DECEMBER 2023LIFE SCIENCES REVIEW8IN MY OPINIONBy Charlotte Stadler, Co-Director Spatial Biology Platform, SciLifeLabciLifeLab, or Science for Life Laboratories, is Sweden's national research infrastructure for life sciences, featuring a dedicated team of approximately 600 scientists, with over 400 of them holding doctoral degrees. This collective expertise and the infrastructure's broad range of services form the cornerstone of Sweden's life science capabilities. However, it's worth noting that in spite of this vital role, the need for team science, and the competence of the infrastructure staff is not always fully appreciated as the foundation of life science research services.SciLifeLab is as national centre for molecular life science in Sweden. While it started as a local effort in the Stockholm-Uppsala region as a collaboration between four universities in 2010, it has now expanded with local sites at all major universities in Sweden and gained international recognition. SciLifeLab gathers top researchers in the life science field and is one of the largest research infrastructures not only in Sweden but also globally. The mission of SciLifeLab's research infrastructure is to offer cutting-edge equipment and know-how to enable globally competitive research otherwise not possible in Sweden. As such, many unique technologies are offered as a service at SciLifeLab and, researchers and staff employed within the infrastructure units are the technology experts that ensure the infrastructures remain in the forefront of what is possible. The close collaborations between infrastructure units and the research groups also allow seamless implementation of the latest protocols and methods. Historically, the view on core facilities and affiliated staff, have not well enough been recognized for their expertise and ability to perform cutting-edge experiments, but rather as a base service provider to the researchers within the department where they are hosted. Today, as more and more advanced methods and instrumentations have entered the life science field, increased expert competencies are needed to accurately apply the methods and run the expensive instrumentations used. Furthermore, the need for true team science to enable scientific breakthroughs using state-of-the-art technologies is also increasingly acknowledged.STAFF SCIENTISTS - THE TECHNOLOGY BACKBONE OF LIFE SCIENCE RESEARCH Charlotte Stadlers
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