COLUMN. Dean Agneta Holmäng and Pro-Dean Henrik Hagberg look back at the past year and peek ahead into 2023.
We would like to begin by thanking everyone for your invaluable contributions to Sahlgrenska Academy over the past year. In particular, we’d like to give a special thanks to those of you who worked on the large national ALF evaluation, where the last interview has just been completed. We are very exciting to find out about the results of the evaluation, which we expect at the end of March.
The evaluation has required enormous effort over the year. An estimate of actual work hours shows that if a single individual had done the ALF evaluation, it would have taken four years of full-time work. Though evaluations are good and useful, it is not feasible to invest the same amount of time and effort in the next one in four years. To address this issue, the national steering group for ALF has appointed a working group consider changing how the evaluation is designed.
Very important for the careers of young clinical researchers
We’ve received good news for our collaboration with Sahlgrenska University Hospital and the Region. Our appointments procedure finally allows our clinical researchers to be appointed to associate senior lectureships with combined positions. This means that these positions can now be combined with clinical work, just like combined positions for professors and senior lecturers. This is very important for the careers of young clinical researchers and improves the ability of Sahlgrenska Academy to recruit. In recent years, we have also seen a large increase in the number of associate professors (docent) working clinically. Compared with 2002, today we have 33 percent more associate professors, which is very gratifying and unique for Gothenburg nationally, something that bodes well for the future.
Center of Excellence for Sports Medicine
During the year, the Life Science cluster, GoCo Health Innovation City, has also grown rapidly around AstraZeneca. GoCo is now well on its way to becoming the important meeting place for health innovation that was the original intent of the initiative. As a founding partner, Sahlgrenska Academy’s next step will be to bring together research on neuropsychiatric impairments, physical activity and public health in the GoCo Active building, which should be completed in 2024. We have been very successful in sports science research, which is true for the entire University, and we are ranked highly nationally and internationally, making it natural step for us to establish a center of excellence. The Swedish Sports Confederation (RF) and the Swedish Olympic Committee (SOK) have also shown interest in our strong research. We hope that the research school they intend to establish in the field of performance and elite sports will be coordinated from Gothenburg.
Many exciting new research projects with Chalmers
We have also been expanding our collaborations with Chalmers University of Technology in the fields of health and technology. The intersection of our subject areas generates many interesting research projects.
Together with Chalmers and the Faculty of Science, each semester we hold a degree project fair where students and supervisors meet across disciplines. The fair has grown larger with each passing semester. It’s time to book May 9 for the spring fair, hosted by Sahlgrenska Academy. Joint projects include the Engineering Health Conference, SahlBEC Lab, nodes for SciLifeLab and shared DDLS infrastructure. DDLS stands for data driven life science and is a major national initiative from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. A total of SEK 3.1 billion is being invested in Sweden over 12 years. At the University of Gothenburg, DDLS is channeled through the Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine (WCMTM).
We need a shared hub at Östra Hospital
The expansion of our campus at Östra Hospital continues, where construction on a new women’s hospital for neonatal and maternity care will soon begin. It is expected to be completed around 2026. This large high-rise building will also provide high quality premises for the Academy. But we still lack a shared hub for research and education to coordinate and supplement academic activities at Östra Hospital occurring close to clinics and wards. This would play an important role in making the Academy more visible and for strengthening how Östra is seen as an important part of the university hospital. Planning has been done in collaboration with the medical care system, but unfortunately, we have not yet determined a specific location for the hub. We will continue working with this in the coming year.
With that, we wish you a Happy Holiday!
Let’s all take time to recharge our batteries and enjoy being with loved ones.
Agneta Holmäng
Henrik Hagberg
