The journalist Teresa Arrieta talking to Prof. Talin Barisani-Asenbauer, head of the Laura Bassi Centre Ocuvac.

How do you assess the new research culture of the Laura Bassi Centres of Expertise oriented towards future management?

Being prompted to analyse our own research project with view to future potential was very interesting. That way, we focussed on its long-term possibilities for development from the beginning. Today I am convinced that we have an exciting future ahead of us. In the Laura Bassi Centre we will do extensive research on ocular immunology. There are numerous points of contact with more general and current problems in ophthalmology concerning immunology: many western ocular surface diseases like dry eyes and allergies have to do with immunological reactions of the eye’s mucous membrane. Our research will provide important inputs in this area.

The new research culture in the Laura Bassi Centres involves measures for the career development of the staff. What are your plans in this regard?

There is a severe shortage of women in medical research. This is due to the fact that scientific research must be done besides patient care. This goes beyond the scope of a regular 40-hour week. We are forced to work in our spare time. Women with a family have to work very hard to reconcile all this. As a consequence we lose many competent women who choose other career paths instead. As there are some mothers working in our Laura Bassi Centre, we will take special care regarding family-friendly working hours. We will develop an individual concept to reconcile job and family. With regard to gender-specific career development we will also provide mentoring programmes, individual and team-specific further training measures and coaching.

Which concrete further training measures do you intend to implement?

We want to make sure that all female experts will be able to work independently and innovatively even after the Laura Bassi term. So the Laura Bassi Programme presents a considerable opportunity: our staff will acquire competences that go beyond the usual further training. When I apply for a large EU research project, abilities like foreign language skills and project management skills are required as a matter of course, whereas, in the scope of the Laura Bassi Project, we can actually acquire these competences. I think that’s great! We get the chance to enhance our individual abilities to be even better prepared for our professional future. This is a truly sustainable effect of this impetus programme.

Team development is also a requirement of the Laura Bassi Centres.

In all the years at the university eye clinic I witnessed many changes in leadership, and I have to say: you learn from the mistakes of others. I realised just how important leadership skills are for the team spirit. I believe that my managerial function in the Laura Bassi Centre is to make sure that each member of staff assumes responsibility for his or her work but at the same time feels part of the team. Openness is important to me. Conflicts should be addressed immediately and be cleared up. A group can make more progress than individual persons. So there will be coaching modules and regular staff appraisals. A fixed communication ritual is practical. Such management tools have been standard in the business world for a while, but they are hardly established in medical research at all. Furthermore, we will carry out a series of exercises with weapons together on a weekly basis under the supervision of Tai Chi teacher Maria Wang as a team-building measure. The course objective is to jointly learn various Qi Gong exercises and to acquire the basics of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The skills of the team members will be evaluated at the Centre for Dao Yin Yang Sheng Gong at the Beijing Sports University.

In the Laura Bassi Centre you are also responsible for risk management so as to safeguard the area of tension between research and industry.

I’m learning a lot about corporate culture. Until now I have mainly worked as a clinician and had little to do with markets and the economy. But even in the application stage I enhanced my competences: for example as regards pitching a project successfully. Together with our industrial partner we want to establish a corporate philosophy that complies with the umbrella term “ethical medicine”: ethical both in research and in economic cooperation. We want to develop into a successful company with a humanitarian commitment. To this end, I have hired business consultants who consult us with regard to risk management.

A further aspect of the new research culture initiated by the Laura Bassi Programme is economic competence.

The Laura Bassi Centre stands for something that is still rare in Austria: cooperative research between medicine and industry. This means that our team will also get project management training. This is all in line with the current trend. Today it’s essential to have competences in accounting and controlling, as well as knowledge with regard to patent rights and intellectual property rights. Further training is planned in all these specialist fields.

Another aspect in the catalogue of requirements of the Laura Bassi Centres of Expertise is scientific interdisciplinarity.

I have always found it inspiring to cooperate with other scientific disciplines. There is great potential for innovation in transdisciplinary research – not only in medicine. Cooperation with the industry has a future, too. Because usually you either work as a doctor or in the pharmaceutical industry. Until now, it hasn’t been possible to do both. More cooperation is profitable for everybody. There should be more promotions like the Laura Bassi Programme in Austria: it’s a great new approach. 

Interview: Teresa Arrieta