, the NIB network has been supported and coordinated by MIMS. The fifth NIB meeting was held in Umeå in 2011 and the sixth meeting in Göteborg/Marstrand in 2014. The NIB network meetings are of great value for strengthening infection biology research in Sweden and the presentations from the young researchers at NIB 2017 were impressive and much appreciated by the more senior researchers including keynote speakers. With respect to the NIB 2017 programme, participants expressed that they appreciated the mix of different topics, speakers and formats and that the meeting’s intimate size was well suited for networking. NIB 2017 organisers were very pleased that participants eagerly looked forward to future NIB network meetings coordinated by MIMS.