First impressions from the panel on research infrastructure
In late October 2024, the University was visited by the Quality and Renewal 2024 (Q&R24) assessment panel on research infrastructure. The picture shows the panel during its visit. From left: Professor Emeritus Sven Frökjaer, University of Copenhagen, Professor Stan Bentvelsen, University of Amsterdam, Professor Taina Pihlajaniemi, University of Oulu, Professor Katrine Riklund, Umeå University, Professor Max Petzold, University of Gothenburg. Two members of the panel are absent from the picture: Professor Anders Brändström, Umeå University, and Dr Elisabeth Björk, Senior Vice President, AstraZeneca. Photo: Åsa Kettis.
In late October 2024, the University was visited by the Quality and Renewal 2024 (Q&R24) assessment panel on research infrastructure. The chair of the panel found time to answer a few brief questions during the visit.
Research infrastructure is one of the two University-wide themes in the ongoing research evaluation Quality and Renewal 2024 (Q&R24). In late October 2024 the assessment panel on research infrastructure visited Uppsala University.
The panel consists of seven people from universities in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands. Together they have experience of research and infrastructures in fields representing all three disciplinary domains at Uppsala University.
Professor Taina Pihlajaniemi of the University of Oulu, who chairs the assessment panel on infrastructure, found time to answer a few brief questions during the visit.
What are your spontaneous impressions of Uppsala University so far?
“Uppsala University is a university that is known for its outstanding research, its disciplinary breadth and its history. So of course I’m quite impressed by Uppsala University, but above all by the way everyone we have met is committed to developing and strengthening the University’s research.
“There is great consensus at all levels about the importance of having infrastructures that can underpin ‘cutting edge research’ – infrastructures that enable Uppsala University to retain its leading international position. I also perceive the same trend here as elsewhere in the world. In the past, infrastructures have been important for engineering and technology, medicine, pharmacy, but now we’re seeing infrastructures becoming increasingly significant for research in the humanities and social sciences as well.”
How has the panel’s work gone?
“We have had three busy and intensive days. It’s a great honour to lead such an extremely well-qualified panel with representatives from a range of disciplines and areas. The panel had done their homework and read the self-evaluation and all the material in advance. I would like to thank everyone in the team at Uppsala University who have made our job easier. The arrangements have been excellent in every respect.
“We have met and talked with many people from different parts of the University. We had a lot of questions and it’s good to have the chance to ask them to understand how things work here.”
Were there any surprises?
“I was positively surprised by the great commitment among everyone we met. It’s been a little difficult to understand the organisation, with the three disciplinary domains, and the fact that things work so differently in different parts of the University.”
What happens next?
“We ended the third day with a hearing with some of the University’s senior management and were able to share a few preliminary observations. But now we’re going to write a thorough report which we hope will be useful for the University management in its ongoing ambition to develop the University.”
Pernilla Björk
Facts about Q&R24
All higher education institutions in Sweden have received instructions to adopt their own quality system for research and the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) reviews these quality systems.
The Quality and Renewal 2024 (Q&R24) evaluation is rooted in the University’s Mission, Goals and Strategies, adopted by the University Board in December 2019.
Q&R24 is divided into a University-wide part and a part conducted by each disciplinary domain/faculty. The University-wide evaluation is divided into two components: the University’s work on inter- and multidisciplinarity, and research infrastructure. The above interview is with the chair of the assessment panel on research infrastructure.
There have been three previous University-wide research evaluations under the heading Quality and Renewal. The first was conducted in 2007 and was followed by two more in 2011 and 2017. The first two focused more on research outcomes while the third focused on processes and conditions for good research.