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

Panel 11 – medicine | health sciences
family care, should be combined more clearly. They have the same goals
and same relevance, but it would be possible to create a stronger research
team for health and care of women and children.
The present work in rehabilitation and disability needs to be enhanced
through the new platform for the study of disabilities, for, with the
advances in life-saving medical techniques, the number of people with
chronic disabilities is set to increase, especially if the demographics of
the ageing population is included. CASE and the planned disability
platform should be encouraged to collaborate, for many of the solutions
found for supporting elderly in their chosen environments apply equally
to physically disabled people. HOW and MOVE could also combine
forces more often, for occupational and exercise sciences hold common
elements. PhD-education seems to be well arranged. The numbers of
graduating students, however, are rather low and their research work
should be integrated more clearly with the research projects and with
each others. This has to do with the strategy of selection of new PhDstudents,
not clearly expressed in evaluation material. Post-doc students
also should be involved and strategies for improving the maturation of
researchers should be made (not only PhD-education).
The decisions of the county Region Skåne to establish A Regional
Geriatric Centre and a Primary Health Centre and to create a Platform
for Disability Studies signal important progress for further strengthening
of translational research in the field of social and health care. Additional
discussions and planning work seem to be required in order to strengthen
collaboration with clinical medicine. The three joint appointments for
senior researchers to be established in 2008 will presumably create
a significant resource for strengthening translational research in the
development of services.
Management and quality assurance of research areas needs to be given
more importance. This means, that more emphasis should be given to
quality management of the project, recruitment of new researchers and
management of the project (process, structure, actors, roles, support).
The future development of the newly established research centres, and
possible new ones, might play an important part in the success of research
activities, and in the creation of new research cultures. Great expectations,
therefore, exist regarding the quality of their research plans, not
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