COLUMN. In her greeting, Dean Agneta Holmäng highlights the work on profile areas and the national ALF evaluation as two issues of importance during the autumn semester.
A warm welcome back to the Faculty and the University. I hope you had the opportunity to enjoy the summer and recharge your batteries. We all need a good, long break so that we can return with the inspiration necessary to tackle our work again.
During the autumn semester, we will focus on two important issues that have long occupied many on our staff: the University’s profile areas and the national ALF evaluation. I believe we are very well prepared for the ALF evaluation, and the self-evaluation we have done shows we have progressed and become even stronger since the last evaluation. It is also clear that our collaboration with the region and Sahlgrenska University Hospital continues to work very well.
An opportunity to find areas for improvement
We came out very well in the last ALF evaluation, and we have made efforts in recent years that have made us even stronger. Among other things, our register-based research was highlighted as an area for improvement. We have since hired three professors specializing in this area. We have also taken other steps, including the development of a graduate school and the creation of a seminar series in this field.
I firmly believe that these evaluations of ALF are, above all, an opportunity to identify areas for improvement. Its purpose is to enable all medical faculties and their regions to work together to strengthen each other and improve the conditions for clinical research in Sweden.
We look forward to the visits of the international assessment panels in the autumn. The results of the evaluation are likely to be presented early next year.
In the coming months, the University’s work on profile areas will also be discussed and decided on centrally by the University, both in the executive body and in the research board. We believe this will be a constructive discussion and hope to gain a hearing for the two areas we have jointly identified: metabolism and nervous system diseases. Like the rest of the organization, we want to strengthen the University of Gothenburg addressing the profile areas that make our University as competitive as possible.
Before the General academy meeting, we also invite you to the opening of the fine exhibition
We are now inviting all staff to a General academy meeting, at 16:00 on September 8, to inform and discuss the work with the profile areas. Before the academy meeting, we are also arranging an opening of the fine exhibition about our Nobel laureate Arvid Carlsson. Elias Eriksson will give a lecture (14:45-15:30), and there will be an opportunity to mingle in the exhibition outside the auditorium. The invitation will come shortly!
Another academy meeting is planned for Wednesday 16 November at 12:00-13:00. Then we will focus on construction and what is happening here regarding Sahlgrenska Life (going according to plan) and EBM.
I hope you will be able to join us for these two meetings.
All the best for the coming semester,
Agneta
