I started to work in the CSB about 5 years ago. I took over an existing research group, CEHRIS, which provided services to other research groups in our center. Data management, project management and biostatisticians who worked on both clinical and preclinical research where all included in this team. My own research was a bit on the side, including old collaborations with Leiden and a new Ph.D. project with JR.
But then, early summer 2018 things started to change. The generous funding under the IFB scheme ran out, and CSB 3.0 had to switch to a skeleton crew. Now, for most research activities this had no direct impact, as funding for many key projects did not come from the CSB 2.0 grant. However, a lot of services to make our researchers perform at peak capability were hit. this included my team. CEHRIS, the service group ready to help other researchers was no longer.
But I stayed on, and I used the opportunity to focus my efforts on my own interest. I detached myself from projects I inherited but were not so engaged with, and I engaged myself with projects that interested me. This was, of course, a process over many months, starting end 2017. I feel now that it is time to share with you that I have a clear idea of what my new direction is. It boils downs to this:
My stroke research focuses on three projects in which we collect(ed) data ourselves: PROSCIS, BSPATIAL, BELOVE. The data collection in each of these projects is in different phases, and more papers will be coming out of these projects sooner later than later. Next to this, I will also help to analyze and publish data from others – that is after all what epidemiologists do. My methods research remains a bit of a hodgepodge where I still need to find focus and momentum. The problem here is that funding for this type of research has been lacking so far and will always be difficult to find – especially in Germany. But many ideas that come to from stroke projects have ripened into methodology working papers and abstracts, hopefully resulting in fully published papers quite soon. The third pillar is formed by the meta-research activities that I undertake with QUEST. Until now, these activities were a bit of a hobby, and always on the side. That has changed with the funding of SPOKES.
SPOKES is a new project that wants to improve the way we do biomedical research, especially translational research. Just pointing towards the problem (meta-research) or new top-down policy (ivory tower alert) is not enough. There has to be time and money for early and mid-career researchers to chip in as well in the process. SPOKES is going to facilitate that by making both time and money available. This starts with dedicated time and money for myself: I now work one day a week with the QUEST team. I will provide more details on SPOKES in a later post, but for now, I will just acknowledge that looking forward to this project within the framework of the Wellcome Trust Translational Partnership.
So there you have it, the three new pillars of my research activities in a single blog post. I have decided to lose the name CEHRIS to show that the old service focussed research group is no more. I have been struggling with choosing a new name, but in the end, I have settled for the German standard “AG-Siegerink”. Part lack of imagination, part laziness, and part underlining that there are three related but distinct research lines within that research group.
Up to the next 5 years!?
bob siegerink 