NEWS Umeå Centre for Electron Microscopy (UCEM) at Umeå University has been awarded SEK 7.5 million from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation for its participation in the Nordic Cryo conneXion (NCX), a new Nordic network for cryo-electron microscopy. The funding will strengthen training, knowledge exchange and access to expertise across the Nordic facilities.
Students participating in demonstration of sample preparation during the CryoEM sample preparation and data collection course in December 2024.
Image Rebecca ForsbergNCX is the next phase of cryoNET, which since 2018 has connected cryo-EM facilities in Umeå, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Aarhus. The collaboration has included courses and workshops, staff exchanges, the CryoNet conference and method development and shared access to instruments.
The new funds for the network will run from 2027 to 2030 and expands the collaboration to include Helsinki Cryo-EM facility as a core member, with Norway participating as an associate member. The aim is to make expertise and advanced methods more accessible across the Nordic region, rather than developing the same capabilities separately at each facility.
Sara Sandin coordinated Umeå’s work on the application together with Linda Sandblad and colleagues in the Nordic network.
– An important part is creating more opportunities for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to learn new techniques and benefit from expertise across the network, says Sara Sandin.
Umeå brings particular expertise in cryo-electron tomography and cryoFIB methods to the collaboration. The funding will help develop these capabilities further and make recently developed techniques available to more researchers through the facility.
The grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation amounts to SEK 7.5 million for Umeå University over four years.