Description
The unit of Male Reproductive Health consists of one professor, two associate professors, three PhD students and one staff engineer. The group was established in 2005 with a
professor as a research leader. However, she is for the period 2007-2011 Pro-Rector R&D at Oslo University College and contributes only with 20% to the research activities during this period. The daily chair of the group from 2007 is one of the associate professors. The research leader is the main supervisor for the PhD students and the associate professors are co-supervisors. All the group members are full-time employees, except for the research leader (20%). The time allocated to research activities for the two associate professors is 75%.
The laboratory facilities for doing semen analysis, genetic analysis and cell culturing are good. For more advanced technology, they use external companies. The group was
established in 2005 and the members were recruited during a period of 2-3 years. Many of the laboratory methods had to be established before start of analyses of biological material. The quantitatively moderate scientific production is related to this initial process. All the members of the group are women, except one deputy associate professor. All the projects involve time-consuming laboratory work and there is often a shortage of time to write articles.
The unit is participating in international projects and networks, and the professor has been member of an expert group within the WHO. The group also collaborates with the Cancer Registry of Norway, several departments at Oslo University Hospital, Vestfold Hospital Trust, Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and Malmö University Hospital. There are few physicians doing research within andrology in Norway, which makes it difficult to perform studies involving patients, and multicentre studies in collaboration with other countries. The unit has no external funding of its own. However, one of the main projects has obtained about 1.4 million NOK from Nordic Cancer Union in collaboration with the Cancer Registry and Karolinska Institute.
Research quality
The research of the unit is focused on male reproductive health, with male infertility and testicular cancer. They have a laboratory-based and an epidemiologic approach in the studies, which include the fields physiology, molecular, biology, statistics and epidemiology. It is expected that the ongoing projects will generate 10-15 articles.
The unit has published 16 articles in international, medical well-established journals and three international book chapters. Members of the unit have several times been invited to present results at national and internationals meetings.
Grade: Good.
Societal impact
The research area is highly relevant because the birth rates in many countries are low, and from a social perspective. The impact of pollutants on male fertility is a hot issue. The staff popularizes their research through chronicles, popular science journals and other media, including newspapers, television and radio. The research field attracts attention, which has resulted in a number of interviews in various kinds of media. The research leader has also contributed in textbooks and a WHO manual on standardization of semen analysis.
Recommendations
This is an important arena, where the Nordic countries may contribute significantly. The Panel is, however, concerned about the sustainability of the group, due to its small size and lack of equipment and funding. Merging with other groups, or much closer collaboration, are ways of resolving this.
Oslo University College
Faculty of Nursing
Level 1 Description
Faculty of Nursing is one of seven faculties at Oslo University College (OUC). It has the largest staff in nursing education in Norway with 1,800 students and 160 staff members. The dean is the head of administration and the academic staff, and the Faculty Board is the faculty’s governing body. They have four study units consisting of bachelor and master in nursing, bachelor and master in mental health work, bachelor and advanced program and bachelor part time.
Recently, the faculty has been reorganized, purposing strengthen the link between the bachelor, master and PhD levels, and, further, to strengthen the link between research and education. Oslo University College is in a process of merging with Akershus University College, and the Faculty of Nursing will be one institution at the Faculty of Health Sciences.
The Faculty of Nursing employs five professors, three professors II and 17 associate
professors. In the last couple of years, the faculty has had budget deficits and there have been budget cuts within R&D). The majority of the academic staff is women, and professional nurses with a master degree and a PhD in nursing or caring science. The average age for the professors is 56, for the associate professors 57 and for the PhD students 47. Most of them are Norwegian citizens.
The number of publications has increased, but is still low (0.27 points) compared to some other disciplines and to other faculties at OUC (0.48 points). Internal resources are limited and a larger amount of external funding is needed to produce more research. The majority of their research is funded by the Faculty of Nursing, OUC, and recruitment positions given by the Ministry of Education and Research. The number of PhD students has increased in the last years. The 25% R&D resources are mainly allocated to funding of internal PhD students (30%) and R&D projects (70%). Education tends to come first, so the academic staff experiences that it is sometimes difficult to get 25% research time.
The faculty is involved in e-health projects, which will require investments in IT
infrastructure. One of these projects collaborates with the Centre for Telemedicine in Tromsø.
During 2005-2009, the faculty recruited 24 PhD students, of which one has finished the PhD degree and six are in the final stages. The PhD students are funded by Faculty of Nursing, OUC, Ministry of Education, RCN, and Health and Rehabilitation. Fourteen have been recruited from the staff and 10 externally. The faculty has three post-doctoral positions. There are few qualified applicants to the professor and post-doctoral positions. The establishment of a PhD program in Health and Society will probably increase the number of young PhD students.
The Faculty of Nursing has five strategic research areas: Pain, Quality of life in life-course perspective; Professional qualifications and professional performance in nursing and health;
Dignity and ethics; and Communication and health counselling. In addition, it has four other research groups, which have been developed during 2007-2011: Group of lifestyle
intervention studies; Family nursing, Mental health care; and Child research.
Recommendations
Several of the research units are very small and fragile. The merging may help in this; it will be important to combine staffing to create stronger groups. The Panel noted a scarcity of resources for supervising the PhD students, recruiting post-docs rather than more PhD students may be a way to strengthen the PhD training. The Panel also noted a clear commitment from the leadership in developing the research.
1. Pain Research