New year, new job as Director of CRI, the Centre for Research Infrastructure in Health and Life Sciences. Congrats, Markus Heidenblad!
“Thank you! I’m both honoured and very excited. CRI is an important and long-term initiative for the Faculty, and I am really looking forward to working with many dedicated colleagues to build something that will truly create benefits for research.”
Strategic importance
This initiative is an exciting step for our Faculty, clearly reflecting developments at several other leading medical universities, including the Karolinska Institute and University of Copenhagen, where research infrastructure is being given an increasingly central and strategic role.
“The Faculty’s decision to take this step gives us excellent conditions for strengthening the quality, collaboration and impact of our research for many years to come.”
The new organisation, the Centre for Research Infrastructure in Health and Life Sciences (CRI), which became operational on 1 January this year, has been referred to as “our seventh Department”.
“For a long time the Faculty of Medicine has built strong and advanced research infrastructures with close links to research. At the same time, these have developed in different organisational contexts, which has created an obvious need for clearer coordination, long-term planning and closer dialogue between the infrastructures, the departments and the Faculty management. CRI is the Faculty's response to this and an important step for the future.”
Collaboration and visibility
By bringing together key infrastructures in a joint organisation, at the same level as the departments, the Faculty aims to create better conditions for collaboration, visibility and strategic development, while maintaining researcher-driven engagement. The new organisation means that research infrastructure is clearly highlighted as a strategic part of the Faculty's core activities.
“For researchers, this means better access to advanced technology, clearer entry points, more integrated environments and greater opportunities to influence both development and priorities. For the infrastructures, it means strengthened support in areas such as strategy, finance, skills development and, in the long term, external funding – while research-integrated development remains central.”
“It also creates better long-term conditions for employees within the research infrastructures, for example through clearer roles, competence development and career paths. Ultimately, this strengthens the competitiveness of the entire Faculty, both nationally and internationally.”
Better use of resources
The main idea is that our researchers at the Faculty, but also researchers from other faculties, other universities, healthcare and industrial partners, will benefit from CRI.
“An important part of the mission is to lower the thresholds and make our infrastructures more visible, accessible and easier to collaborate with. In the long run, I also hope that CRI can contribute to better coordination and more efficient use of resources, both in relation to the strategic research areas, where in some cases parallel infrastructure has been built up, and in collaboration with other faculties at Lund University – not least the Faculties of Science and Technology. The goal is to strengthen collaboration, reduce unnecessary duplication and create even better conditions for joint development.”
Close dialogue
Although January 1 of this year marked the start, CRI is not a venture that will be “complete” on a specific date, explains Markus Heidenblad.
“We are starting with some of the Faculty’s more established platforms, but the organisation is prepared to develop further and, in the long term, also include more infrastructures. Experience from similar initiatives at other universities shows that it is important to build this type of organisation step by step and in close dialogue with both the users and the internal units. This provides an opportunity to develop strategically and sustainably, and to adjust, learn and develop working methods over time. At the same time, it ensures each unit's continued independence in its daily operational work.”
“CRI is about creating the best possible conditions for internationally competitive research at the faculty and at the university. CRI should provide direction and support, and facilitate collaborations, but not replace the local responsibility and engagement that are key for all well-functioning operations.”