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

Panel 11 – medicine | health sciences
Strong leadership will be needed to maintain a proactive attitude to
change, to increase the number of permanently employed professors
and senior researchers and to ensure long-term funding in the current
situation of a significant budget deficit at the medical faculty, to deal
successfully with the already ongoing generational shift and to decrease
the high average age (43 years) of doctoral students, to further increase
cross-disciplinary research, which seems to be important for getting
external funding, to ensure effective management and quality assurance
of new research projects, and to further strengthen infrastructures for
translational research. The institutional board formed early in 2008 is
seen as an important step in this direction.
The department of health sciences has significant potential and good
possibilities to reach a leading status nationally and internationally in its
many research areas. There are a few research areas and environments
that already have turned out to be successful and have potential to
develop towards the highest level of international research in the field of
health sciences. Several research areas, as indicated in this evaluation,
have already shown nationally and internationally recognized status and
possess very good potential for future development. The contribution of
nursing science has become strong in a short time and has much potential
for future research in Sweden and Europe.
The panel felt that more consideration ought to be put forward to streamline
the research areas, brought together to focus on fewer issues and
also concentrating activities to fewer physical environments, as already
planned There are several ways of approaching this challenge. Many
research areas are dealing, for example, with important issues of ageing
and old age, and even though significant overlapping does not seem to exist
in research questions a closer collaboration between them might result
in increased capacity to run major research projects and develop effective
interventions, which usually require plenty of resources. The expertise of
occupational and physiotherapy could also significantly contribute to this
research field.
Similarly a closer collaboration between disciplines and research areas
focusing on different aspects of mental wellbeing and mental health
(including also behavioral and social sciences) might result in improving
quality in carrying out RCTs and developing interventions. The two
research fields, reproductive and perinatal care and child health and
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