HAnseatic League Of Science (seed fund)

World leading infrastructures crucial for Life Science exist and are emerging in the Hamburg-Lund-Copenhagen area but are not optimally connected to each other, or to the potential academic and industrial user base in the region. This infrastructure includes the two synchrotron sources MAX IV and DESY, as well as the state-of-the-art EU-XFEL and FLASH free electron laser facilities and the under construction European Spallation Neutron Source (ESS). These large-scale synchrotron, free electron laser and neutron facilities, concentrated in Hamburg and Lund, are complemented by distributed infrastructure for electron microscopy, mass spectrometry, data analysis and magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging. Ground-breaking research and innovation requires integrated use of these facilities, and this calls for transnational cooperation. The major challenges include: i) insufficient mechanisms for knowledge transfer, ii) lack of competence among young researchers - our future researchers and innovators - about the possibilities these infrastructures provide; iii) the integration of  experimental techniques and analysis between infrastructures, iv) lack of shared strategies ensuring better utilisation of existing research infrastructures and long-term sustainability. Our aim is therefore to achieve an integrated Life Science research environment linking research institutes, higher education institutes and industry in the Hamburg-Copenhagen-Lund region. We hope that such an environment will act as a blueprint for further strategic cooperations in the region in all areas of science and our long term vision is to create a new Hanseatic League of Science (HALOS) that facilitates the transfer of knowledge, training, innovation and expertise across borders.To achieve this aim requires strategic investment and we are therefore applying for funding from UHH and LU to continue our efforts to obtain significant EU funding (for example via ÖKS Interreg) for HALOS. We have formed a working group of Life Science researchers from Lund, Hamburg, Copenhagen and Aarhus to coordinate our EU funding applications. Our team is particularly well placed to achieve this as it includes leading participants in existing collaborative efforts, including the already established STRING-cooperation, the BSR-projects Baltic Tram and Baltic Science Network, the Interreg ÖKS ESS & MAX IV: Cross Border and Society project, and the Danish LINX-project.