IRS envisions that all research environments within individual hospitals are sustainable and work purposefully and balancedly in relation to several factors. This involves working on research leadership, maintaining a high level of expertise, achieving critical mass and diversity at all levels (from PhD to professor), fostering career development, securing funding through external sources, establishing cross-disciplinary and international networks, ensuring a good working environment, and making an impact by implementing research in clinical practice and the surrounding society. The department strategically addresses all these elements.
The realization of this vision comes through local research leadership within research environments developing strategies, goals, and actions based on an assessment of the given conditions and a realistic developmental trend. Such trends might involve growth, breakthrough, stability, or (re)establishment.
A research environment is a broader term than a research unit, as an environment signifies interactions and relationships with the surroundings. The department's ambition is for all research units to become sustainable over time.