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Latest news from the Leadership Group (LG) meetings
During 2011-12 educational year three Leadership Group meetings have been already held.

 
2011-09-20
Major issues discussed in the LG meeting on September 20, 2011 included discussion of the Research School plan for 2011-12 educational year, and also a possibility to develop the doctoral level course on ‘Interdisciplinary research training´. The overarching idea of this course includes: (a) finding together with the students a good topic within Entrepreneurship and Health area, (b) planning the interdisciplinary research project where all the students can be involved, (c) conducting the project, (d) presenting its results collectively at the Research School annual conference, and (e) publishing collectively the results.

 
2011-11-29
The LG meeting on November 29, 2011 was focused on criteria for providing financial support to the Research School students. It was decided that the students can receive in December 2011 support to pay their research related needs, for example, conference registration fee, language proofreading fee, or assistance in data collection. Applications from 5 students were considered and the decisions about support issued. Altogether, 26 700 SEK were spent to financially support the students´ research activities. Another issue discussed was various forms of feedback to students during the Research School seminars (e.g., recording the presentation, prepared feedback, etc.)

 
2012-02-15
Highlight of the LG meeting on February 15, 2012 was a discussion of the future of the Research School in relation to KK-milieu issues. KK-milieu at HH is called “Research for Innovation" covering three major research areas at Halmstad University — Innovation Science, Information Technology and Health & Lifestyle as well as dynamic interactions between these research/application fields. It is expected that the role of the interdisciplinary Research School will increase as soon as the KK-milieu at Halmstad University will be developed further and get more KK-funding. The Research School members will be able to benefit from the KK-funding under condition of being involved in the projects shared with private companies. Even PhD students can receive KK-funding for their doctoral studies if industrial companies will be interested to support them.

2012-05-09
In this meeting major activities of the Research School during 2011-12 educational year were summarized as follows: (a) Three thematic seminars with 4 PhD students presented their research and received feedback from the peer students and the Leadership Group (LG) members; (b) One methodological seminar led by an invited speaker — professor C.-M.Allwood; (c) Financial support provided to 5 PhD students to pay their research related expenses (e.g., conference fee, publication, and language proofreading) in December, 2011; (d) Four interviews organized in collaboration with the HH Information department, i.e., with NW as a representative of the LG group, and 3 PhD students - Anita Sant´Anna, Héléne Laurell, and Torbjörn Josefsson. The interviews have appeared as small articles on the HH-web-site and in ZOOM; (e) Successful PhD defence of Anita Sant´Anna on 2012-04-13; (f) Research School web-site updates in September and December, 2011, March and May, 2012; (g) Four LG meetings conducted with brief summaries of minutes presented on the web-site.
The report was followed by a discussion about what were good (e.g., inviting professor Allwood, providing financial support to students, etc.) and less good (only 4 students presented their research during the educational year, attendance of the seminars was far from 100%, etc.). Then discussion shifted to the concept and potential content of the PhD course “Interdisciplinary Research Training". Major ideas relevant to this course include: (a) interdisciplinary and “going over the borders" approach, (b) involvement of an external organization as a partner and conducting a joint research project aimed at solving a real problem of this partner organization, and (c) working as an interdisciplinary research group going together through all the milestones/stages of the project.
The final point of the LG meeting was planning for 2012-13 educational year: This discussion circled around the following:

 
(a)    Next year the Research School needs to advertise its activities and accomplishments even more than this year, e.g., via web-site, ZOOM, presentations inside and outside the University, inviting guests, organizing round-table discussions and seminars on the topics related to Entrepreneurship, Health, and Innovation.

 
(b)   Four seminars is an optimal amount but quality of the seminars might be improved further to serve the PhD students´ needs in working on their dissertations.

 
(c)    External guests are important to get fresh ideas and to improve the seminars attendance.

 
Based on this discussion the following decisions were made:

 
(1)   To organize in autumn 2012 the Research School Open Seminar on Entrepreneurship, Health, and Innovation with presentations of the PhD students, HH senior researchers, and external guests followed by a round-table discussion (a half of the day with a lunch in the end). Suggested date for the Seminar is 2012-11-14.

 
(2)   To continue improving thematic seminars with various forms of presentations (e.g., a short conference paper or presentation of the recent publication) and forms of feedback available for the PhD students (e.g., prepared feedback from peer students or LG members, “critical friends", etc.).

 
(3)   To invite the Research School members to take part at the methodological seminars organized by different research environments at HH, especially if guest speakers are invited.

 
Next LG meeting is planned for 2012-09-26.