CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS. Two new councils have begun work on the future development of Medicinareberget. One is the Campus Council, which is working on the issues that are in common with the Faculty of Science, and the other is the Council for Premises, which prepares Sahlgrenska Academy’s questions for the Faculty Board. One question that the Council for Premises has begun to discuss is a review of the current model for rental subsidies. Assistant Dean Eric Hanse addresses this in his column.
Sahlgrenska Academy is working in parallel on a number of development and construction projects that will provide us with the settings we need to meet future demands on our research, teaching and collaboration. It will be several years before all the visions and ideas we have for our future have resulted in new buildings, and the processes involved in the various configurations propelling the projects are continuing to move ahead.
Regarding our future teaching premises at Medicinareberget, the premises program has just been completed. It makes for interesting reading, providing both information on the state of our current facilities and what premises we will need in the future. The quick summary is that we do not need more teaching premises, but we will need to increase the extent to which we use them. We realize that some premises need to be adapted for modern types of instruction, and we also need to supplement them with other entirely new teaching environments. We do not need quite as many traditional lecture halls, and computer rooms can be phased out completely, while at the same time we need more flexible multipurpose rooms. Feel free to read the premises program (in Swedish): https://gubox.box.com/s/1l9n7i14bpvnfbk0642quijbxx3qt1uu.
one of the synergies through which we can increase efficiency is in our use of teaching premises
The premises program is now becoming a basis for continued work in the Campus Council, which is a newly formed body collaborating with the Faculty of Science, where we prepare issues for the overall steering group concerned with projects involving both faculties at Medicinareberget. When Naturvetenskap Life is completed and we have consolidated the university’s life sciences at Medicinareberget, one of the synergies we achieve will be increased efficiency in our use of teaching premises from today’s approximately 50 percent to close to 75 percent.
The Campus Council is focusing primarily on three issues: continuing work on our teaching premises, the students’ study/social environment and the general development of Medicinareberget’s campus environment. Each of these three issues will be assigned to a working team led by a project manager from the Campus Service.
the work will be done as carefully as possible
Taking a somewhat longer view, the Campus Council will also be activated as Naturvetenskap Life approaches the construction phase. There’s no getting around the fact that a messy period lies ahead, with dust, noise and vibrations. To reduce the impact, blasting will be carried out as far away from our activities as possible. Blasting is expected to take a year and a half, both because a lot of rock has to be removed and because the work will be done as carefully as possible. It should be possible to begin renovations of the Lundberg Laboratory next year and for the first stage of moving into the laboratory to occur next autumn. Then portions of Core Facilities and a number of research teams at the Institute of Biomedicine will have a new, permanent home in the Lundberg Laboratory. An additional move-in phase will take place at a later stage.
Work on the renovation and expansion of Experimental Biomedicine will keep pace with the parallel construction of Naturvetenskap Life. As soon as the agreement with Akademiska Hus is ready, we will go ahead with a construction pre-study.
the task of preparing proposals on how to improve the resource allocation model for premises
As assistant dean, I chair the Council for Premises, which has the task of preparing the faculty’s issues about major reconstruction, proposing furnishings and equipment to be purchased and also planning for the maintenance of our common premises. We also are charged with preparing proposals for improving the resource allocation model for premises. The model currently being used by the faculty with respect to rental subsidies from faculty-wide funds produces very different results: the faculty pays 90 percent of the subsidies for activities receiving the largest subsidies and only 30 percent for those who receive the least. For premises that have come into being in the last ten years, such as the Cancer Centre, there is no rental subsidy at all. In the review now being done by the Council for Premises, we are striving for a more fair and transparent model, where the levels of rent subsidies are at an optimum level that provides both stability and incentives for development. Of course, it is the Faculty Board that decides on such a change, but I think that if there is a change, it will be introduced gradually. I would like to revisit this issue in the future.
As I mentioned, the pre-study of our future teaching premises has now been completed, and we are currently initiating two additional pre-studies: one dealing with the prerequisites needed for our research, and the other with the needs for teaching and research at the Östra Sjukhuset (Eastern Hospital) site. Both of these pre-studies will be presented at the end of the year.
When all the formal decisions have been made, our collaborative project will enter the next phase, the program stage
For Sahlgrenska Life, the regional board has now decided to proceed with the program stage for the building planned at Sahlgrenska’s site, Building 1. The regional board has also decided to continue with the collaborative project with the university, which also includes Building 2 and Building 3. For the university’s part, the vice-chancellor will make the decision on the continuation. When all the formal decisions have been made, our collaborative project will enter the next phase, the program stage. Before this stage can begin, however, some preparation and organization is needed. The program stage will be more complicated because all the real estate companies also play a clearer role in the project then.
It appears likely that one additional property owner will be involved in Sahlgrenska Life, namely Higab, which owns the Odontology Building. Along with Folktandvården Västra Götaland (the public dental service), our odontology research department has for some time studied the best way to house Folktandvården’s operations in the future. The basic idea has always been to make the translational research conducted within odontology part of Sahlgrenska Life, and now it is possible to do this, while continuing to carry on odontology activities in the Odontology Building. Higad, the owner of the Odontology Building, has indicated that its position has changed and it is now more in favor of continuing to be a landlord for Folktandvården and our institute. In addition, the building inspection conducted by the Västfastigheter public property management organization indicated that it would be feasible to renovate and modernize the Odontology Building. During the summer, our discussions with Folktandvården have resulted in a mutual idea about incorporating the Odontology Building into Sahlgrenska Life (a Building 4) and building passageways that connect the building physically with Building 3. Our discussions currently are based on this idea, but we are still early in the process and no decisions have been made.
If you have questions, thoughts or opinions about our construction and premises projects, feel free to send an email to medicinareberget@gu.se.
Eric Hanse
