COLLABORATION. AgeCap did just that in the autumn, with good results. Through Sahlgrenska School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, other research groups at the Sahlgrenska Academy also have the opportunity to get the benefits of their research up to speed.
AgeCap is a university-wide research center that works on multi-disciplinary age research. Its large population studies have provided a wealth of acknowledged research results. To find out more about how results on dementia and depression could be used for preventive measures, AgeCap let two different student groups from Sahlgrenska School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship get to grips with the question.
“Producing our epidemiological research demands a lot of resources, which means that time for work on ensuring the use of the results is limited. We would love to be able to see our results with different eyes so as to get help with this process,” says Pia Gudmundsson, who is a member of one of the research groups studying depression and who also coordinates the research at AgeCap.
The two student groups visited AgeCap at Wallinsgatan in Mölndal several times, where they met researchers, statisticians and database managers. The students also had the opportunity to observe how things are done when a nurse interviewed a study participant, so as to get a wide understanding of the whole process from data collection to finished results. The students had a free hand to address the questions of benefit and use that the material raised.
AgeCap is very happy with the collaboration and would absolutely recommend other research groups to invite in students from Sahlgrenska School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship:
“It was inspiring to receive their final results, which made much clearer how important it is to let others look at the research. The students bring out things that we do not reflect on, or even think about at all and they gave us many ideas for how we can move on,” says Pia Gudmundsson.
Master’s students from Sahlgrenska School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship perform similar projects every autumn, as part of their education. Many of the students are international, have various educational backgrounds, such as law, biomedicine, economics and engineering, and can therefore contribute a number of perspectives. The project is about teaching the students to work systematically on reviews from which they identify resources that can be important for putting research to good use. Each project is therefore very individual; it costs nothing to engage the students, but the opportunity is only there in the autumn terms.
All students must perform three projects,” explains Henric Rhedin, who is course leader at Sahlgrenska School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship:
“We have proficient and dedicated students, but of course commitment from the group is also needed for good results. The more research groups have the opportunity to commit themselves, the better the results. So far we have completed over 50 projects since 2014; we always get in enough projects for the course, but we would like to see a flow so that we can be more effective.”
If you are interested in collaborating with students from Sahlgrenska School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, contact Henric Rhedin: mobile: 0709 28 40 36
e-mail: henric.rhedin@gu.se
Read more at: www.ssie.gu.se
