29 November 2023: Update to staff at BioNut and MedH

Janne Johansson, head of BioNut could unfortunately not attend this meeting but looks forward to seeing all staff at BioNut and MedH on Friday, 1 December for the first “Get-to-know-each-other-after-work” at Kristallen, Södra teatern, Mosebacke torg 1-3. Everyone will be offered free good food and a complimentary drink. Warmly welcome!

Project goals and update

Maria Eriksdotter repeated the goals of the project to integrate BioNut with MedH:

• Integration of BioNut's activities through the establishment of a division at MedH.
• Risk, consequence and possibility analyses carried out.
• Identify opportunities for research and education in the new organization.
• Administrative transfer of functions at BioNut to MedH.
• Local and central union cooperation. 

She also gave an update on the ongoing work:

• The steering group appointed by KI’s President and chaired by the Dean of KI South will have its third meeting on 1 December.
• The project group meets regularly every second week. 
• The majority of the task force groups have been appointed and meets regularly.
• There is a continuous dialogue with the trade unions, the latest meeting was on 28 November.

Risk and impact analysis

The project leader Agneta Wallin Levinovitz reported from a workshop on 27 November to start the process of the project’s risk and impact analysis. This workshop was to identify risks related to work environment specifically:

• The employer must always carry out a risk and impact analysis before a reorganisation to identify any effects on your work environment, and whether it entails risks of ill health or accidents at work that need to be remedied. 
• Risks were documented in writing and classified according to seriousness in the workshop on 27 November. It was led by Patrik Emanuelsson, central HR, together with a safety organisation consisting of representatives from both the employer, employees, safety representatives from both departments as well as the chief security officer (huvudskyddsombudet) for campus Flemingsberg.
• The next step is for the employer, i.e. the two heads of department, together with experts in the different areas, to identify measures required in a written action plan for handling the risks. The safety organisation will give its feedback before the completion of the document and implementation of eliminating the risks.

Update from task force groups

Agneta Wallin Levinovitz also summarised the work done so far within the task force groups that have been established in the project:

The strategic task force group for research 

Led by Petter Höglund, head of MedH and Janne Johansson, head of BioNut:

• Six additional members, three from each department:
  • MedH: Yenan Bryceson, Annika Bergquist, Niklas Björkström
  • BioNut: Staffan Strömblad, Marco Gehrling and one more person to be decided
• The group has its first meeting next week where one of the tasks is to plan the group/team leader retreat on 1-2 February 2024, with the aim to:
  • Get to know each other and the research we perform better
  • Identify research synergies and strategic moves following the merge.

The finance group

Led by Cecilia Modig: 

• Mapping stage almost complete
• All transfers of projects related to finance will take place during Q2 in 2024.

The HR group

Led by Jenny Wärnlund:

• Mapping stage ongoing and almost completed.

The communication group

Led by Matilda Pearson:

• Webpage for the project published and continually updated
• Compilation of Questions and Answers to be published and continually updated as well
• Communication plan for coming developments in the project underway.

The system group

Led by Fredrik Strålind:

• IT systems involved in and affected by the integration have been identified (30 different ones!)
• Pilot studies/tests are being run to secure that changes in systems are done in correct order
• In principle no automatization can be done -> mostly manual work.

The group for doctoral education

Led by Agneta Wallin Levinovitz:

• Meeting with central doctoral education administration
• Regulated by Higher Education Ordinance (Högskoleförordningen)
• Transfer of PhD-student ISPs (Individual Study Plans) to be established by MedH´s Director of Doctoral studies. 
• Mapping of Doctoral courses.

The group for higher education 

(grund och avancerad nivå)

Led by Agneta Wallin Levinovitz:

• Meeting with central education administration
• Check list
• Transfer of courses and programmes 2024.

Dialogue and questions

Finally, there was an opportunity for dialogue and questions answered by the dean, head of MedH and project manager. 

There was one question regarding the existing five core facilities at the two departments and how we can identify synergies when they all are integrated in the same department. The strategic task force group for research will make a suggestion on how to move forward with this question. 

A timeline and upcoming events were also presented and are published on the webpage. 

The meeting ended with again a welcome to the first “Get-to-know-each-other-after-work” at Kristallen, Södra teatern, Mosebacke torg 1-3 on Friday, 1 December.

Regular Information meetings

Everyone at BioNut and MedH is invited to regular information meetings in Zoom during the course of the project (see the calendar or Outlook). There will be time to ask questions and hear more about what steps are being taken to integrate BioNut with MedH. This was the third information meeting and will be followed by one more meeting this semester: 

• 20 December at 11-11:30

Additional meetings will be scheduled for 2024.