QA on the integration of BioNut and MedH
Find answers to common questions about the integration of the departments BioNut and MedH.
Questions and answers will continually be updated over the course of the project. Can’t find the answer to your question? E-mail your question to Matilda Pearson (part of the project's task force group for communication), Agneta Wallin Levinovitz (project manager) or your line manager.
Questions about the project
The project will be fully completed by the end of June 2024. However, the integration will be gradual and different parts of it will be implemented in the first half of 2024.
No. The reason for the merger is that BioNut, for historical reasons, has been running at a loss for many years. The department is operating well today, but the university management believes that the financial vulnerability will persist, which limits BioNut’s development potential. The goal of the project is to strengthen KI as one university through the development of strong and sustainable departments.
Staff from both departments are involved at all levels of the project organisation and knowledgeable individuals from both departments are represented in each task force group. But it is essential that central functions - including the university management- are involved in finding solutions and sharing the responsibility for a constructive outcome.
The project group has discussed and decided on the composition of the different task force groups, in dialogue with the different members’ line managers. It has been important to get a good representation from both BioNut and MedH departments and the central administration.
Updates on the project's progress are available here on the Staff portal and in information meetings every third week, including news from these meetings.
Much of the project involves preparing a large number of systems for the integration, such as Primula, UBW, IDAC, Selma, Ladok, TimeEdit, ISP, etc. The preparations should not be noticeable or affect the daily work at the departments. It is mainly staff at BioNut who are affected, because their current data will move to MedH's systems.
Questions about the departments
As far as the day-to-day operations of both departments are concerned, the head of department and the administrative head manage the day-to-day operations as before. However, issues and decisions concerning the future are regularly discussed between the management teams of both departments and the head of BioNut has alreday been affiliated to the management group of MedH.
Initially BioNut will become a unit at MedH. MedH currently has six units and will have seven after the integration. Discussions are ongoing with research groups about the long-term development of MedH.
It is too early to say, but in the President’s decision the integration as such should not have any negative impact on BioNut and MedH.
The decision-making procedures and delegation rules for BioNut will no longer be valid after the integration is completed. MedH’s decision-making procedures and delegation rules must be adjusted and some delegating roles and tasks must be formalised and decided by the Head of MedH, e.g. chemical inventory taker in the research groups from BioNut.
For more information on delegation rules, see Delegation rules for Karolinska Institutet | Staff Portal (ki.se).
Questions about research and education
Help us spread the word, both at events like information meetings which are now scheduled for lunch time and by direct channels like e-mail and newsletters which link to the website.
Not at the moment. The core facilities are addressed in the strategic task force group for research is led by Petter Höglund, head of MedH and Janne Johansson, head of BioNut.
Questions about employment, work environment and work place
Such decisions are not made as part of the project but rather in dialogue with your line manager. General information and support is available on the Staff portal:
Your line manager will inform you if there are any changes to your current position.
The administration of MedH will move to floor 8 in Neo, together with the administrative staff of BioNut. The move is planned to take place on 8 April. No other moves have been decided. Your line manager will inform you if there are any other changes in your current workplace.
These are two different projects, which influence each other. Communication in the day to day operations takes place on different levels within the projects, to try to ensure a good outcome.
Various social initiatives have been taken to encourage networking between BioNut and MedH. Check out the calendar to see what is currently being planned. Feel free to continue networking or make suggestions to the project group or the heads of department.
Questions about administration and systems
All staff at KI have a digital identity that is based on where you are employed within the organisation. All staff from BioNut will have to be "reborn" in the systems as MedH-staff. This is complicated transfer is being prepared by the task force group for systems. The first system to be updated is the personnel system Primula which feeds others with information, like the finance system UBW.
We hope to learn from the good examples and routines that both BioNut and MedH bring to the merger. BioNut’s administration will become part of MedH’s regular meetings with our research teams, characterized by follow-up, analysis and planning. Both administrations have already begun to cooperate in the project and the joint move to Neo in April will facilitate this further.
The staff of BioNut will be integrated in the communication at MedH, as all other MedH staff. On the MedH website there is a guide to the communications channels at the department.