Lisbon model institution for the ICRC found thanks to HR Award
With the mid-2023 deadline approaching, activities related to the implementation of the project “Implementation of the HR AWARD standard in the FNUSA-ICRC” (HR Award) are reaching their peak at the ICRC. One of the expected project outcomes was a trip abroad to a research centre aimed at deepening research cooperation and internationalization of the ICRC. For the purpose of this trip, we selected the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (IMM) in Portugal, a research institute affiliated to the University of Lisbon.
Representatives of the FNUSA Legal and Projects Department, together with representatives of the HR Department, the PR Department and the Business and Academic Relations of the ICRC, undertook a three-day visit to the IMM to learn about the management processes of the institution, the organisation of research and the work of the administrative teams.
The IMM proved to be an excellent choice not only because of its similar internal structure but also because of the similar research areas that offer potential for future collaboration between our research teams. Specifically, the institution focuses on cancer research, neuroscience, immunology, and the study of infections and inflammation. Further potential is offered by the local bio-bank, which currently has around 300,000 samples and offers opportunities for use in, for example, clinical trials. Funding for the IMM is largely supported by national grants. In terms of visibility, there is a clear emphasis on both effective communication within and outside the institution and on promoting technology transfer. The IMM has, for example, already 7 spin-off companies.
Due to its links with the local university and teaching hospital, the IMM has comparable availability of capacity from both institutions as the ICRC. We will further develop our cooperation based, among other things, on the memorandum signed between IMM and ICRC last year. We foresee sharing contacts at the level of research teams and administration and the possibility of further exchange of experiences on the management of a scientific institution of comparable size. We have thus fulfilled the corresponding objective of the HR Award in full!
Author: Marta Vrlová, M.A., MPH, Senior PR Specialist ICRC, marta.vrlova@fnusa.cz.
Contact for media: Ing. Jiří Erlebach, Head of PR and Marketing, Spokesperson, FNUSA, +420 543 182 006, jiri.erlebach@fnusa.cz.
The ICRC is a joint workplace of St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno and the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University.