DL: Digital Life Norway PhD School

Digital Life Norway Research School is a well-integrated part of Centre for Digital Life Norway, and has a central role for Training and Recruitment. Science based on convergence in line with the Digital Life mission is challenging, intellectually as well as culturally. It requires that talented young researchers are given opportunities to explore new horizons and embark on challenging scientific and societal problems, perhaps at the risk of failure. In addition, they will meet the intellectual challenge of scientific work in true transdisciplinary research groups, integrating knowledge across boundaries. Excellent researcher training and networking through the research school is a main success factor for the entire Digital Life mission. The main goals of the research school are to promote transdisciplinary integration, build a culture for innovation, and create a new collective team spirit among all younger scientists who are connected to digital biotechnology. An important challenge for the research school is to create a distinct scientific profile and a feeling of belonging and commitment in a large and highly transdisciplinary group of PhD-students, postdocs, and their supervisors. The most important networking activities are PhD-courses, generic courses, and the annual 2-day conference for members. The project has six equal partners: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, University of Oslo, University of Bergen, UiT - the Arctic University of Norway, University of Stavanger, and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. The board holds members from all partner universities, and PhD-student members have been appointed for 5 of 6 partner institutions. The research school has a 100% coordinator at Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, NTNU. The research school opened for memberships December 2016, and currently has 527 members, 358 PhD-students and 169 postdoctors, whereof 296 are female and 231 are male. Our network also includes PhD-supervisors and newsletter subscribers. The members come from a wide variety of scientific fields, from humanities, medical physics, and computer science to more classic disciplines of biotechnology. We have a close collaboration with Centre for Digital Life Norway and other national research schools when it comes to course organization. A comprehensive list of all courses can be found on our website (www.digitallifenorway.org/dlnrs), and monthly updates on our offers are distributed through our newsletters. In the reporting period, the research school has organized or contributed to 25 different scientific PhD-courses, generic courses (scientific writing, proposal writing, project management), workshops, and conferences. Due to Covid-19, many of the planned courses and activities were held online. From mid-August, the country opened up and we had the opportunity to hold physical courses again. Four physical events have been held so far, including the annual conference with 94 participants. A new round of the internship program, which had a pilot in 2020, is also being carried out in 2021. The purpose of the program is to provide research fellows with work experience in industry, as well as to facilitate future collaboration between research and industry. In the pilot of the program, we sponsored seven candidates from NTNU, UiB, UiO and UiT for a three-month stay with a company in Norway or Sweden. In this second round, we have 9 candidates from NTNU, NMBU, UiT, and UiO, placed at 8 different companies. Despite Covid-19 and subsequent restrictions on travel and gatherings, the graduate school has had several highlights on the course front. The course ?Science, technology, and society: RRI course Digital Life Norway? will help younger researchers to implement the principles behind responsible research and innovation in their own research, and was held for the second time in collaboration with the center. The research school and DLN's innovation group are part of a Nordic-Baltic network (GREAT) that developed and conducted a course in design thinking in healthcare innovation and DLN research school members were invited to participate. Trying to bring together young researchers with such diverse and transdisciplinary backgrounds is challenging, but in many ways, we have already succeeded in creating fora where PhD-students and post doctors can broaden their horizons and networks. There are good reasons to be optimistic of the Digital Life-concept among young researchers.

The RCN program BIOTEK2021 has launched the strategic initiative "Digital Life - Convergence for Innovation". Currently, the Digital Life Norway (DLN) Centre is being planned in close collaboration with RCN as a hub-and-node structure that includes all the relevant Norwegian institutions. The DL Norway PhD School will be an integrated part of DLN and its Working Group 3: Training & Recruitment. The DL Norway PhD School aims to establish a national PhD course curriculum for all PhD candidates whose PhD project is releavnt for the DL Norway activity. These ECTS credited courses will be owned and run by the partner institutions. Digital Life is a new and internationally unique strategic initiative, and the PhD School will during the first 1-2 years of operation map the specific needs for PhD training, and based on this knowledge establish the appropriate PhD courses. At present we envisage a mixture of courses in generic/transferable skills (covering all the key technologies and methods for the Digital Life mission), innovation/entrepreneurship, responsible research and innovation (RRI), and selected scientific themes that are common across the main biotechnology thematic areas (marine, agriculture, medical and industrial). The DL Norway PhD School will fund leading international experts as lecturers. An important challenge for the DL Norway PhD School is to build a distinct scientific profile and to obtain a feeling of belonging in a large and inter-disciplinary group of PhD students and their supervisors. Main networking activities are the PhD courses, a two-day annual PhD seminar to which all PhD students must submit an abstract for oral/poster presentation, and a DL Norway summer school with tutorials run by international experts. For all the activities internationally renowned scientists will be involved as lecturers and mentors, and the PhD courses, PhD seminar, and summer school will be open for highly talented international PhD students and postdocs.