Dear all,

With the merger of the biochemistry and medical biochemistry and molecular biology departments we will be creating a new faculty level institute.

We need a new name, that reflects what we do and which can be used to market ourselves nationally and internationally. We also need a mission & vision that reflects what we will do and what we want to achieve. Everyone in both departments, both staff and students, will be part of this and so the working group would like to get views on the current draft.

The mission and vision are copied at the end of this email and comments should be sent to Kalervo Hiltunen as chair of the working group.

The name is more open.

The working name is “Institute of biochemistry and molecular medicine”.

While we feel this accurately reflects who we are and what we do, there have been some suggestions that it is too long and that we need something that could be easily abbreviated. Many of the best known institutes around the world have a longer title, but get abbreviated e.g. Weizmann Institute in full is the Weizmann Institute of Science or the Karolinska Institutet for more than 150 years was the Kongliga Carolinska Medico Chirurgiska Institutet.

We thought we could have something similar. A full name that was X Institute of biochemistry and molecular medicine, that would be abbreviated to X institute for working use and with the institute being one day internationally recognized by that abbreviated name.

The problem is we do not have an “X”.

X could be anything, but it has to sound good (said in English and Finnish) and should preferably in some way reflect us.

Any ideas would be gratefully received. Either pass them on to a member of the working group or send them to me and I will compile the suggestions and pass them on to the working group.

Time is short so please send in suggestions in the next 10 days or so.

Thanks and best wishes,

Lloyd

Mission

The mission of the Institute is to perform internationally significant research and to deliver high-level undergraduate and post-graduate education in the fields of biochemistry and molecular medicine. The Institute provides infrastructure and other expertise to local, national and international scientific communities and to entrepreneurs in Finland and abroad. The researchers at the Institute recognize the innovation potential of their findings and actively promote the exploitation of their discoveries.

Vision

The Institute will be the leading unit of biochemistry in Finland and highly internationally ranked for research on cell-extracellular matrix, protein science, cellular regulatory networks and related diseases allowing openings for new research topics. The Institute will be nationally and internationally known for its high-level education and researcher training in biochemistry and molecular medicine. The Institute will provide a dynamic research surrounding and cutting-edge research infrastructure services to academics and other users in Finland and abroad and have a broad international collaborative network. The Institute will be an active player in regional, national and international innovation activities.