Nasjonal koordineringsrolle for Senter for omsorgsforskning NTNU Gjøvik

The Centre for Care Research (SOF) has been appointed by the Ministry of Health and Care Services to strengthen the knowledge base of municipal health and care services. SOF consists of five regional centers that make up a national network established at the University of Tromsø, Nord University, the Western University of Applied Sciences, the University of Agder in collaboration with the University of South-Eastern Norway, and NTNU in Gjøvik. Altogether, SOF consists of around eighty researchers and a small communications department. National coordination role: Centre for Care Research, east at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has a national coordination role for the SOF network. In the reporting period, the coordinator has emphasized strategic management of the research network, professional collaboration, and internal and external communication. Strategic management: Associate professor Siv Fladsrud Magnussen coordinate the leader group of the national research network that includes the leaders at the five regional centres. The leader group meets regularly to plan, coordinate, delegate and follow up decisions on shared research activities, internal and external communication, and administrative routines. As part of the national coordination role, Siv Fladsrud Magnussen leads the network for those in SOF who have supervisory responsibility for the Centre for Development of Institutional and Home Care Services(USHT), as well as participates in the steering group for the Journal of Care Research, in the "Cooperative Group" which is a meeting place for actors with national functions in the SOF network, and in the editorial committee for the Care Library. During this period, the head of coordination, together with the the Ministry of Health and Care Services (HOD) and The Research Council of Norway, as part of the planning of a new assignment agreement for SOF, visited the host institutions of the five regional centres. Professional collaboration in the research network: Collaboration is accomplished through shared research projects with academic and applied purposes. Examples on such projects are The politics of a changing institutional ecology: coordinating and prioritizing healthcare and welfare services in the municipal landscape (ISP), which is a research project funded by NRC; Live your whole life (Leve hele livet) where the research network main delivery during this period has been the dissemination of an online process guidance tool, as well as support and assistance to the regional and national support group. Cooperation also takes place through supervision of the Centre for Development of Institutional and Home Care Services (USHT) and administration of the Care Research Municipal Panel. During the reporting period, the SOF network prepared an input note to HOD regarding the government's work with the development of a knowledge support system for the municipal health and care services; an input note to HOD regarding the Stay safe at home reform; an input note to the National Health and Cooperation Plan. In addition, during the reporting period, SOF has put in place a statistician in a 20% position who assists all the regional centers in work with register data/use of statistics in research. Internal and external communication: The coordination role includes responsibilities for internal and external communication. The internal communication routines have been advanced by including internal newsletters and shared electronic lunch meetings and seminars. Regarding external communication the coordinator provides three official channels: Omsorgsforskning.no (website): The website provides news related to research and development (R&D) activities in municipal health and care services. In the reporting period 14 news articles are published. The Care Library: The Care Library is an online service that produces and presents summaries from the municipal health and care services. The archive contains references and full-text documents. The Journal of Care Research: The journal is the most read journal for health and social care audience published by Universitetsforlaget. During the reporting period, the journal has published 15 scientific articles, 17 comment articles and two professional articles. SOF also publishes its own series of reports, sends out newsletters and has blog posts in Dagens Medisin. The center is also active on Facebook (119 posts), Twitter (66 messages) and YouTube (14 videos). Mass communication: The coordinator is responsible for press releases, PR support for researchers and debates in various forums. SOF is represented in national newspapers as Dagbladet, Dagens Næringsliv, Bergens Tidende, Aftenposten as well as in debates on the national radio channel. The Care Research Conference: Every second year, SOF arrange a national conference on care research. This year, this was held in Trondheim with “Equal Services” as the as the overall theme.