News

From vision to action

The Research Centre for Digital Mental Health Services (Forhelse) opened on December 14th 2020, and is a Center for research-driven innovation (SFI). The centre’s ambitious main goal is that the use of digital mental health services should increase to 15% by 2025 and to 20% by 2030. Centre director Tine Nordgreen informs and summarizes after a few months of work in the center.

What does it mean that Forhelse is an SFI?

The fact that we are an SFI commits. The research must be of very high quality both nationally and internationally. Research shall not take place for the sake of research, but shall promote innovation, further development and growth for the user partners in the center.

What is an SFI?:

  • The SFI scheme shall strengthen innovation through investment in long-term research in close collaboration between R&D-active companies and prominent research environments. SFI develops competence at a high international level in areas that are important for innovation and value creation.
  • The scheme will strengthen transfer of technology, internationalization and researcher education.
  • Co-financing is required between the host institution, partners and the Research Council. Companies must actively participate in the center’s management, funding and research. The centers are established for a maximum period of five plus three years.
  • The main criterion for selecting centers is the potential for innovation and value creation. Scientific quality in research must be at a high international level.

Which activities have taken place in the centre until now?

Two joint meetings have been held for all partners, and monthly meetings are planned. So far, these have been digital, but it is desirable to carry out physical gatherings when the conditions are right. The leaders of the work packages have meetings with the center management every other week, and the first board meeting in the center was held on February 18th. In addition, we have hired a user representative, center coordinator and have our first PhD announcement. A centre handbook is also being prepared, and will be a great tool for partners, as well as useful in terms of dissemination.

What will be the most important work in the near future?

The most important thing now in the beginning is to work with clarification of expectations and to find good forms of cooperation in and between center management, work packages and the various partners. One thing is the expectations now in the beginning, but there is a tremendous development in this field, and there will be need for continuous focus on expectations throughout the centre period. For some partners, it is important to have a documented effect to increase use and sales. For others, such as eMeistring and Mage-tarmskolen, which are well-documented and recognized measures, it is desirable to work on making them national scalable models and to get it recognized equally with traditional treatment/face-to-face treatment.

What are the biggest challanges in the time ahead?

It is undoubtedly the time aspect. The development in the field is very fast. The business community is well accustomed to and good at quick adjustments, while the health services and researchers often need more time and can often spend multiple years on impact studies. The centre will exist for eight years, so we have some work to do, to ensure good research and at the same time benefit for the user partners.

 How would you summarize the time period from the opening until today?

We have been very lucky with our partners and our team. Everyone involved is experienced and has a great commitment to the field. This also includes the international experts associated with the centre. I feel like there is a great degree of common understanding of problems, and that we are well covered in various cycles in innovation and service development.

Collaboration across work packages has already emerged. Work package 2 (cost-benefit) and work package 4 (implementation) work together on a common research protocol where the focus will be on understanding the existing implementation and organizational models. This shows that we already complement each other well as a team, and this is a very good basis for further work.