Dnr 1-311/2014
Strategy 2018 Roadmap for Karolinska Institutet 2014–2018
CONTENTS VICE-CHANCELLOR’S FOREWORD................................................................................................4 Vision........................................................................................................................................................5 Mission.....................................................................................................................................................5 Research goals.......................................................................................................................................5 Educational goals..................................................................................................................................5 Core Values.............................................................................................................................................5 INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................6 The opportunities of Karolinska Institutet....................................................................................6 Purpose of the strategy.......................................................................................................................7 Limitations...............................................................................................................................................7 Process – time and participation.....................................................................................................7 DEVELOPMENT DURING THE PERIOD 2008–2013..................................................................8 In general.................................................................................................................................................8 Research and education.....................................................................................................................8 Infrastructure..........................................................................................................................................9 Application of research results – innovation and collaboration...........................................9 CONDITIONS FOR 2014–2018..................................................................................................... 10 In general.............................................................................................................................................. 10 Increased autonomy......................................................................................................................... 10 Research development.................................................................................................................... 10 Educational needs and quality development........................................................................... 11 Health services.................................................................................................................................... 11 Internal organisation........................................................................................................................ 12 Need for national and regional collaboration......................................................................... 12 STRATEGIES FOR THE PERIOD 2014–2018.............................................................................. 13 Considerations.................................................................................................................................... 13 A concentrated effort and making choices............................................................................................... 13
Breadth and depth............................................................................................................................................. 13 Quality above quantity..................................................................................................................................... 13
Employees............................................................................................................................................ 14 Recruitment.......................................................................................................................................................... 14 Career..................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Leadership............................................................................................................................................................ 16 Incentives.............................................................................................................................................................. 16 Infrastructure....................................................................................................................................... 19 Support for research and education........................................................................................................... 19 Internal organisation......................................................................................................................................... 20 Collaboration...................................................................................................................................... 22 University healthcare........................................................................................................................................ 22 Regional and national collaboration........................................................................................................... 24 Industrial collaboration and innovation.................................................................................................... 24 International collaboration............................................................................................................................. 25 Funding................................................................................................................................................. 27 Optimal use of available resources.............................................................................................................. 27 ALF funding.......................................................................................................................................................... 27 Fundraising........................................................................................................................................................... 28
VICE-CHANCELLOR’S FOREWORD Karolinska Institutet (KI) has seen a very positive development in the last several years. This development has been possible thanks to our dedicated and competent staff and students, while it has also been promoted by a positive research policy. Despite this positive development, it is still my firm belief that KI has not yet reached its full potential, but could advance its position even further. In preparation of the coming five years, we will continue building on previous strategies, but now with an even clearer focus on raising the quality in all parts of the operation. In order for this to be possible, we have selected a few strategy areas where we propose general measures to be taken. In the next stage, these will be made more concrete and planned by those responsible for implementation and follow-up. The selected strategy areas are: • • • •
Employees Infrastructure Collaboration Funding
Photo: Ylva Sundgren
I sincerely hope that the Strategy 2018 will inspire and guide all our employees, students and partners into the next five years, so that we can look back together at the end of 2018 and see yet another positive development phase for KI.
Anders Hamsten Vice-Chancellor
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Vision Karolinska Institutet significantly contributes to the improvement of human health.
Mission Karolinska Institutet’s mission is to conduct research and education, and to collaborate with other actors in society.
Research goals For Karolinska Institutet’s research to achieve scientific breakthroughs and result in discoveries that change our view not only of health and disease, but also of normal vital processes. For our research results to lead to innovations and practical applications within the health service sector.
Educational goals For the educational programmes at Karolinska Institutet to be linked to research, to promote a scientific approach and to prepare the students for research. For these programmes to provide the best possible conditions to work in, lead and continue to develop activities in collaboration with other professions.
Core values The activities of Karolinska Institutet fall within an area where fundamental values are of a particular importance. The public is entitled to place extensive demands on our approach and activities. KI must safeguard the freedom of research, and our activities are to be characterised by: • a very high quality and an ethical approach, • trust and support for the initiatives, creativity, independence and skills of our employees and students, • good leadership, employeeship, inclusion, openness, equality and diversity, as well as care for the internal and external environments, • a strong social commitment and contribution to sustainable development within and outside Sweden’s borders through our education and research.
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INTRODUCTION The opportunities of Karolinska Institutet It is urgent that we reflect on whether Karolinska Institutet (KI) is reaching its full potential when it comes to the core activities of research and education. KI is currently a leader among Swedish universities and is also a successful medical university from an international perspective, with a prominent position inside of Europe. KI successfully competes for both national and international, mainly European, funding. The development of research quality and university funding has shown a positive trend during a longer period of time. The application rate for our educational programmes is very high. KI therefore has an excellent opportunity to focus and gather momentum within our areas of operation. In Strategy 2018, we highlight the strategies that will help us to reach the high bar that we have set for research and education within the next five years. The quality of our research is very high for the most part, but the proportion of breakthrough research is too low in relation to many other elite universities around the world. This is illustrated by the distribution of Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine since a researcher from KI was last awarded in 1982. Another example is the number of top-cited publications (top 5 per cent). The five most recognised British universities have a significantly higher number of top-cited publications than KI, despite producing roughly the same total publication volume. Doctoral students participate in a large share of the scientific, original work conducted at KI. If the quality of KI’s research is to be raised, the original articles included in doctoral theses must therefore be of a generally higher quality. This means that the number of papers has to be reduced. The same is true for other qualifications, such as the title of docent. Our first and second-cycle programmes are highly sought-after. These offer a broad education, but the quality and connection to research varies and is insufficient in certain programmes. The active role of the student in the development of KI must be better harnessed than it is at present. Against the background outlined above, we have drawn the conclusion that KI is not currently conducting research and education that meets our full potential.
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Purpose of the strategy During the spring of 2013, we carved out four focus areas that are central to the development of KI. The departure point of this strategy document is based in these areas. Strategy 2018 aims to provide all levels of the KI organisation with general guidelines for planning, implementation and follow-up within their respective activities. With regard to certain matters, the responsibility lies with the university management and the internal boards, while other measures need to be developed and carried out in the departments at KI.
Limitations In this document, we present the overall objectives for KI’s research and education, and the fundamental aspects of the strategies that have been chosen to achieve these objectives. The document does not go into the details of the measures required at all organisational levels. Internal boards, departments and other organisational units are expected to plan and make activities concrete in their individual operational plans in order to reach the common goals.
Process – time and participation This strategy document has been discussed by the Board of Karolinska Institutet, in meetings with heads of departments, heads of administration and students, with staff organisations and in the management group KI/SLL (Stockholm County Council), as well as in several other groups. The Board of Karolinska Institutet ratified Strategy 2018 on 28 April 2014. The great commitment and interest creates the conditions for KI, at the end of 2018, to conduct activities reaching its full capacity and to face new challenges.
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DEVELOPMENT DURING THE PERIOD 2008–2013 In general In the last five years, we have benefited from a positive research policy in Sweden, strong growth, a successful fund-raising campaign, robust infrastructure and an increase in industrial collaboration. KI’s revenues grew from approximately SEK 4,500 million in 2008 to approximately SEK 5,800 million in 2013, i.e., by about 30 per cent. The majority of this increase consists of research revenues which went up by approximately 34 per cent. This is a direct result of the government’s prioritisation of research in general, and the field of medicine in particular, but also of KI’s ability to attract external research funds within the scope of the government’s increased research grant allocation. KI also conducted a successful fund-raising campaign which contributed to our growth. The amount of experimental, translational and clinical research alike increased throughout the same time period. The number of professors at KI rose to a little over 370, an increase of around 18 per cent. The total number of full-time employees increased by over 800 during the period 2008-2013. The number of top-cited publications and the average citation level of KI have been rising continuously in recent years. Despite this increase, the gap between the citation levels of KI and the top-cited universities is not closing. Competition has also intensified as more universities have caught up to KI. KI has a high application rate for our educational programmes. However, we are seeing a few quality flaws in parts of the education which need to be rectified. Changes within the health service sector lead to great challenges for research and education alike.
Research and education Despite the majority of the KI research being of a very high quality, relatively speaking according to our own surveys, KI generally falls behind other leading, international universities that we want to compare ourselves with. One example is the Medical Sciences Division at the University of Oxford, which in terms of size and activity is comparable to KI. In 2010, an extensive international evaluation of the research at KI was launched (ERA 2010). The results of this evaluation were reported in the summer of 2011. The report contained 24 recommended measures, many of which are still on the table. The career ladder for young, promising researchers has been unclear. There have not been enough qualifying positions as research assistants, for example, something that is a disadvantage for KI when competing with other universities. We need a career system based on clear requirements, and which is predictable. Over the last five years, KI had a temporary increase in the number of places available for the education programmes. This increase was effectuated for labour market reasons, and was not an expression of a permanent ambition from the government to increase capacity in the field of education. External quality reviews during this period have indicated flaws in certain education programmes. Some of these have been gradually amended, but this work needs to be completed over the coming fiveyear period. At the same time, some of the education programmes have been assessed to be of a very high quality (according to the Swedish Higher Education Authority) and the healthcare programmes, of which the nursing programme constitutes a significant part, have been named the best in Sweden (according to URANK 2013).
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KI’s programme selection is broad, and of varying quality. A larger investigation into the study programmes’ quality and links to research (UKF) was therefore conducted in 2013. The results of the investigation have been weighed into this strategy.
Infrastructure KI has made large investments in infrastructure. A number of buildings have been completed: Alfa, Beta and Gamma within the KI Science Park, the Widerström Building, which will mainly be used for Public Health Science purposes, the Aula Medica as well as the renovation of learning environments at Campus Huddinge. In total, the area of our premises has been expanded by 32,500 metres squared, or by approximately 15 per cent. Around SEK 400 million have been invested in the construction and renovation of units for comparative medicine since 2008. The Astrid Fagreus Laboratory (AFL) has been taken over from the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control, and incorporated into the KI organisation. It has thus been possible to improve the capacity as well as the standards within this area, and there are currently no capacity issues to limit recruitment. Modern facilities for largescale gene and protein analysis have been constructed within the framework of the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab), as well as a modern infrastructure for biobanks.
Application of research results – innovation and collaboration Society and individual researchers have expectations that the research activities conducted at universities will result in practical applications, in particular when it comes to medical universities like KI. As a university, we are commissioned by the state to support these types of applications that contribute to better human health, and this is also in our own interest. The practical application primarily takes place in two ways: on the one hand through the development of new diagnostic methods, treatment methods and systems etc. for the healthcare KI is involved in, and on the other through the commercialisation of new discoveries. The latter can be done in collaboration with industry, or through a separate innovation system that develops discoveries for licensing or start-up companies. The conditions for innovation activities have changed, and few product ideas have been developed into products or services in the last five years. During the last few years, there is a limited amount of venture capital to support the early developments of the researchers’ discoveries. During this period, the global pharmaceutical industry has shown a significantly increased interest in collaboration. In 2013, discussions have been held concerning new forms of collaboration between industry and universities. The goal is for long-term collaborations on major disease categories to replace the current, limited agreements regarding specific research questions. This new focus is deemed to be of great interest to KI. A third way of applying research results is to make them available and disseminate them through non-commercial routes.
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CONDITIONS FOR 2014–2018 In general KI is in a strong position for the period 2014-2018. Research and education continue to be priorities for the Swedish government. KI’s high ambition to continue quality-based development will require increased resources moving forward as well. New infrastructure is available, and further investments are being planned. Other parts of the world around us have financial problems but the attractiveness of KI continues to increase. The health service sector is being reformed, which entails opportunities, but also significant challenges and difficulties. Shifting the perspective from a strong national position to a strengthened international position requires forceful strategic measures.
Increased autonomy KI is in need of increased autonomy in several areas to strengthen our international competitiveness. It is particularly important for KI to be allowed to: • • • • • • •
accept and freely utilise donated funds, build up equity, own, acquire and dispose of its own companies and create foundations, own, acquire and dispose of real estate, establish and run international operations, use a certain proportion of the research appropriation for activities that promote innovation, run a limited amount of health services in order to provide specific environments for research and education.
Research development Sweden and KI have certain competitive advantages compared to many other countries. The medical faculties collaborate closely with the health service sector. In the case of KI, nearly 60 per cent of all research is conducted within or closely linked to the health services. This provides excellent conditions for clinical and translational research, register-based research, for building unique biobanks and biomarkerrelated research. We benefit from a population that places great trust in research, from investments in large-scale analysis methods, from a positive recruitment climate for population-based studies and clinical treatment research. The greatest challenges concern the coming generations of internationally competitive researchers in clinical research, and access to research time for researching, clinically active employees. The large-scale research environments that are now emerging within KI (such as Biomedicum) provide new conditions for our infrastructure, as well as possibilities to change the contents of our activities, thereby creating better conditions for collaboration across research groups, departments and research disciplines. They will also make it easier to share valuable equipment, and facilitate the establishment and operation of core facilities. In addition, from an administrative perspective these new environments provide altered conditions for increased efficiency and improved service for the core activities. New research constellations have begun to form, often organised in complex structures with several principals involved. To achieve the intended effect from these units a more professional approach is required in terms of the organisation as such, as well as the administration of activities. SciLifeLab constitutes an example of such a complex organisational structure, where both the overall structure and the incorporated KI activities need to be reviewed and evaluated. Other examples include the SweTox Research Center and the Karolinska Institutet/AstraZeneca Integrated Cardio Metabolic Centre (ICMC).
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Educational needs and quality development There is a great need for an increased educational capacity within the health service sector, which will probably lead to an increase in the available places in KI programmes over the next five years. This applies primarily to nurses, but most likely also to doctors and dentists. The capacity expansions that have been discussed so far must, however, be viewed as insufficient, considering population growth and the fact that the proportion of older people is growing in the region as well as in the country and globally. The availability of work placements (VFU) in healthcare environments that conduct evidence-based care of high quality, and which also provide good supervision is critically important for the education required for the future health service professionals. The current distribution of places in the education programmes has to be adapted to the on-going restructuring of Swedish health services. The availability of VFU needs to be increased, and the administration of these placements has to be improved. The connection between education and research at KI needs to be strengthened. One important prerequisite to make this possible is to have a majority of teachers with third-cycle education, who actively conduct research. In addition, we need to implement new results from education research and development in our educational programmes. Teaching should to a great extent be interdisciplinary, in order to prepare the students for working in complex operations requiring various skills and team work. The circumstances of the odontology programmes are special, in that KI is to provide the clinical training environment, which entails the same requirements for high quality and good supervision as for the programmes where VFU is completed in the health service sector. To ensure that these requirements are met, the Vice-Chancellor has initiated a review and development project.
Health services Swedish health services are undergoing a significant reformation, with extensive requirements for adaptations on the part of KI. In order to secure knowledge development in an increasingly fragmented healthcare system, KI is promoting the development of a value-based health service sector, with a uniform informatics system. KI is highly dependent on being able to conduct research and education in units that provide health services of the highest quality, which are modernly operated and evidence-based. Only a well-organised, high-quality health service sector can form the long-term basis of KI research and education, which as far as possible is to be integrated in the health service organisation. New national and regional ALF agreements are to be entered for 2015. In these agreements, “university healthcare� is expected to be established as a collective term for the parts of the health services that are of particular importance for care, research and education. The regional ALF agreement provides the foundation of all collaboration between KI and the Stockholm County Council (SLL). The part of Strategy 2018 that concerns this area thus depends on the agreements made with SLL. Establishing a collected biobank structure in the Stockholm area, which involves KI as well as all other parties in the new healthcare landscape, is one of KI’s areas of strategic development for the coming five years. Work within this area has already begun. However, KI is not the sole actor when it comes to this issue, but has to find constructive forms of collaboration with SLL here too. On 1 January 2014, the Stockholm Medical Biobank (SMB) was therefore established by KI and SLL. The aim over the next five years is to build an internationally leading biobank structure, containing samples from research as well as the health service sector. The biobank will include both fluids and tissues.
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Internal organisation The internal organisation of KI and its distribution of roles, created in 1993, have remained relatively unchanged since then. KI has also been successful during this period from a national perspective. Reaching a stronger position internationally would require the gradual development that has characterised the last 20 years to be supplemented with more forceful strategic measures in a number of areas, such as operations management, department organisation, resource allocation models, infrastructural investments, explicit demands for publication principles and responsibility for the educational quality and research basis, principles for admission to third-cycle studies, recruitment, career paths and incentive structures. The internal organisation has to be reviewed in several dimensions. One of these dimensions is the distribution of responsibility between university management, the internal boards and the departments. Another is how the departments are to be organised in relation to university healthcare, in order to create the right conditions for close alliances within clinical and translational research and education. The coming five years will offer unique opportunities to change these organisations in consultation between KI and SLL. Yet another dimension consists of the new organisational structures that have been mentioned above, and which are emerging within KI. They are often based on collaborations that are organised within new structural settings. New interdisciplinary collaboration structures are also desirable for the development of KI. Most likely, several such structures will emerge over the next five years.
Need for national and regional collaboration Sweden is a small country with limited resources for medical research and education. With better national coordination between funding bodies and between the medical faculties comes the potential for increased effectiveness and progress. Thanks to our prominent position in Sweden, KI has the chance to both initiate and, in some cases, lead a stronger national coordination of research and education. Such coordination could entail the responsibility for certain activities at KI being transferred to other universities and, vice versa, that KI takes on more responsibility for activities that are currently conducted at other universities. For some education programmes to be available for labour market purposes, the responsibility must be taken at both the regional and national levels. The developments in information and communications technology (ICT) open up new opportunities for national collaborations, for example, in distance learning. Various interested parties in the region – universities, the county council and the municipalities – have joined forces to create a life science cluster in Stockholm that is powerful, even by international standards. Through an attractive infrastructure and an interesting critical mass of actors, the region is expected to draw researchers, students, industry and capital and thereby create economic growth and job opportunities. The life science industry is still one of the strongest export industries in Sweden. This initiative is, among other things, an attempt to compensate for the loss of competence resulting from major pharmaceutical companies limiting their Swedish operations. KI intends to play a decisive role in this initiative, through our activities and our strong brand.
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STRATEGIES FOR THE PERIOD 2014–2018 Considerations A concentrated effort and making choices
For KI to reach its full potential, we must make a concentrated effort within the organisation and actively make choices. Choosing, of course, also means eliminating options. Clearer priorities must be set when it comes to resource allocation and investment in various fields, both in research and education. The collegial decision-making system that characterises university activities requires clear and predictable systems with clearly appointed decision-makers to set the necessary priorities. A critically important choice is whether KI will seriously endeavour to improve its international competitiveness in terms of cutting-edge research, recruitment, large grants and the ability to attract investments in infrastructure and offer attractive educational programmes. The position we occupy in the scientific community based on our success is vitally important. We will not get the chance to participate in collaborations with the best in the world unless we belong to this group ourselves. And it is through international collaboration that we create opportunities for continued success.
Breadth and depth
Based on our mission to conduct research, education and to collaborate with other stakeholders in society, KI will need both specialised and broad skills, but in a careful balance. Regardless of whether an activity is considered to fall within the scope of what we refer to as “broad” or “specialised” competence, all activities at KI must be of a very high quality according to available measuring criteria. We also have reasonably sufficient resources to achieve this.
Quality above quantity
The rapid increase in volume produced by KI in the last five years now allows room for a necessary focus on quality in the up-coming period. When it comes to research areas, KI should invest broadly in the kind of research that may have a significant impact on human health and in areas where we are already strong, and can thus make a difference. In terms of education, KI has to decide which educational programmes have the potential to achieve a very high quality and a strong research basis. This initiative means that clear, concrete measures must be taken in order to achieve the highly set goals.
Integrated quality management system
In order to optimise the resource allocation system as well as the incentive structure, KI must be able to account for quality based on measurable and goal-related quality criteria. There is currently no integrated quality management system at KI. Quality indicators and systems for regular structured follow-up and evaluation must be developed for individual programmes at the first, second and third-cycle levels, as well as for research and university administration. The aim is to make it possible to monitor internal quality developments over time. A quality management system must include different types of internal and external audits and evaluations which take place at different levels and include research, education and administration. One fundamental principle should be that units that meet or exceed pre-set requirements receive unchanged or increased funding. An integrated quality management system also means that clear and predictable mechanisms are established to change or phase out activities that do not meet the expectations for quality.
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Employees • • • •
Recruitment Career Leadership Incentives
Recruitment Reinforced coordination of the recruitment process
Over the coming five years, around 100 professors will reach retirement age. This is a challenge in many respects, but it is also an opportunity to make way for strategic recruitment of international top talents. However, this will require a general view and coordination of KI’s recruitment needs, and a higher degree of collaboration between central university management and the departments. Many professors who have reached retirement age continue to be active at KI, but with other funding than direct government funding. These professors are a valuable resource, as they contribute their skills and experience and continue to be active in research. KI needs a clearer prioritisation of individual professorships, and a recruitment process that improves the possibilities of external recruitment. The Recruitment Committee (RU) is therefore given increased responsibility to deal with this task. The task involves systematically identifying retirements and subsequent recruitment needs over continuous five-year periods. That way, the management’s position on alternative directions for recruitment can provide a good balance between strategic priorities that concern the whole university and the responsibility of the departments for individual subject areas. A general ambition is also to further raise the quality and the international competitiveness of the professorial staff. The assessment of RU must take into account research, education and university healthcare needs, as well as the recruitment base within each subject area, which is particularly important within educationally intensive subjects. In addition, it must consider the requirements set in the appropriation directions for the proportion of women recruited to professorships at KI. At the end of 2015, KI should have a model for how to adjust the number of professors to the available resources, by reducing the number of professorships and thus achieve a better resource allocation for the group of professors, and free up funds for qualifying positions at other levels. When recruiting professors, international researchers should as a rule be included in the recruitment group selected by RU. These can be co-opted by RU to conduct interviews of the applicants deemed to be of particular interest.
Strategic recruitment
Recruitment of the most skilled employees within all areas is of vital importance to KI. Strategic recruitment of internationally leading professors, guest professors and senior lecturers as well as junior researchers at the research associate and senior research fellow levels is an important measure. At the end of 2018, the proportion of strategic recruitments, as described above, is to have increased. Both these categories must also include researchers in leadership positions within educationally intensive subjects.
International students and recruitment of doctoral students
KI’s students constitute a basis for future recruitment. We therefore want to attract the best and most motivated students, and strive towards a higher proportion of international students within
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second-cycle study programmes. We will also further increase the number of programmes where teaching is conducted in English in order to reach non-Swedish-speaking students. A study environment where students and teachers alike are active and accept a joint responsibility for reaching a very high quality of education provides the best conditions for a successful professional life and a positive study experience at KI. Students who are interested in research should be afforded an opportunity early on to be involved in research, and all students should be able to carry out their graduation thesis work within an established research group. This in turn requires that KI recruits teachers and researchers who, to varying degrees, both research and teach, who have good teaching skills and who are able to translate knowledge into the development of future activities, within both life sciences and healthcare. In order to increase the proportion of physicians with preclinical, third-cycle education, KI should strive to ensure that a certain proportion of admissions to the medicine programme is based on graduate entry. The students who are accepted within this part of the programme must have completed their second and/or third-cycle education when admitted, and then complete a shorter (most likely 4-year) education programme. At the end of 2015, the majority of KI’s doctoral students are to be competitively recruited. Exceptions from competition can be made for doctoral students who, in parallel to their third-cycle studies, are working in the health service sector, as admission to third-cycle education for these students requires employment with another principal. The same high quality demands will, however, apply to these clinical doctoral students as to all other doctoral students. Admitted doctoral students will be given better conditions, both in terms of resources and research environment. For this reason, the number of admissions will be reviewed. At the end of the strategy period, a significantly higher proportion of the doctoral students should complete their third-cycle education within the framework of a graduate school than is currently the case.
Career Recruitment and financing of KI professorships
The responsibilities of the professors and the skills required by KI within different areas need to be reviewed. Professors with individual research and teaching obligations within a defined subject area, who are recruited on the initiative of a department, will continue to form the fundamental professorial staff at KI. An increasing proportion of these professors needs to be recruited externally. Within certain areas of particular strategic importance, a very large share of the recruitment may have to be external. Externally recruited holders of strategic professorships are to be given guaranteed, robust funding during the establishment phase. There is also a need to appoint professors in a subject coordinator role with a broad, university-wide responsibility for education and, in cases of clinical specialisations, cooperation with university healthcare. This assignment is to be financed through government funding and will be on a temporary basis. The forms of recruitment and funding of KI professorships are to have been reviewed by midyear 2015. The role of senior lecturers is to be defined in terms of tasks and responsibilities, among other things to clarify the difference between senior lecturers and professors.
Career structure for junior researchers
In addition to strategic recruitments, KI needs to implement a career system for junior researchers through faculty-advertised qualifying positions at the research associate and senior research fellow levels. This development base is a condition for KI to be a competitive alternative for leading junior
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researchers, in comparison to other international elite universities. In connection to the upcoming retirements within the group of professors, funds will be freed, which may contribute to more qualifying positions. At the end of 2016, the proportion of centrally financed research associate positions, and the associated funding, is to have increased significantly. The number of senior research fellow positions is to be increased in the same way. This development is to be evaluated and based on the results, a possible expansion of the programme may be considered. A system for developing a tenure track will also be examined. For junior, highly competent researchers with a teaching profile, we will offer positions with time to both teach and conduct research as well as, when relevant, to carry out clinical activities. Time for continuing professional development in education will also be included in the teaching position. Teaching merits are to be highly valued and evaluated based on clear criteria. Junior researchers with a research profile are to be afforded opportunities to teach and acquire teaching qualifications.
Leadership Academic leadership
The role of the Head of Department as an academic leader needs to be more clearly defined. The Head of Department is a key position at KI. In addition to the role as academic leader, the Head of Department is delegated the overall responsibility for all parts of the department activities by the Vice-Chancellor. In accordance with the present delegation order, the Head of Department has significant decisionmaking authority. The research group constitutes the foundation of KI research. The research group leader thereby has great responsibility for the working environment of the research group, as supervisor and research leader. The role as academic leader, supervisor and mentor needs to be reinforced. A doctoral degree from KI is to be a nationally and internationally recognised seal of quality. This presupposes that doctoral students are being educated in a good research environment with very competent supervisors, and that they are completing third-cycle courses of a high quality. The roles of research group leader and supervisor need to be developed, and specific education programmes should be considered. Clearer criteria for which research environments and supervisors are allowed to take part in third-cycle education need to be specified. At the end of 2014, guidelines for the definition of “research group” and “research group leader” should be available, along with clear requirements and criteria. All employees at the research group leader level or higher are to complete qualifying leadership programmes, either organised within the scope of the KI professional development programmes, or via external organisations.
Administrative development and leadership
To increase the chances for the Head of Department as well as the research group leader to practice scientific leadership, the administrative support processes must be developed. Administrative and technical support functions constitute important cornerstones of the core activities. A sound relationship between academia and its support functions is of vital importance for KI to carry out its mission and reach its full potential. The Head of Administration of the department is to provide strategic support to the Head of Department, with responsibility for leading and developing local administration in an optimal way, in cooperation with University Administration and other departments. A professional development programme for the department management groups should be considered.
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Incentives Incentives for a higher quality of research and education
In order to achieve the goals for research and education, it is necessary to create incentives at all levels to promote higher quality. Within research, the incentive structure should lead towards research that entails increased opportunities for breakthroughs to alter the view of both normal physiology and of health and illness. This goal requires incentives for and acceptance of large, time-consuming studies that utilise a broad panel of experimental model systems and techniques, innovative theoretical or experimental approaches, access to unique biobanks and/or large, well-defined population-based or clinical cohorts. It may also relate to register-based studies that utilise large, national registers based on specific diagnoses. Since research results can and should be published in journals that are highly influential in the academic world, the resource allocation system should prioritise this type of publication, and be based on quality indicators related to this to a greater extent than today. We can never predict what research will reach this type of success, but we can create good conditions through different resource initiatives. Activities that do not necessarily result in publications in influential journals may still have a great impact on health services and public health initiatives by influencing both national and international decisionmakers, who are responsible for the development of guidelines and practices in different fields. This type of activity includes development, evaluation and implementation of complex, non-pharmaceutical methods, including models for prevention, care and rehabilitation, as well as documents published by national or international organisations such as WHO in the form of policy briefings and guidelines. The possibility of incorporating the results of such activities into the KI resource allocation system will be investigated during the strategy period. The allocation of education resources from the Board of Higher Education (US) to the departments is based on their opportunities to contribute to the highest possible quality through expertise in their subject and educational skills that are strongly linked to research within the subject area in question. This should be further clarified through the development of a process and principles for resource allocation.
Principles for incentives and support for academic leaders within KI
Positions as Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dean and Head of Department are to be very sought-after and given to professors who are national leaders and/or internationally prominent, and who have the relevant qualifications and experience for the assignment. For the period during which such a mandate is held, and during a re-establishment phase after returning to regular employment as a professor, support is to be given to the person’s research. For the ViceChancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Dean, this support is provided from central funds, while the support given to the Head of Department is paid by their department. The size of the remuneration for these positions is to be a part of the incentive structure (not applicable to the Vice-Chancellor, who is appointed and has their salary set by the government). As of 2015, there must be clear and uniform guidelines for departmental support to Heads of Department, in order to facilitate the maintenance of satisfactory research activity during the mandate. At the end of 2018, the goal is for all professors at KI to have their salary covered by the resource allocation system’s distribution of government funding to the department where they work. An initial period with funding from external sources or through donations may be required however, and in particular for international recruitments. In order to otherwise create a better platform and conditions, KI needs to establish different programmes for further resource allocation; from temporary support in connection to recruitment and establishment of a research group to incentive programmes. Stable funding allows for bolder research initiatives which have greater chances of resulting in a breakthrough.
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A subject coordinator on the professorial level with a temporary, university-wide responsibility for the research basis of education in a certain subject area, and collaboration with the university healthcare in cases of combined positions, is to be covered by government funding and also dispose of a special operating grant for the mandate period. A strategic professorship should be offered to internationally leading researchers who receive guaranteed and long-term, but temporary (normally 5-7 years), funding from the government appropriation, through an external funding source or by donation. At the end of the initial funding period, the recipient’s own salary and parts of his or her activities are expected to be covered by the resource allocation system’s distribution of government funding to the department where they work.
International postdoctoral experience is given a higher merit rating
Researchers who have recently defended a thesis for a Swedish doctoral degree should be strongly encouraged to complete postdoctoral studies outside the environment of their third-cycle education. These postdoctoral studies should preferably be carried out within an international research environment of high quality. By the end of 2014, a postdoctoral period in a high-quality research environment should be included as a parameter in assessments prior to employment. Special resources are to be allocated to the hiring of junior researchers who have spent 2-3 years in postdoctoral training with well-renowned international research groups.
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Infrastructure • Support for research and education • Internal organisation
Support for research and education Construction of new large-scale research environments
Advanced research laboratories are being planned, including spaces for comparative medicine of close to 100,000 metres squared. This means that close to 60 per cent of the existing laboratory spaces for experimental and translational research will be replaced by new ones in the next few years. These investments refer to the two main KI campuses in Solna and Huddinge. The potential is enormous and must be harnessed through strategic planning of the research activities. This planning entails relocation of existing activities and development of new ones, recruitment for strategically important research positions, and utilisation of core facilities. At the end of 2015, the needs for expensive scientific equipment must have been identified. At that time, these needs must also have been prioritised, and there must be an overall plan for how such equipment is to be financed. KI management will strive to obtain external funding for parts of the new acquisitions through private donations and possibly within the framework of a targeted fundraising campaign.
Investments in modern learning environments
The students are the future of KI. An attractive learning environment is an important part of being able to recruit and keep the best students. A modernisation of the learning environments has been initiated within both our campuses in Huddinge and Solna. This modernisation will be completed within the next five years. The concepts that have been developed for learning environments within KI must be transferred, in the next step, to the clinical environments, both at the teaching hospitals and in the primary care. Since the responsibility for learning environments within the healthcare sector does not lie with KI, the collaboration with SLL and other health service actors must be further developed. One important part of the learning environment is the IT support for teachers and students. KI will invest in a brand new platform for this support in the coming five years. It will then become necessary for all other actors within VFU to give students access to this platform, which places high demands on the collaboration between KI and the actors in the healthcare sector. At the end of 2018, KI must have equipped the majority of its own teaching environments. There must be a plan to ensure that this also happens in the clinical environments. In all the environments where work integrated learning (WIL) takes place, we must have started the work to introduce future IT support.
New platform for IT support
An extensive quality-raising campaign has been initiated within KI’s IT environment, which has thus far been characterised by fragmentation and inefficiency. In the next step, the IT infrastructure needs to be further developed in order to meet the demands of today’s as well as tomorrow’s employees and students who require significantly better access to advanced IT resources. At the end of 2014, a plan will be ready for robust development of the IT support for teachers, administrators and students in the coming five years.
Development of a cohesive information structure
Informatics is an area of great strategic importance which requires continued sharp focus and great new resources over the coming five years. This applies both to KI’s ability to handle the large amounts of information generated within separate research fields and clinical data from the healthcare sector. “Big data” has become an established term in the world of research. Strategy 2018
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One of the comparative strengths of Sweden, the Stockholm region and KI, internationally speaking, is the combination of well-developed quality registers, population registers, biobanks, genomic and proteomic data, along with the Swedish population which is highly prone to participate in various studies. The restructuring of the health services that is currently under way, with increased fragmentation and privatisation, as well as the currently suboptimal compensation systems make it difficult to continuously monitor patients, to conduct long-term studies and to introduce value-based healthcare (VBHS). A valuebased healthcare system is an essential factor in KI’s work to contribute to improved human health. A number of initiatives have therefore been taken to reinforce the information structure within the health services. This concerns individual quality registers, but also the structure and quality assurance of healthcare data that make the same information available to researchers. KI will contribute to the implementation of these initiatives in the next five years. Another strategically important issue for the competitiveness of KI is the integration of various individual information systems used in the borderlands between research and care. This refers to analysis data from genomic and proteomic platforms, biobank data, patient data, population data, etc. KI has excellent chances of building a unique structure that would have a great impact on research, care and business. The joint KI/SLL programme 4D (four diagnoses) is an example of how successful such an integrative method can be. A laboratory for integrative informatics will be set up in 2014. In order to reach the full potential of the individual development initiatives, we need to begin the work on introducing a new, cohesive information structure for health services before the end of 2015. However, this is an issue that belongs to SLL, but to which KI would like to contribute.
Professional support functions
The development predicted for the research and education conducted at KI will also require development of both technical and administrative support systems in a number of areas. A continued review of the skills and functions that are to be available locally and centrally is part of this development. One need that can be met through increased central competence and service is increased support for researchers in completing major funds applications. Another is assistance for researchers and departments when it comes to management and reporting of large projects funded by sources requiring particularly detailed financial accounting, such as the European Union (EU), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Vinnova.
Internal organisation A stronger academic management
The academic wing of university management will already be reinforced during 2014 with three Deputy Vice-Chancellors, to each of whom the Vice-Chancellor will delegate a well-defined area of responsibility. The three areas that will thus receive reinforced management are collaboration on future health services, innovation and collaboration with the private sector as well as international matters. The intention is for the number of internal boards to remain unchanged in 2014–2017. During this period, the organisation and tasks of the internal boards will be reviewed so that a decision can be made in 2017.
International Advisory Board
KI is currently lacking an International Advisory Board. In order to assist the management through an outside perspective in academic matters, we will recruit an International Advisory Board consisting of academic leaders from elite universities and university healthcare. This Board will regularly visit KI for discussions with KI management and to meet with the Board of Karolinska Institutet and the Heads of Department. Such an Advisory Board must have been appointed by the end of 2014.
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Altered educational organisation with increased departmental responsibilities and cooperation In order to support the development of education quality and research basis, we need to change the educational organisation. Among other things, we need an altered programme committee organisation and a developed departmental cooperation to secure our skills provision. A natural development of the teaching conducted at the preclinical departments is expected to emerge in connection to the establishment of Biomedicum.
Responsibilities for the educational programmes are to be clarified. This means that the Board of Higher Education is given clearer responsibility for distributing educational assignments to the department with the highest subject-related and educational skills to carry out the task. At the same time, the Board of Higher Education must evaluate completed assignments in order to reach a very high level of quality and to ensure that the examination targets are met. By the end of 2015, the departmental responsibility for the educational programmes must have been introduced. Undergraduate programmes are to be headed by a programme director (PD), who is normally linked to the department where the main field of study in the programme belongs and where the majority of teaching takes place.
Thematic centres and strategic research areas (research programmes)
Virtual, thematic research centres that bring together preclinical and clinical researchers, and which create the appropriate conditions for translational research and innovation have been established. This establishment was carried out with funding from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF), the Swedish Research Council (VR) and through collaboration between KI and SLL. The experiences of these thematic centres have been consistently positive. This motivates continued joint ventures from KI and SLL, with old and/or new themes. If the investment in the Strategic Research Programme (SFO) from the Swedish Research Council is deemed to have had a positive outcome after five years, it will likely be extended in the form of a corresponding addition to the government funding of KI. This increase in government funding would continuously be distributed among the research programmes that represent a further development of the SFO investment.
Joint organisation of clinical academic department and healthcare unit
The clinical academic department is the organisational home of KI within the health services. The development of university healthcare as well as KI research and education within the health services require an effective collaboration between academic departments and healthcare units. KI’s division, organisation and adaptation of clinical departments within the health services is a strategically important issue that needs to be reviewed and settled before we move into the New Karolinska Solna (NKS).
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Collaboration • • • •
University healthcare Regional and national collaboration Industrial collaboration and innovation International collaboration
University healthcare Joint strategy for KI and SLL with regard to research and education
In order to avoid doing the same work twice and to utilise the respective skills of each party as effectively as possible, KI will promote the creation of a joint strategy with SLL for research and education. As a support for the day-to-day activities in the various parts of the university healthcare, there must be a common view of goals, organisation, management and funding. The joint strategy will be worked out during 2014 and the first quarter of 2015 as part of a new regional ALF agreement, and will be communicated to all parts of the health service organisation.
Clear requirements for the university healthcare
The design of the university healthcare will set the conditions for clinical research and education within the health services, and determine how new, healthcare-related knowledge is developed and disseminated to other parts of the health service organisation. Strict requirements must be set for what may be referred to as university healthcare. For the university healthcare to become a platform of high-quality research, development and education (RD&E) within the health services, a clear definition, explicit criteria and effective evaluation are required. A more formal evaluation in the form of certification should be developed to determine which parts of the health services can be designated as university healthcare. This work is to be completed so that the implementation can begin in 2016.
All health services funded by the county council will contribute to clinical research and education
Only a limited part of the health services will be able to meet the criteria for university healthcare depending, among other things, on available resources. However, the other parts of the health services funded by the county council are also extremely important for clinical research and education, and for a quick implementation of research results in healthcare. It is strategically important that the healthcare principal is aware of and shares the opinion that all health services, based on their mission, must contribute to providing good conditions for clinical research and education, and strives to make this a reality through the planning and ordering of health services. All health services funded by the county council need to make patient data available in a well-functioning medical informatics system which covers all healthcare activities. This entails information from patient records, biobanks, quality registers etc. In addition, researchers as well as students need to come into direct contact with patients. In terms of the research, activities often focus on clinical experiments. When it comes to education, the students need to practice skills and approaches in the health service sector, participate in its activities and receive skilled supervision and guidance. The presence of research and education within the health services should add value for the health service provider and the patients alike. With the current quantity of students, significant parts of the health services must be involved in the education. This means that organisational, managerial and financial requirements will be significantly different for education and research in the parts of the health services concerned. Particular attention
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should be paid to the interaction between university healthcare and other parts of the health services in the educational field, where healthcare activities that are not a part of the university healthcare will have to be part of a network that is still clearly linked to it.
Joint management organisation for the university healthcare
Collaboration between KI/SLL will primarily take place within the university healthcare organisation. A simple and clear collaborative organisation that allows KI to directly influence the day-to-day activities within the university healthcare is desirable. The university healthcare must have an explicit mandate from the political decision-makers of the county council. The performance of this mandate is to be regularly evaluated. Private health services may also constitute university healthcare. The university healthcare needs to have a well-established collaboration with other health services in order to ensure involvement in clinical research and a research basis for VFU. KI strives to have a clear division of roles between KI and the health service providers within the university healthcare, where KI is responsible for research and education, while the health service organisation is in charge of providing healthcare. It is therefore essential that a joint management organisation, where KI representatives are involved as heads of research and education, is established for the units that belong to university healthcare.
The university hospital holds a central position in university healthcare
KI considers that the Karolinska University Hospital should have a central position within the university healthcare. This requires effective means of control on the part of the county council. Extensive investments in heavy infrastructure are being made at the university hospitals in both Huddinge and Solna. This infrastructure should become a common resource for all clinical research and education in the Stockholm region, and in itself provide motivation for joint management of the activities by KI and the university hospital. It must also be deemed reasonable to continue building on the current, significant concentration of RD&E resources to the university hospital. At the same time, it is important to remain flexible in relation to the changes in health service activities; the clinical research and education must in all important respects follow patient flows in the healthcare system. The wide subject diversity in research and education at KI requires corresponding access to the different parts of the health services. RD&E resources are presently much smaller than needed, particularly in primary care but also in geriatrics and psychiatry. To guarantee a clinical connection for all research and education at KI – not least from a development perspective – it is important for the areas that currently have less of an RD&E connection to be developed into well-established units within the university healthcare organisation.
Positions for research and education in university healthcare
Combined positions at the professor and senior lecturer levels are the key to clinical and translational research within university healthcare. But clinical activities must also be combined with research and education in other, often temporary, positions. KI and SLL should jointly develop a programme for how to combine positions at different levels. This relates to positions for doctoral students, postdocs, research associates and senior research fellows. This programme should also describe the funding of such positions. The tasks of all these positions should basically involve the three assignments of the university healthcare, i.e., health services, research and education. This means that staff employed by the county council within the university healthcare must regularly participate in research and education. Conversely, the researchers and teachers employed by KI within the university healthcare must be clinically active, as far as their formal competence allows.
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Participation in the design of a specialist hospital as a unit within the university healthcare
According to SLL’s plan for future health services, specialist hospitals are to be established. KI will become involved in the establishment of a specialist hospital that is geographically close to the university hospital in Solna. This specialist hospital should be focused on diagnoses that are relevant to KI activities, and be a part of university healthcare. The specialist hospital should have an organised collaboration with the university hospital.
Streamlining work integrated learning (WIL) in order to better utilise health services and teacher resources and thereby facilitate quality improvements
The goal of KI is that the education of future healthcare professionals should take place in research-based environments with a critical mass of students and teachers with combined positions. The teachers must have good scientific, pedagogic and clinical skills, and the students should have access to ICT, with platforms that support their learning process as well as the work of the teachers. To realise this goal, KI will strive to streamline WIL and attempt to concentrate it to limited parts of the health service organisation which will be adapted to this task in terms of organisation as well as competence and management. At the same time it is important not to lose contact with the activities of the regular health services, which provide the basis for work placements.
Regional and national collaboration Strategic collaborations in the vicinity
Collaboration already occurs with other universities in the Stockholm-Uppsala region in both research and education. It should be possible to further develop these collaborations. SciLifeLab provides an important basis for this type of collaboration. An increased collaboration with KTH for the purpose of technology development in research and healthcare is also a high priority, and can be managed within the framework of an inter-university competence centre. Increased collaboration with other universities in the vicinity will promote both cross-disciplinary collaborations and student collaborations on the different campuses. The campus that is currently expanding around the Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge and Södertörn University through an increased presence by KTH has particular potential for student collaborations.
National collaboration
Collaboration at the national level is necessary for the establishment and operation of highly expensive infrastructure. National collaboration is also required for Swedish universities and university hospitals to carry out certain forms of large-scale research projects, and to constitute an attractive partner when it comes to clinical trials. By virtue of its size and dominant position, KI should take on an increased national responsibility in these contexts, and during 2014 we should initiate a discussion and planning meeting with the medical faculties of the country.
Industrial collaboration and innovation
Historically speaking, KI’s education programmes have mainly been commissioned by public sector employers. In the future, a significantly larger share of our students will be working in the private sector, both within health services and in the life science industry. All levels of our programmes must therefore be designed to prepare the students for this change. The innovation perspective and relations with the private sector must form a natural part of KI’s activities. This applies to all research and education activities in the departments, but also to the activities of the management. Strategy 2018
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The Swedish government has expressed its strong expectation for universities to contribute to economic growth. The life science sector in particular is thought to have excellent chances of becoming an economic powerhouse in Sweden, considering the good conditions that traditionally exist.
Academic leadership and reinforced support functions
If innovation is to be given a more prominent role within KI, the current support functions and incentives for innovative activities must be reinforced. In 2014, innovation will be given a clear place on the central academic leadership level as the role of Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Innovation will be introduced. As a university, KI is also as of 2014 funding basic functions for support and counselling within the innovation area. These functions should be restructured and more clearly integrated into the core activities, by operating directly within various research areas. We also need to integrate instruction on innovation, new working methods and entrepreneurship in our educational programmes on all levels.
Incentives to participate in innovation activities
Commercialisation is not an entirely uncomplicated process within a university. There can be doubts about collaborating too closely with industry. There are also incentive structures that are counteractive to innovation. Particularly at universities with high demands for excellence and for research and funding to be exposed to competition, such as at KI, it is only natural that the activities of a researcher are largely propelled by the possibility of individual career progression as well as maintained or increased funding. A well-developed collaboration with industry and strengthened innovation activities require that these matters are further investigated. Achievements resulting in innovations should be prioritised in the resource allocation system of KI, and indicators for this need to be elaborated for use in preparing the 2016 budget.
Long-term funding of the innovation system
The funding of the early stages of innovation development is a decisive factor in successful innovation activities. Separate resources for this critical phase will be mobilised, primarily through external funds from bodies supporting innovation.
Strategic collaboration with the private sector
Collaboration with the private sector has a great potential to pool resources within specific areas, gain access to a broad skills set and resource base, and to apply research results more quickly. Correctly managed, this collaboration is very valuable and should be reinforced. The current conditions are particularly favourable since the private sector to a great extent has its own strategies for furthering collaboration with the academic world. During the period leading up to 2018, KI management intends to promote a number of strategic alliances with selected companies and solicit support for these alliances.
International collaboration Deputy Vice-Chancellor for International Matters
Through international collaborations, KI seeks to improve its position as an internationally leading medical university. The first step in this process is the appointment of a Deputy Vice-Chancellor with the overall responsibility for international matters. The first main task will be to further develop the strategy for KI’s international alliances. A few main features of this strategy can already be discerned.
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Identify and develop strategic collaborations at a central level
A well-planned strategy must be developed for how, and with which international partners KI is to collaborate. This likely entails a limited number of more in-depth collaborations being further developed or initiated.
Encourage KI professors to spend time at foreign elite universities
The education programmes at KI set different requirements for international student exchanges. These requirements may vary within an individual programme, depending on which course they relate to. For this reason, there is a need to enter into agreements with universities in different parts of the world which provide relevant education programmes of a very high quality. The need of the third-cycle programmes for international collaborations may require collaborations regulated by agreement with well-established universities in high-income countries as well as strategically important universities in low and mid-income countries. This would make it possible for our own doctoral students to participate in international exchanges, and for KI to attract international students to our third-cycle programmes. The goal is for all education programmes to have strong international collaborations, and preferably in cooperation with other education programmes. To achieve this goal, KI needs to build partnerships with other universities relating to both research and education. This can be done through a number of general collaboration agreements. Prior to 2017, KI has set a goal that at least 20 per cent of all students should have completed part of their education at a foreign university. More doctoral programmes to obtain joint or double degrees need to be established together with the universities with which KI also has broad and long-term research collaborations.
International visitors’ service
Since KI is already involved in an extensive international network, we need a joint function to assist both incoming and outgoing students and researchers/teachers. We currently have a well-established function for students, but when it comes to guest researchers/teachers, many practical issues have to be resolved ad hoc by the departments. There is much to gain in terms of quality and efficiency as well as financially by gathering these resources and skills in one place.
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Funding • Optimal use of available resources • ALF funding • Fundraising This strategy is mainly characterised by large investments in recruitment, career development and infrastructure. These investments strongly increase the potential of research and education, but also entail great costs. International recruitment of leading researchers at the professorial level requires the mobilisation of an average SEK 50 million for an establishment period of 5-7 years. The resource requirement for an equivalent recruitment of junior research group leaders is approximately SEK 10-15 million. The planned significant increase in strategic and international recruitments therefore results in a substantial increase in costs. Within the area of infrastructure, decisions have been made in the last five years corresponding to investments of SEK 7-8 billion. At the end of the period referred to in this strategy, major new infrastructure projects will be completed in the form of Biomedicum, a corresponding building in Huddinge and the research environment at NKS. This will create unique conditions to form competitive research environments with great international impact. However, these investments will also lead to a great financial strain. The furnishing of KI’s new research laboratories and the Department of Comparative Medicine will cost approximately SEK one billion, which will have to be raised within the existing funding framework and through donations. There will also be additional costs for expensive scientific equipment.
Optimal use of available resources
Direct government funding will be distributed between the central university management, the internal boards and the departments in a way that allows us to reach the ambitious goals set by KI for research and education. This requires strategic initiatives on all levels. At the department level, this means that the Heads of Department must be in control of parts of the departments’ joint funds, and that the funds from the resource allocation system for government funding should not automatically be distributed at the research group level. First and second-cycle education must be organised and coordinated in order to optimise resources, which entails an expansion of interdisciplinary programmes and collaboration between departments and programmes. Within the education programmes, available resources must also be used to allow teachers the possibility of devoting time to research, pedagogic development and clinical work, which is integrated into their teaching. A significant financial potential has been built up within the departments in the form of agency capital. A plan needs to be established for how the existing agency capital can be utilised for investments in line with this strategy. The goal should be to gradually reduce the agency capital over the period down to no more than 10 per cent of the department’s turnover, of which half is to be commanded by the department management. A number of large, national and international funding bodies will not allow sufficiently high provisions for indirect costs. Special reservations must therefore be made from direct government funding to cover the part of the indirect costs that is not accepted by the funding source. The forms and the delegation of responsibility for such support will be investigated prior to 2016.
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ALF funding
The state provides compensation, via KI, to the county councils in the form of ALF funding to allow training of medical and speech therapy students as well as clinical research to be conducted within the health service sector. In exchange, the county council provides the premises, staff and other resources. Regional agreements specify the common goals, as well as the respective commitments of the county council and the university. Each year, KI is allocated approximately SEK 600 million in ALF funds through the appropriation directions, of which around SEK 120 million is directed towards the programme in medicine. The remainder is intended for clinical research. The ALF funding, which is transferred to SLL in its entirety, provides the conditions for the university to conduct research and education within the healthcare system. KI and SLL jointly decide how these funds are to be used. The ALF funding is of strategic importance to KI. A fundamental question is therefore how it should best be used to promote clinical research and education at KI, in accordance with the objectives set in this strategy. There are strong arguments for analysing our priorities, allocation models and their outcomes for both research and education based on the strategy. For VFU outside of what is related to the medical and speech therapy programmes, other funds are allocated than the ones provided through ALF funding. It is just as important that these funds are used effectively, in order to support the quality and research basis of the clinical education. Starting in 2014, the future use of resources will be focused on attaining an increased concentration and coordination with the SLL resource initiatives in the construction of the university healthcare organisation.
Fundraising
In order to accomplish the ambitious plans of KI for recruitment and career development, and to finance expensive equipment for the planned, large-scale research environments, a substantial addition of financial resources will be required, which is also true when it comes to realising a sustainable innovation system. Large parts of this addition will have to be generated through a new fundraising campaign to this end. Starting in 2014, a preliminary study will be conducted to investigate the potential of a future campaign.
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PRODUCTION: Communications and Public Relations Office, Karolinska Institutet 2014 PHOTO: Erik Cronberg
Karolinska Institutet SE-171 77 Stockholm Phone: +46-8-524 800 00 ki.se