EUROPE: Science news from the far north

ScienceNordic, a news service with science reports in six categories, in English and covering the Nordic countries, was launched earlier this month after two Nordic science media, one Danish and one Norwegian, joined forces.

Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education Tora Aasland opened the news service and said the new portal would make Nordic research more visible in the global arena.

Aasland said the international science press was dominated by news from Anglo-American research institutions and periodicals because they were published in English. But the scientific results created in the Nordic countries were just as strong and newsworthy and ScienceNordic would report on them.

"This leaves a huge gap in the market for science news from the region, communicated to a broader audience in English. We intend to fill this gap," said Vibeke Hjortlund, editor-in-chief at Videnskab.dk.

The news service will cover Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland - with an eye on Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland, which are also part of the Nordic region. Nordforsk, the Ministry of Education and Research in Norway, and the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education in Denmark, provided funds to establish ScienceNordic.

Readers can subscribe to the ScienceNordic newsletter here. Meanwhile, here is a typical report available on the ScienceNordic site.