Folkemødet is Denmark’s largest political arena, where politicians, business people and organizations gather to discuss Folkemødet is Denmark’s largest political arena, where politicians, business people and organizations gather to discuss current and future challenges and opportunities of the society.

This year, ReproUnion were invited to host two ReproUnion events in collaboration with European Commission’s representation in Denmark. The first took place on Thursday, June 15, 2017 – where the EU-Commission hosted a series of short presentations at Folkemødet, where Stine Lunding, an MD. PhD candidate at the Fertility Clinic at Rigshospitalet, gave a brilliant presentation of her ReproUnion research project, which is a study to promote follicular activation and subsequent fertility.

3 quick questions to PhD candidate Stine Lunding.

1. How would you describe your participation at Folkemødet on Bornholm?

It was the very first time for me to be at and participate in Folkemødet and I was eager to see how it was. It was chaotic, crowded and crazy, but also embracing, exciting and inspiring.

2. Your PhD thesis is titled “Auto-transplantation of fragmented ovarian cortical tissue in infertile patients with low ovarian reserve” and you did a 5-min presentation on a popular format like a TED-talk. How was your experience presenting your research in such a format for a diverse crowd of academics and non-academics?

It was a fun, but also a challenging way to present such a complex subject. You really have to think about what message you want people to take home with them after hearing your presentation.

3. In a few weeks, there will be a similar political festival in Visby on the island of Gotland for Almedalen Week in Sweden. What is the three most important reasons why PhD’s, post docs and people in the field of this expertise should attend such political festivals.

I think it is our job as a scientist to make “what me do” more understandable for the general population. In that way, science and the results of science become accessible and useful for everybody. It is difficult to separate science and politics, especially in the field of reproduction. It is important that the politicians are aware of in what direction science is moving, so they can make the right decisions based on scientific data.

About Stine Lunding’s ReproUnion research project “Awakening dormant eggs by surgery in women with low ovarian reserve in fertility treatment”: Ovaries contains a pool of dormant eggs, a sort of reserve – even in women in fertility with threatening premature menopause. By surgery on the ovaries, Stine wants to wake up and activate these dormant eggs and increase the chances of successful in vitro fertilization in this patient group.