Nordic Nutrition Summer Symposium 2026

About the Nordic Nutrition Summer Symposium 

All PhD students and early career researchers in Nutrition and Food Science from the Nordic Countries are welcome to join the Nordic Nutrition Summer Symposium (NNSS). 

The NNSS is organised by the Nordic nutrition societies and NutriNOR. It will consist of lectures and workshops with experts in the field of nutrition and patient reported outcomes, presentations by the participants, and an attractive social programme for network building across the Nordic countries. The NNSS will be this year's edition of the annual NutriNOR Summer School. 

The NNSS 2026 programme is available at the bottom of this page.   

Presentations by participants

All registered participants at the NNSS are very welcome to give a short oral presentation of their own work on Tuesday 29 September. Each presentation should take about 5 minutes and be followed by 2-3 minutes of discussion. Exact time limit and more specific information will be given when we know how many presenters there are in total.

The NNSS is an international symposium, so presenters should be able to achieve ECTS points. However, this will depend on the regulations of the participant's own institution. 

If you have signed up for the NNSS and would like to present your work, please register here (external link). Registration deadline is 4 September. 

Registered presenters must send their manuscript to nutrinor@uib.no by 25 September. You should design your presentation so that it is tailored to a general audience. The goal is for you to practice communicating research in a way that is accessible and relevant to those whom the research ultimately concerns. You are free to decide whether you want to focus on your overall PhD project or specific aspects of it — choose whatever supports your progress best!                                  

Lecturers

Name: Elisabeth G. Beisland

Title: Associate Professor

Affiliation: Western Norway University for Applied Science

Department of Health and Caring Sciences, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

Short bio: Elisabeth G. Beisland has a master in clinical nursing and obtained her PhD from the University of Bergen in 2015, entitled: "Health-related Quality of Life, Distress and Psychosocial Factors in Head and Neck and Renal Cancer Patients." Her main research interest is the patients’ perspective in acute, critical, and chronic illness, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Most of her research focuses on how cancer, treatment, symptoms, and psychosocial factors affect quality of life using patient-reported data (PROMS).

Name: Birna Thorsdottir

Title: Associate Professor

Affiliation: University of Iceland

Short bio: Birna Thorsdottir has a PhD in human nutrition from the University of Iceland. Her main research focus is on nutrition of children, nutrition epidemiology and public health nutrition.

Name: Arne Martin Larsen

Title: Communication Adviser

Affiliation: University of Agder

Short bio: Arne Larsen is a journalist and holds an Executive Master of Management from BI in Norway with courses in PR leadership, strategic communication and project leadership. His specialty is communication, media training and presentation techniques.

Name: Henna Vepsäläinen

Title: University Researcher & Docent (Adjunct Professor)

Affiliation: University of Helsinki, Finland

Short bio: Henna Vepsäläinen works in the Nutrition, sustainability and wellbeing research group at the University of Helsinki. Her research interests include the food environment, food behaviour, healthy and sustainable diets, and novel ways of assessing diet, such as purchase data. She has taught scientific and popular communication emphasizing clear language and argumentation in the master's programme in Human Nutrition and Food-Related Behaviour and has also actively participated in public discussions about science, nutrition, and health.

Name: Terhi Koivumäki

Title: Doctoral Researcher

Affiliation: Tampere University, Finland

Short bio: Terhi Koivumäki is a doctoral researcher at Tampere University. Her qualitative research, based on interviews with parents, focuses on weight-related stigma in parenting when a child has a higher weight, with particular attention to healthcare practices and encounters.

Name: Anu Joki

Title: Postdoctoral Researcher

Affiliation: University of Helsinki & Helsinki University Hospital

Short bio: Anu Joki is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki and a research specialist at Helsinki University Hospital. Her research focuses on weight stigma, long-term weight management, and health inequalities, with a particular interest in qualitative approaches to understanding lived experiences and health-related discourses.