NEW INSTITUTE MANAGEMENT. The Institute of Medicine, which soon will be under the management of Jan Borén, Anna Rudin and Gudmundur Johansson, is a large and strong institute. The new leadership trio states that the generational change the institute faces is one of the most important challenges.
Jan Borén will become the new head of the institute, Anna Rudin the new deputy head and Gudmundur Johansson will become the assistant head with responsibility for educational issues.
“If you had asked us six months ago, none of us would have expected that we would be sitting here, but we were called upon by colleagues to take on these positions. I feel that we have great collegial support, and it’s both an honor and gratifying,” says Jan Borén.
Anna Rudin agrees:
“When I was asked if I could consider becoming deputy head of the institute, I was surprised at first, but after thinking it over for a few days, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to accept. I think it will be exciting to be part of institute management, and since I also am actively involved as a chief physician at the hospital, I feel I can strengthen the clinical perspective of management.
Joint management and challenges for the future
All of the leadership trio are professors with a strong commitment to research, and they intend to continue to pursue active research. Jan Borén is conducting research in cardiovascular lipid metabolism, Anna Rudin in inflammation and rheumatic diseases and Gudmundur Johansson’s subject is hormonal regulation of the body’s metabolism. The three will take office on July 1 and then plan to act as a joint management of the institute. To facilitate management of the institute, support functions and communication will be strengthened.
The new institute management will focus on three issues.
“The first is to strengthen the institute’s already successful research,” Jan says. “To achieve this, we have to be attractive to the best young researchers and concentrate on international recruitment. We have much to offer at Sahlgrenska Academy: strong research environments and infrastructures and a very good collaboration with the health care system.”
Jan continues: “Last spring Gothenburg and the Västra Götaland region were judged the best in their class when it comes to clinical research in Sweden, and the particularly successful areas cited in the Swedish Research Council’s report are found to a great extent here at our institute. I think we all should be very proud of that!”
This strength should be able to produce even better results in national and international research funding, such as the Swedish Research Council’s calls for proposals in clinical treatment research, he maintains.
“Considering that we are leaders in Sweden when it comes to clinical research, we should be able to submit more applications than we do. We need to think through what accounts for the discrepancy and how we can support our researchers so that more people are applying for these funds.”
Teaching and cooperation with the health care system
The second issue the leadership trio will focus on is teaching.
“The institute has an important responsibility in teaching, and we should have the same high aspirations for our teaching programs as we have for our research. In particular, I think we need to involve all teachers in basic education – especially the most prominent research leaders,” says Gudmundur.
Anna also agrees with the idea that students need to be exposed to the best researchers: “Often it’s meetings with people like them that we remember from our own time as students and the important inspiration they once were for us to start researching,” she says.
The third issue is to promote cooperation with the health care system. The institute corresponds to several areas within Sahlgrenska University Hospital (SU), and there is a need for a vibrant and well-functioning dialog on several levels with SU representatives:
“We work well with SU, but there have to be colleagues involved in all activities that continue the dialog and monitor the Academy’s interests. If we relax and stop being involved, we run the risk that care will give higher priority to matters other than research and education,” says Anna, who will be the Academy’s representative in the Sahlgrenska University Hospital’s management team.
Plan for ensuring access to expertise
Everyone agrees that they are assuming management of a strong institute, but there are also challenges. One of these is the large number of retirements in both research and education. By actively recruiting and offering an attractive workplace, the institute seeks to attract people with the right qualifications and experience.
“We have a lot of older, highly skilled and dedicated teachers and researchers for which we will have to find replacements,” Gudmundur notes, while the future institute management emphasizes that the institute needs to recruit people who are both skilled researchers and teachers.
To ensure future access to expertise, the trio wants to clarify the career opportunities for younger employees who are already working at the institute.
“We have many successful younger people that we want to retain,” Jan says. “Often there is an opportunity to work together with University Hospital to find solutions, career paths or positions, so that it becomes a win-win for everyone involved.”
“We have to work on a long-term basis, because external recruitment is often a process that takes several years. Maybe we can offer someone a guest position to start with. This allows both parties an opportunity to get to know each other better so that the person can later be encouraged to seek an advertised position,” says Anna, who believes that all researchers need to utilize new contacts they make that could perhaps lead to a good recruitment for the institute.
The size of a college
The Institute of Medicine is clearly the largest institute at the University of Gothenburg. With almost 650 employees, it is fully comparable in size with the School of Business, Economics and Law. The institute is divided into four major sections, each of which is comparable to many of the University’s departments.
“The Institute of Medicine is a large institute with a broad range of activities and operations. To succeed we need to work together and create synergies both within the institute and with the other institutes at Sahlgrenska Academy. What’s good for Sahlgrenska Academy is also good for our institute and vice versa. Consequently, it’s important that we create a good climate for collaboration with colleagues in other institutes at Sahlgrenska Academy,” Jan concludes.
TEXT AND PHOTO: ELIN LINDSTRÖM CLAESSEN
