The annual meeting of the Institute of Research Centers of the University of Iceland was held in the Hall of the Whale Museum on Thursday, April 9. The meeting was very well attended, but among the guests were Minister of Education Illugi Gunnarsson, Kristín Ingólfsdóttir Rector of the University of Iceland and Eyjólfur Guðmundsson Rector of the University of Akureyri. After the Minister of Education's address, Kristín Ingólfsdóttir took over and thanked both the staff and others who come to the institution for a job well done, but this is her last annual meeting as rector.
Kristján Þór Magnússon, mayor of Norðurþing, addressed the guests and emphasized the importance of academic institutions in society and the importance of interdisciplinary relationships within them. Marianne H. Rasmussen, director of the research center in Húsavík, presented the main research on whales in recent years, and graduate students Lilja Rögnvaldsdóttir from the center in Húsavík and Soffía Karen Magnúsdóttir from the center in Sandgerði presented their research. In addition to the above, Héðinn Unnsteinsson, policy expert at the Prime Minister's Office, and Óli Halldórsson, director of Þingeyinga's Knowledge Network, gave speeches at the meeting. At the end of the meeting, Sæunn Stefánsdóttir, director of the Institute of Research Centers, reviewed the policy of the Institute of Research Centers of the University of Iceland.
About 70 people attended the meeting and there was general satisfaction with it, but many of the guests arrived on a morning flight directly to Aðaldalsflugvállor from Reykjavík and flew back south in the evening.
On the same occasion, Sæunn Stefánsdóttir and Jan Aksel Klitgaard, the director of the Whale Museum, took the opportunity to sign a cooperation agreement for their joint employee, project manager Huldar Hafliðadóttir, whose employment rate at the Whale Museum is now 40%.
