FACULTY DIALOG. Around ten younger research directors will be recruited to the Wallenberg Centre of Molecular and Translational Medicine. The positions are planned to be announced as assistant lecturer positions with a tenure track. The first announcement will be made in a few weeks.
Over one hundred employees attended the General Academy Meeting about the Wallenberg Centre of Molecular and Translational Medicine that was held on September 16. The meeting gave researchers and other employees at Sahlgrenska Academy the chance to ask questions and discuss the effort.
International visibility
The Wallenberg Centre in Gothenburg is a part of the national life science endeavor. By taking the initiative on four similar research centers at four Swedish universities, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation wants to strengthen Swedish medical research and the pharmaceuticals industry so that Sweden can become an international leader again.
“Within the entire effort, around 40 new research directors will be recruited to Swedish medical research, and including the teams that will then be established, there will be many new employees in the Swedish network. This will provide international visibility that gives Sweden the possibility to compete with larger sites in the U.S. and Europe,” said Göran Landberg, Director of the Wallenberg Centre of Molecular and Translational Medicine, which was officially established this summer.
Collaboration – not competition
The three other Wallenberg centers are at Lund, Linköping and Umeå universities and have partially different emphases. The four centers will complement each other rather than compete with each other. The Wallenberg endeavor will also complement the government SciLifeLab effort in Mälardalen.
“The Foundation sees Gothenburg as an important node in the effort. We are ranked 40th in the world in medicine, and now the Foundation is giving us the chance to improve even further,” said Staffan Edén, Vice-Dean of Research.
All of the Wallenberg centers will publish joint announcements in leading international journals, and also use existing researchers’ networks to find strong candidates.
Ten assistant lecturers with a tenure track
Around ten younger research directors will be recruited to the center in Gothenburg. Each position covers two doctoral students and two post-docs, and SEK 1.5 million for operating costs. The first two recruitments are planned to be complete at the beginning of 2016 and all ten positions should be filled by 2018. The positions involve the right to promotion through a so-called “tenure track”, which means that the researcher is expected to meet a number of specified requirements within a number of years, and if so, the position is converted into a permanent position. Those chosen for the positions at the Wallenberg Centre of Molecular and Translational Medicine will have four years to establish themselves in Gothenburg and meet the set requirements for permanent employment.
Many requested a higher level
Claes Dahlgren, Professor of Medical Microbiology, pointed out at the meeting that four years is too short a time to be able to establish oneself as an independent researcher, and he felt that this was seen before when the term of employment for research assistants was shortened from six to four years. Claes Dahlgren was also critical to the positions being set at the level of an assistant lecturer:
“This means a time limit for when one completes the Ph.D. We want strong, excellent researchers to apply here, but those who happen to be a few years too old would not bother.”
“We have discussed if the length of employment of four years is optimal, but realized that there are rules we have to follow,” responded Göran Landberg and continued:
“Because the center is a collaboration between several different parties, there will be a possibility for flexibility and to make exceptions if we get a hold of a really strong researcher.”
Hans Carlsten, Head of the Institute of Medicine, also had misgivings about the choice of recruiting to this level, and wondered how we will motivate international talents to apply to assistant lecturer positions in Gothenburg or Umeå.
Enough infrastructure?
Lill Mårtensson-Bopp, Professor of Molecular Medicine, especially basic disease mechanisms in cancer research and hematology, raised the issue of EBM:
“Will the animal building be large enough if we get several new translational research teams? If we recruit somebody who wants to bring 20 knock-outs with them, where will we put them?”
“Discussions with Core Facilities will identify potential problems,” answered Assistant Dean Eric Hanse. “There are arguments for there possibly being a need for more than one animal facility. One possibility we may have is to rent a facility from AstraZeneca, which is also a partner in the effort.”
Contributing to the whole
At the meeting, it came forth that the new assistant lecturers will probably also contribute to teaching. The recruited researchers will be given a home at one of the departments at Sahlgrenska Academy or the Faculty of Science, and will then discuss with their department head how to fulfill the teaching assignment.
“As an assistant lecturer at the university, one is expected to contribute to the whole, which also means undergraduate education,” said Staffan Edén.
Besides the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, co-financiers of the effort are the University of Gothenburg, Västra Götaland Region and AstraZeneca. The budget for the center in Gothenburg is nearly SEK 700 million in total. Initially, the center will be organizationally placed centrally at GU, with administrative support from the Research and Innovation Office, but according to the plan, the center will later be moved and receive a new organizational home at Sahlgrenska Academy.
General Academy Meetings are a forum for encouraging dialog between the staff at Sahlgrenska Academy and the Academy’s administration. This article presents some of the opinions expressed at the meeting, but does not constitute comprehensive minutes from the meeting.
