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INTPART-International Partnerships for Excellent Education and Research

Connect and Infect - An interactive network to advance research and education in viral ecology and evolution

Alternative title: CONFECT – Et interaktivt nettverk for å fremme forskning og utdanning i virus-økologi og -evolusjon

Awarded: NOK 10.0 mill.

Since the last report, we have carried out the following activities in ConFect: - We have completed for the second time the two teaching courses "General Virology" (H23) and "Quantifying viral ecology and evolution" (V23) -Post Doc at VirVar has had a 2 weeks stay at (CNB-CSIC) in Madrid, Spain to solve the structure of one of our algal viruses in the VirVar project. This group in Madrid are experts in structural virology with access to the high resolution microscope platform required for this type of work. - We have completed an international symposium in "Virus ecology and evolution" with 38 researchers from different universities in addition to researchers from our research group at UiB. Our main interest group was younger researchers. The main aim of the symposium was to create contact between different professional disciplines within our field. Based on feedback from the participants, we have succeeded. In addition, we initiated new contacts that we want to implement in future collaborations, e.g. scientific applications. - In 2022, we participated in a summer camp organized by "passion for ocean", which is offered to primary school pupils (June and August). Our contribution was to teach the pupils about the importance of viruses for ecology and evolution in the ocean by introdusing a simple game where the pupils are playing either viruses or algae (hosts). The activity was repeated in the summer of 2023. - Together with Warholm film, we are well underway in producing short videos that will present our research to a wide audience. We have had several visits by Warholm film at UiB, recorded interviews of PhDs and researchers associated with Simplex and VirVar in the lab and on a cruice. The first product will be available in V-24.

CONFECT is an initiative to enhance research in viral ecology and evolution at UiB embodied by two ongoing research projects, and to provide state-of-the art platforms for education and dissemination in this topical field. Project members across five different countries (USA, Canada, Japan, Taiwan (ROC) and Norway) will actively contribute to workshops, a symposium and research stays abroad, which will strengthen ongoing research, and newly developed online courses as well as hands-on summer schools will create an efficient and interactive learning environment for students. The leader group has long-standing experience in traditional viral ecology and theoretical microbial ecology and has been co-founding the field in marine environments. By enhancing collaboration with five international partners, CONFECT complements this expertise with skills in modern sequencing techniques, bioinformatics and numerical simulations. The resulting team is extremely capable, with members being all interested in the same questions about regulation and drivers in microbial virus-host interactions. Knowledge promoted through CONFECT will give a basis for better understanding infectious disease as well as environmental questions of how biodiversity and consequently cycling of energy and matter may change in a changing environment. Notably, all members in CONFECT are also experienced teachers. Together with pedagogical resources made available through a center of excellence in education at UiB (BioCeed), this will ensure optimal obtension of scientific knowledge and methods for students taking part in CONFECT. Finally, dissemination and outreach of this field is our final objective, which we seek through open-access peer-reviewed scientific journals, popular science articles and interactive games with the public.

Funding scheme:

INTPART-International Partnerships for Excellent Education and Research