MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT. Professor Eric Hanse has been Head of the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology since January 1, 2024. He leaves his previous position as Vice-Dean for Infrastructure Issues and shifts his focus to leading and representing his colleagues at the institute.

Eric Hanse has been Professor of Neurophysiology since 2009. He has more than thirty years of experience of teaching at Sahlgrenska Academy and has over the years held several academic assignments, such as study director of the postdoctoral program, chairman of the associate professor committee and program manager for the medical program.

Eric is also familiar to anyone who has followed the development of construction projects and infrastructure on Medicinareberget. Already in 2017, when Eric was Vice-Dean, he became involved in issues related to the construction projects, and from 2018 until now he has been tasked with looking at the overall current and future needs of the Academy for appropriate premises.

“I would have liked to continue as Vice-Dean, it was a lot of fun, but when the opportunity to become Head of the institute came up and I was suggested, I thought it would be fun to try something new, something that is also a little closer to research and teaching,” says Eric Hanse.

Stable institution with many strengths

The Institute of Neuroscience is one of the largest at the entire University of Gothenburg, with more than 420 employees, five sections and activities that are geographically spread out across around 20 addresses.

“What has surprised me a bit during these first weeks is that as a Head of the institute, you are involved in almost all of the affairs within the institution, which probably means that you will soon get to know the staff and nooks and crannies within the institution quite well,” says Eric.

Eric looks forward to getting to know the institution’s staff and activities. He is finding the institution very stable, with a well-functioning organization and administration.

“We have a large and very important teaching assignment, and I do not think there will be any major changes within the next few years. There is no indication that the education side of things will reduce or increase,” says Eric, who also considers research to be stable:

“Research has a stable basic structure, although it is of course more dynamic in nature. In neuroscience, we pretty much cover the whole field from molecules and cells to diseases and patients, which I think is a great strength.

Challenges in the coming years

Eric will now to some extent work on premises issues on behalf of the institution, where he points out that the institution also needs to reduce its rented premises. Discussions are currently underway about the possibilities and consequences of co-locating some activities to the odontology building, including one of the institution’s five sections – the Section for Health and Rehabilitation.

“All activities need to scale down in terms of premises, so we will look at this in the future. For our sections that are located within healthcare, we do not have the same influence, but we are observing a similar trend.”

The premises issue is one of several challenges that are all linked to the economy, according to Eric:

“Because of the inflation we have had, our government funding has been eroded. Wages are increasing and premises costs are rising. Going forward, we unfortunately do not envision full compensation for this, let alone a real increase in government funding.”

In addition to reducing our space, there are two other areas that the institution needs to focus on.

“First and foremost, we need to maintain the funding we have by getting more students through our programs and courses, without lowering the requirements,” says Eric and he continues:

“Then we also need to try to increase our external funding further, overall we are good at that, but it looks a bit different in our different sections and units.”

Continuing with research and teaching

Eric Hanse continues to manage the “Cellular Neurophysiology” research group at the Section of Physiology, which consists of four, more or less, senior researchers and four postdocs. In addition, several teaching assistants, summer researchers and postgraduate students are attached to the group.

“Our research has traditionally focused on glutamate synapses in the brain, how they develop and their plasticity which, in turn, form the basis of our ability to learn and forget,” concludes Eric.

In recent years, we have also become interested in the composition and function of cerebrospinal fluid, the function of microglia in Alzheimer’s disease, and we are increasingly using human brain cells cultured from pluripotent stem cells.”

Eric will also continue to teach within his specialist area, but will probably have to reduce the scope somewhat.

“I really enjoy teaching, but as Head of Institute means that the scope will be reduced somewhat.”

Eric Hanse now manages the institution together with Eva Billstedt, whose current term of office runs until 30 June 2024. During the spring, the institution’s preparatory group will hold a new election for the Institutional Council and the Vice-Head for the next term of office

 

BY: JOSEFIN BERGENHOLTZ