Focus Group Meetings on Research Culture
The research environments at the Department of Clinical Medicine (DCM) are working on research culture during the autumn of 2024 and must hold two meetings on the culture within the academic environment by November 1 at the latest.
A younger DCM-employed researcher, appointed by the chair professor/research leader, will lead both meetings.
First Meeting
The first meeting is a 2-hour focus group meeting for the unit's younger researchers (research assistants, postdocs, assistant professors), PhD, master's, and medical students, as well as hospital-employed research colleagues. Colleagues from and including the associate professor level will not participate. Use the meeting materials as a starting point and discuss where there is room for improvement.
- Introduction to the focus group meeting – 5 themes you should cover (PDF for download)
- The focus group meeting – for the moderator (PDF for download)
- The focus group meeting – conclusion paper (Word file for download)
Second Meeting
The second meeting is a follow-up 1-hour meeting where your DCM-employed research leader and senior researchers (associate professor level and above) will also participate. Here, the meeting leader will present the decisions made at the focus group meeting for the younger researchers, after which employees and management will jointly choose the initiative, you will work on over the next two years.
Why focus group meetings on culture?
A good research environment is not only characterized by high-level performance but also by ensuring that all employees feel they contribute, belong, and are taken seriously – met and included – regardless of age, expertise, gender, nationality, religion, disabilities, etc.
Creating genuinely inclusive work environments, which promote various types of talent and counteract conscious and unconscious discrimination, requires a persistent and targeted effort.
There can be many reasons to work on research culture, well-being, and inclusion. A commonly cited viewpoint is that diversity makes us stronger – that diversity and inclusion are means to increase efficiency and research quality. However, at the Department of Clinical Medicine, we also want the work for a better research culture to stem from the desire for decency and fairness as values in themselves.
The focus group meetings have been decided upon and developed as a flexible working tool by the department management and the extended leadership team, i.e., all clinical chair professors, research leaders, center leaders, and academic coordinators. The initiative is supported by the hospital management at Aarhus University Hospital.
