After almost 7 years, Marloes Spekman will be leaving the research group behind for a new challenge at Sanquin.
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Marloes Spekman started as a postdoctoral researcher at Sanquin's Donor Medicine Research department. Within this timeframe, she completed 3 beautiful projects: ”Van uitstel komt afstel?” (the effects of donor deferral), Plasma Only Please (about the plasma-only donation centrer in Utrecht) and SUPPLY (about recruitment, maintance and health of plasma donors in European perspective). With the last projects reaching its end, a new challenge lies ahead for Marloes!
Not to worry, she will not leave Sanquin completely. Whe will be working for Sanquins Strategy & Innovation team as of February. Central to this for Marloes is the 'Together sustainable' project, in which she will occupy herself with the European regulations around sustainability (CSRD), and what this means for Sanquin. In the foreseeable future, Sanquin has to start complying with these European guidelines in the field of sustainability reporting. The question is what financial and environmental impact Sanquin has in terms of governance, people and the environment (Environment, Social, Governance; ESG). This project requires collecting and reporting a lot of data and figures about Sanquin, its employees and its environment. This is quite different from the research field, so a new and challenging step!
Why this step? Marloes: "I think sustainability is very important and have been working on this for a while, for example in Sanquin's Green Team. I think Sanquin is a great organisation and I definitely think we can do something with this."
What do you remember most from your time in the research group? Marloes: "The research at the collection locations for "Van uitstel komt afstel?" was very cool to do. I visited all 10 collection sites in person and it was very cool to see the people who had to carry out the research at the site, and to see what the donation process is like at each of those sites! And I will definately remember the conferences and activities with the research group. The last congress in Vienna (ECDHM) where the whole team was present immediately stands out. It creates a completely different kind of bond to spend hours together in the train on the way to another country. That way you suddenly see each other in a very different way than in the office."
During her 7 years in the research group, Marloes has seen many changes in the offic, PhD students come and go, and spent almost 2 years at home during the corona period. She looks back on her time in the research group, the collaborations and achievements in an incredibly positive way and will definitely not stop following the research group. Fortunately, she continues to work at Sanquin and we will still see her from time to time. And where does she see herself in 10 years? "I'm not much for long-term planning ahead, but I do hope that in 10 years' time I'll be doing something where I can make a real impact - as I am now. That I'm somewhere working on things that matter to me, like making sure people keep doing good."