Present Status and Future Potential for Medical Research in the Nordic Countries

The enclosed strategy memo " Present Status and Future Potential for Medical Research in the Nordic Countries" identifies areas in which the Nordic countries would benefit from strengthening cooperation in order to meet the major health-related challenges they are facing, including an ageing population, new lifestyle diseases, complex ethical questions related to new technology, and social inequality in health.  

The strategy memo pinpoints two specific areas of medical research in which the Nordic countries have competitive advantages, placing them in an excellent position to become leaders in the field. These are research using biobanks and health registries on the one hand, and clinical medical research on the other.

The document also provides specific recommendations on how to enhance Nordic cooperation to boost the quality of research in the medical sciences. In the long term these efforts will benefit the population of all the Nordic countries, in the form of new knowledge, improved medical treatment and efficient health services.

The strategy memo was prepared by the Joint Committee of the Nordic Medical Research Councils (NOS-M), which is a cooperative body for the Nordic research councils that fund medical research