Between choice and consequence

Alla fåglar kommit ren*

(All the birds have come back again)

As nature restarts, Medfarm is also undergoing a renewal, with all or parts of its leadership being replaced. The collegial system of governance is one of the cornerstones of academic freedom and ensures that scientific quality remains a driving force in our work. In practice, collegiality means that we elect our colleagues to leadership positions and are expected to take on these roles ourselves.

For many of us, the opportunity to contribute to the development of the Faculty, to enable the best possible research and teaching, is a dream role. The potential is enormous: to help create the conditions for our colleagues’ important discoveries.

But we also know that the price is high. We pay it in the form of packed calendars with back‑to‑back meetings and slow, patience‑testing processes that risk draining our own creativity and research. Putting research on hold and then hoping to resume seamlessly is an impossible equation. This is a consequence of collegiality that we too rarely acknowledge.

Ja visst gör det ont när knoppar brister

(Yes, of course it hurts when buds burst)

The collegial process depends on colleagues stepping forward. Beyond the commitment to improve the conditions for future research and teaching, taking on a leadership role also requires a certain degree of naïvety and time optimism. Qualities that in academia often function as necessary survival strategies. It also requires courage, to challenge outdated traditions and to accept being assessed by one’s peers.

As teachers and researchers, we are trained to evaluate and rank other researchers’ innovative ideas and merits. We have been selected through processes of review and assessment by anonymous panels, and have learned to move on even when our research proposals fall short.

But how do we assess leadership potential? How do we rank our colleagues in this regard? And perhaps most difficult of all: How do we deal with being passed over by our colleagues, our co‑workers? To be honest, this lies somewhat outside our core competence.

Vintern rasat

(Winter’s passed)

After completing a term of collegial service, two career paths await. We can continue, strengthened by our new experiences, in new collegial roles, or return to our own research, hopefully with a repatriation grant to compensate for any loss of research funding.

To sustain a resilient and functional collegial system, we need to do more than rely on individuals’ capacity for work and personal sacrifice. We must actively and continuously work towards shorter and fewer meetings, as well as more efficient processes, so that our own research can continue to thrive. We also need clearer mandates, stronger support and reasonable conditions for combining leadership with research.

Perhaps we also need to become better at not taking these efforts for granted, but instead showing genuine appreciation for those colleagues who step forward and are willing to take on responsibility. And we must ensure that the election process is respectful and transparent.

Glad såsom fågeln i morgonstunden

(Happy as the birds at dawn)

Finally, I would like to extend a warm thank‑you to our outgoing leadership for your extensive collegial service, your meeting marathons, and your long working days. And thank you to all the courageous candidates who were willing to step forward and stand for Medfarm’s leadership positions. Without courageous candidates, collegiality comes to a halt, and part of the soul of academia is lost.

I wish you all a Happy Spring and Ground‑breaking Research, preferably in the form of excellence clusters.

Mia Phillipson, Professor and Co-Director of SciLifeLab Uppsala

*Famous Swedish song titles and poems about spring