The Research Board has drawn up a new Research Strategy for 2023-26, which has now been approved by the University Board. The Strategy is made up of two parts. The first part describes what we want to achieve, our core values and what we need in order to reach our goals. The second outlines priority issues that we will be working on in the coming years and provides some guidance on how we will work on them.
For example, we want to conduct “research of the highest international quality with the goal to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition.” We also want to achieve excellence and renewal by exploiting the University’s breadth and creating complete knowledge environments, while at the same time achieving cutting-edge expertise in well-established subject areas. As Sweden’s largest university, we are well placed to achieve both at the same time.
Who will share the vision and core values and who will work on the priorities? I hope that everyone at Lund University can stand behind at least most of what the strategy lays out and that many of us want to work towards the goals we have set. I think everyone can agree that Lund University should stand for “good research practice with an approach based on research ethics and active dialogue” and for “reliable knowledge and understanding based on research.”
Priority issues that Lund University will work on:
- Academic freedom, research ethics and integrity as a basis for research
- Initiatives for profiling and developing strong research environments for excellence
- Impact through visibility and external engagement
- Open science – the norm for credibility, utilisation and quality
- Strategic recruitment and career development as the foundations for future research
- Campus development and strategic initiatives for research infrastructures
- Increased research funding
- Development of research through quality assurance and evaluations
We will work on the priority issues across many fronts: the University, in the faculties, in the departments and in the research groups. But there are also issues for which specific units, boards and councils have particular responsibility. For example, when the strategy states that “the aim is that all research data for which there are no legal or ethical impediments to be made accessible” and that this means “Lund University needs to take an overall approach that covers digital infrastructure including hardware, guidelines and support adapted for researchers”, responsibility lies specifically with the Research Board, the expert group for FAIR research data, LDC and the E-infrastructure Unit.
Does the new Research Strategy mean that we will now produce better research at Lund University? The researchers are the ones who do the research, strategies are thus mainly there to keep management busy, many people probably think. It is definitely the researchers who do the research. At the same time, RQ20 showed that Lund University can create even better conditions for excellent research.
I believe that a common vision, clear and explicit core values and systematic work on the priority issues can enhance the possibilities for the researchers at the University to conduct research of the highest international quality that helps people to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition.
/ Per Mickwitz
