“Innovation is a long and demanding process, and some aspects of it can hardly be realised if ideas are not publicised within universities,” says Ágústa Guðmundsdóttir, Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition. The School of Health Sciences holds a conference on innovation for the second time 12 November at Radisson BLU Hotel Saga, where staff, students, and the university’s partners are invited to present ideas and projects involving innovation in health sciences.
Guðmundsdóttir was a member of the preparatory committee for the first innovation conference the School of Health Sciences held in 2013 with great success. She says that is urgent to create a venue where staff and students of the university can present their ideas. “Internationally such events are a part of universities’ culture and are considered an essential factor in education and work. Around dynamic universities innovation thrives, and more innovation means more opportunities for substantial research grants. Furthermore, to my mind it is the duty of those who work or study within in the university to increase diversity and opportunities in the high-tech field. Not everyone within universities needs to be involved in innovation, however, in some areas innovation is a natural feature of the work. Opportunities for innovation within the health sciences are almost unlimited,” says Guðmundsdóttir who has been involved in innovation in biotechnology for a number of years. Currently she is the head of research at the company Zymetec, which uses digestive enzymes form cod to produce health care products and cosmetics. The company was awarded the University of Iceland’s innovation award in 2015.
The participation and interest reflect a fertile field
According to Guðmundsdóttir it became abundantly clear in the last innovation conference that innovation in health sciences is currently in a period of steady growth in Iceland. There were just under one hundred participants form most of the faculties and study programmes with the School of Health Sciences, including people from other organisations. These included the School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, The School of Science and Engineering at Reykjavík University, Iceland Academy of the Arts, Landspítali-University Hospital, the Icelandic Blood Bank, Össur, and many more companies and institutions. “The participation exceeded our expectations and there was a lot of diversity in the projects presented. Innovation in health science is quite extensive globally; one of the fields with the most overall innovation of all. The software industry still leads in the field of innovation, nevertheless, there is an overlap between health care and software,” Guðmundsdóttir concludes, and says she looks forward to the conference in November.
The conference will have a similar format to the first one, but special emphasis will be placed on seminars being as interdisciplinary as possible. The programme will include seminars, poster presentations, product exhibitions, and lectures open to the public.
The deadline for abstracts for the conference is 15 October and submissions are open. The conference is open to all and attendance is free.
See more on the conference website: radstefnurhvs.hi.is