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

Panel 13 – PHYSICS / MATHEMATICS
3.1.5 Challenges
The field of Computational Biology and Biological Physics is in these
years being expanded at basically any university in the world and as such
it is one of the most competitive disciplines presently in science. It is
simply hard to get the very best people in the field as there is almost an
infinity of possibilities for young researchers. One major challenge for the
group is therefore an international recruitment on post-doc and junior
faculty levels. The group needs constantly to monitor its research directions
such that a healthy balance is maintained between pure modeling
work and collaborative activities with their biomedical partners.
Whereas one at first sight might get the impression that the group should
be organized within a biomedical department, it might be an advantage
neither to the group nor to the university for the following reasons: (i)
computational biology is a field with an identity that might get lost in
huge biomedical organizations; (ii) it is crucial to recruit young mathematics/physics
majors at an early stage; (iii) it is also important that the
group’s association with the physics part of the university occurs through
theoretical physics and not through applied physics. In the latter case less
appreciation of wider subjects like computational biology is expected.
Within a theoretical physics department the group benefits from a wide
interest in modeling and conceptual science in general.
3.1.6 Collaborations
This group shows an impressive interdisciplinary aspect of its activities.
The group has strong collaborative efforts in biology, medicine and
computer science. In fact, more than most groups in the world working
on biological physics this group has shown a great ability to be engaged
in medical research, almost at the clinical level. They have attracted
substantial grants in order to pursue this effort. That is very impressive
indeed. For the coming years this interdisciplinary effort will undoubtedly
be expanded. Based on the research record of the group, one
can imagine a huge umbrella of future projects with other faculties,
the number of projects only being limited by the lack of sufficient
man-power in the group. Among the very strong Scandinavian groups
in biological modeling and bioinformatics outside Lund one should
mention Stockholm, Uppsala and Copenhagen. In comparison, Lund is
extremely well suited as a site for a computational biology programme.
As is the case for the other sites, the research quality is excellent. However,
Lund stands out when it comes to well balanced and integrated
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