See the photos: Grand opening of SMARTbiomed

Researchers, collaborators, and foundation representatives gathered at the Lakeside Lecture Theatres to mark the opening of the new research centre – one without bricks and mortar.

“We talk a lot about personalised medicine – but there’s still a long way to go. With SMARTbiomed, we’re getting a centre that can deliver transformative solutions to major societal challenges,” said Dean Anne-Mette Hvas.

Centre Director and Professor at the University of Oxford Naomi Wray highlighted both the scientific potential and the international collaboration behind the centre.

“Although the population is relatively small, Denmark has incredibly rich health registries and the ability to link them through the CPR register. SMARTbiomed will develop methods and software to make health data even more useful – also internationally,” Naomi Wray said during her opening speech.

Co-director and Professor at the University of Copenhagen Erin Gabriel spoke about the centre’s educational concept, known as “mentoring pods”:

“A key pillar of SMARTbiomed is our mentoring pods – highly specialised research groups with a strong interdisciplinary outlook, designed to educate and support researchers in their work.”

Co-director and Professor at the Centre for Register-based Research at Health, Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, addressed the major task of creating cohesion in a research centre that operates across regions and countries.

“We’re planning summer schools, workshops, journal clubs, and symposia – and it’s by connecting people at these events that real research collaborations can emerge,” said the professor, who also noted that SMARTbiomed expects to train no fewer than 32 PhD students and 36 postdocs over the next decade.

“It takes long-term funding to build strong research environments and educate the next generation of researchers. But it’s precisely these kinds of investments that allow us to take big risks – and achieve big breakthroughs. I’m convinced the centre is now poised to meet its goal of reducing the societal burden of complex common diseases,” said Jan Egebjerg, Research Director and Vice President for Grants & Prizes at the Lundbeck Foundation.

After the official opening, participants networked, toasted, and mingled over a light lunch.

The rest of the day was dedicated to academic immersion with a symposium, where researchers from both Denmark and Oxford shared insights and discussed the future of health data. It was clear that SMARTbiomed is already building bridges between disciplines, institutions, and ideas.