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Response from the EU and a new phase for the project

On November 28 came the EU’s response to the university’s submitted self-evaluation. LU was given the highest of the three assessment grades and the response stated, among other things, that the university had made “progress with appropriate and qualitative measures” and that the work had been carried out in a good, systematic and satisfactory manner.

Some feedback was also given on potential improvement, which the project will of course take into consideration when we now leave the implementation phase behind us. During the next three years the project will enter what the EU calls the “renewal phase”, where the university will work with the improved action plan. The eight focus areas have been boiled down to two; Develop the work with talent managment as well as  Increasing the knowledge in ethics and regulatory compliance for researchers.

The new project manager will be Lena Lindell, who will take over from Kajsa Roubert.

December 2, 2022

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Over to you EU

On September 19, the project group sent in a self-review to the European Commission in which we describe if we achieved the goals we set when the action plan was made. We are now eagerly awaiting feedback from the EU, which should arrive by the end of January at the latest. In the meantime, the project group is working on communicating the results from the various sub-projects in various channels, forums and networks, as well as preparing for the next updated action plan. If you are already curious about the content of the updated action plan, you can read more via the link below.

Self review 2022 och action plan 2023-2025

October 11, 2022

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To communicate research

Research communication is something in which support is often requested at the university. How do you reach out with your research to the public, the media, and other stakeholders?

One of the sub-projects within HR Excellence is about giving support for research communication. For this purpose, several workshops and training initiatives have been developed.

Under “Communicate your research” on Staff Pages, you can find links to these workshops as well as other tips.

Communicate your research | Staff Pages

April 1, 2022

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First meeting done with the new steering group

The first meeting of the new steering group for the project was held on Tuesday. As this was the first steering group meeting in this new constellation, project manager Kajsa Roubert began by presenting the project’s history and the plan for the future.
– It was a rewarding meeting where we discussed that it’s importand that the project’s deliveries are given the right conditions to live on even after the project is concluded, says the project manager Kajsa Roubert.

The next steering group meeting will be held in january and by then the sub project managers are to report the status of their respective sub projects.

The new steering group consists of the following members: 

  • Per Mickwitz, Project owner, pro vice-chancellor for research, sustainability and campus development

  • Jimmie Kristensson, Pro vice-chancellor for communication, integrity and character

  • Marie Härstedt, Director of human resources

  • Lars Uhlin, Acting communications director

  • Björn Fagerström, Head of division at Research, Collaboration and Innovation

  • One student representative

  • A representative from the university’s employee organizations has the right to attend, express opinions and make proposals at the steering group’s meetings.

Read more about the different sub projects.
See the entire project organisation

December 13, 2021

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New Beginnings

Is it because January is the longest month of the year we get much done within university administration? Well, in January 2021 we’re not the only ones. Our new Vice Chancellor, Erik Rehnström, has already put his team of pro vice-chancellors together and started re-organising committees, boards and councils. He has also decided that Professor Per Mickwitz is going to take the role of Pro vice-chancellor with responsibility for research and to take responsibility for the project Implementation of action plan: HR Excellence in Research, thereby replacing Stacy Ristinmaa-Sörensen as chairman of the steering board.

And talking of changes, although not as a consequence of new University Management: Head of HR-department, Ann Silbersky-Isaksson, has gotten a new job and is replaced by her deputy, Mona Hansson. Jesper Falkheimer, head of Research Collaboration and Innovation department also left his position for another job challenge and is replaced by his deputy, Brita Larsson. The steering board is also going to get new members during spring term, more about that later on.

Well how about project management, then? Yes, you guessed it – we’re making a change here too: I (Åsa Thormählen) want to do some good within the various sub-projects with actual deliveries. Kajsa Roubert is going to take over as project manager starting – now-ish. 

Contact information to Kajsa: Kajsa.Roubert@ldc.lu.se

January 26, 2021

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Christmas came early this year

YES! The deans were very supportive (I take it all back, the talk of tomatoes being thrown etc).

Mia Rönnmar, dean for Law Faculty, held an inspirational speech at a meeting on the 16th of December, on the importance of this project. Christoffer Edling, dean for Faculty of Social Sciences, actually wants more than “just” the deliveries. Viktor Öwall, vice chancellor for Faculty of Engineering pointed out the absolute necessity of the international perspective in all we are about to do… And Erik Rehnström, dean for the Medical Faculty and also LUs new Vice Chancellor come 2021, was all for everything.

On the 18th of December our Vice Chancellor, Torbjörn von Schantz, put his signature on the piece of paper confirming: 15.3 million SEK over two years. It might have been his last decision, ending his 6 years as Vice Chancellor for Lund University.

A brave decision for the greater good: Thank you Torbjörn!

Chairwoman of our steering board, Stacey Ristinmaa-Sörensen is going to keep her seat for a transition period. We are both happy and relieved now. This is all we wanted for Christmas, really.

December 20, 2020

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We’re in the paper

LUM writes about the project! Read the article here (in Swedish):

https://www.lu.se/artikel/lu-prisat-i-forvag-inom-hr-nu-kravs-snabba-forbattringar

At this point in time, I’m happy to announce that we’ve identified a couple of sub-project leaders. I wonder if they would caracter themselves the way I do?

Mats Johansson, “Mr Ethics”, at the medical faculty will lead sub-project number one: Online ethics courses for all staff.

Anneli Wiklander, backbone in the former project group, very skilled member of the grants office team (“Forskningsservice), will lead sub-project number two: Overview of good research practice and legal compliance.

Kristine Widlund, with vast experience within labour law in higher education institutes and with a strategic eye on basically everything, will lead number four: Accessible information regarding terms of employment.

Lisa Thelin, head of LU Cooperation office, masters the art of building sustainable and sensible cooperation across borders, will lead subproject 8: Further develop career concepts and support.

Everything else is spelled: B U D G E T. I promise, if you wake me up in the middle of the night, I’m going to be able to tell you exactly how much sub-project 6 is going to cost. Delivery per delivery.

Early December, we’re up in the University Management. Mid December, we need to convince the deans. I’m sort of relieved that it’s a digital meeting, otherwise I would be afraid of getting tomatoes thrown at me. Not because the deans dislike the idea of the project (how could they!), but because it comes with a substantial price tag.  I have Stacey Ristinmaa-Sörensen, pro vice-chancellor for research and chairwoman of our steering board, with me, though. I’m optimistic!

November 15, 2020

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Building a solid project – on moving ground

In our application to the EU in June 2020, we included information on how we planned to implement the various actions in our action plan. I occurs to me that we need to make our thoughts clear here too.

The plan is to start a new project Implementation of Action Plan, HR Excellence in Research (I call it “The Mothership”). Every action is going to transform into a sub-project, eight sub-projects in all,  with sub-project leaders. Each sub-project has its own budget and project participants. The organisational “home” of the sub-projects, the targets, the actual deliveries and the timeline are already stated in the action plan.

We have one primary target group. Our researchers. Whatever we decide to do, we need to reassure ourselves that we’re on the right track according to this target group.

The eight sub-project managers will be the project group (crew?) for “The Mothership”. And we decided to let the steering group for the prior project be the same for this one, at least for the time being. With one valuable addition: Caroline Runéus, head of communications at LU.

So – the project structure is in place and the targets and deliverables already in place, can we start working then? I wish. Let me elaborate on that “moving ground” for a minute:

In order to get this project going, we need to find the right people to lead the subprojects, to work with the deliverables. And time comes with a cost. And no, we have no money put aside for the project.

Our vice chancellor, Torbjörn von Schantz, an advocate for the EU charter & code and the LU action plan, is leaving his post on the 31.12 2020. Will he make a decision on financing a huge project like this, just before leaving office?

Will the various people we need in the project be able to commit? Without reassurance on how much money we get?

How are we going to promote the project, how to find our reference groups, how to list all those stake-holders?

And, ps, the project clock is ticking. I already got a friendly reminder from the EU: You now have 1 year and 11 months until we need your self-evaluation. Roger that.

November 1, 2020

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And – Action!

If you thought we were delighted to receive the HR Excellence in Research Award in September, you are absolutely right. But I personally felt an icy feeling in my belly. How on earth do we get this large vessel going now? Because now the project clock starts ticking – in 24 months we’re supposed to hit the “submit button” and send in our self-evaluation to the European Commission. And before we do that, we really ought to do something about those deliveries we’ve put in our Action Plan, no?

Just a quick reminder: The Action plan is one of three corner stones of an application to the EU when going after the HR Excellence in Research Award. The other two are the GAP-analysis and the OTMR-analysis.

The existing Action plan is ambitious – also in the eyes of our EU-assessors. And also when it comes to the document itself. Even I, who am so deeply involved in the project, have a hard time getting a clear visual understanding of what it is we’re actually going to achieve during the following two years. With much help from a brilliant designer at LU MediaTryck, I now have a presentable version of the action plan – a blessing when you’re on the search for people to work with and talk to.

The action plan

 

We have a seed: The HR Excellence Award logo.

From that all kinds of flowers grow: Our eight actions.

Some of the flowers are “connected” to each other, both by position and colour: The actions should be dealt with together.

And be carefully watered: Put time, money, effort into each flower but don’t forget the whole flower bed!

October 26, 2020

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Are you ready for some good news?

On 22 September, rather late in the afternoon, we received an email with the subject line EURAXESS – HRS4R GAP Analysis, OTM-R and Action EC Consensus Outcome.

Honestly, would you have interpreted this as:  

“Congratulations Lund University! You have been granted the prestigious certification HR Excellence in Research Award by the EU Commission. Your application was good, complete and contained everything we wanted and more, so no additions are needed. Good job.”

No? Well, that was, in other words, exactly the message we received. YES – we have got it! The HR Excellence in Research Award is ours!

We have wallowed in the reviewers’ praise for the application in parallel with updating web pages, formulating news items and emailing all the researchers to tell them the news (it is after all these interviewees who provided us with the substance of this application) … And now I can also at last proclaim our gratifying news here, on our project blog, which, moreover, the reviewers highlighted as “best practice” for how higher education institutions can communicate their work on HR strategies for researchers. Not bad!

So, what happens now? I knew you were going to ask.

The steering group recently approved the project plan for the next project, one that will ensure we actually do what we say we will do in our action plan and submit a good self-assessment to the EU Commission in two years. I will talk more about this in upcoming blog posts, because the blog will live on. I have written the blog so far, and I will also be taking over as project manager after Gunilla Thylander, who has so admirably coordinated the work up to now. You can reach me through comments on this blog or via email at: Asa.Thormahlen@hr.lu.se.

Updated web pages, including logo etc., are here (Swedish) and here (English).

The logo will soon also be available under “documents” for you to download and include in applications for external funding.

October 16, 2020

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