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INTPART-International Partnerships for Excellent Education and Research

SIMBER: the Simula Berkeley Education and Research Collaboration

Alternative title: SIMBER: Simula Berkeley utdannings- og forskningssamarbeid

Awarded: NOK 10.0 mill.

The SIMBER project brings together excellent research groups from Norway and the United States to advance the state-of-the-art in modelling of the human heart. Specifically, the partners in this international collaboration will learn from and exploit each other's particular expertise, including 'heart-on-chip' experimental systems from UC Berkeley, mathematical modelling of the heart from Simula, and supercomputing software from Simula and Lawrence Berkeley Lab. The targeted support provided by SIMBER will accelerate the development of new tools and knowledge that produce more accurate models of the human heart in both health and disease. A major benefit of these advancements is the development of drug screening technologies that are making cardiac drug development faster, cheaper and more humane. The activities organized by SIMBER provide the structure and funding needed to intensify and expand the existing collaborations among the partners. These activities include tailored training sessions to bridge the gaps between bioengineering and scientific supercomputing, exchanges of researchers and scholars between Oslo and Berkeley, joint supervision of PhD students, development of remote collaboration tools, and dissemination the scientific results in open-access venues. As such, SIMBER supports the scientific advancements by not only facilitating the joint research activities, but also by assisting researchers and scholars in learning directly from one another's particular expertise, and thereby accelerating the development of world-class research and education in Norway. Over the five-year project period, SIMBER will enable more in-depth and intensive cooperation, providing the required institutionalized support for ground-breaking research that builds strong, lasting and productive partnerships between the Simula, UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Lab.

The SIMBER project is centered around advancing the state-of-the-art in the science of modelling of the human heart, and will leverage the existing collaborations between leading research groups at the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), and Simula Research Laboratory (Simula). In particular, the following expertise will be shared and expanded through this project: ‘heart-on-chip’ experimental systems from UC Berkeley, mathematical modelling of the heart from Simula, and supercomputing software from Simula and Berkeley Lab. This intersection of expertise is already enabling the development of novel tools and knowledge that produce more accurate models of the human heart in both health and disease, which in turn are leading to drug screening technologies that make cardiac drug development faster, cheaper and more humane. Both researchers and scholars will benefit and learn from one another’s particular expertise, accelerating the development of world-class research and education in Norway. The SIMBER project provides the structure and funding needed to deepen and broaden the existing collaboration through the following major activities: targeted training sessions to bridge the gaps between bioengineering and scientific supercomputing, reciprocal exchange of researchers and scholars between Oslo and Berkeley, facilitation of joint supervision of research fellows, development of efficient digital tools to accelerate remote collaboration, and dissemination the scientific results through open-access venues. Over the five-year project period, SIMBER will enable more in-depth and intensive cooperation, providing the required institutionalized support for ground-breaking research that builds strong, lasting and productive partnerships between the Simula, UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab.

Funding scheme:

INTPART-International Partnerships for Excellent Education and Research