ReseaRch Quality assuRance foR the futuRe a ... - Lund University

Panel 10 – medicine | Laboratory
interests in scientific or educational issues. To exemplify, the newly formed
FAS (The Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research)
and Centre of Excellence METALUND brings together researchers from
the division and the Department of Aerosol Technology and Ergonomics.
2.6.5 Technologies
The Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine has a wellequipped
laboratory with broad mass spectrometry equipment and PCR.
The division has developed advanced technology for work place investigations
with equipment to measure physical workloads. Other strengths
are the closeness to the health/hospital system and access to the unique
Swedish disease registries (causes of deaths, births, tumors, and in- and
out-patients), and to large bio-banks.
2.6.6.Evaluation
The research at the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
has high quality, is internationally competitive and has innovative
power. In general, the principal investigators are leading scientists in their
field with varying international reputation. The scientific productivity by
all research groups and principal investigators is generally high as documented
by the number of original publications in the last 5–10 years. All
research areas are relevant in terms of scientific, social and socioeconomic
significance. The research projects have actuality. The vitality and ability
to manage research is difficult to evaluate from the material. Translational
strength of the research is documented by the nature of the individual
projects and the interactions with other departments at Lund University.
2.6.7 Criticism
Research groups of the Division of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine include 3 groups with >10 researchers and 2 smaller groups
with 4–7 researchers in each group. On an international level the smaller
groups do not have the critical mass for competitive, high performance
and cutting edge research.
The research profile of the 2 small groups is thin with narrow focus and
purpose. The methodological approaches are characterized by traditional
methods, small-scale analysis and limited equipment. There is no capacity
for the single group to implement and develop new demanding technologies
of large scale.
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