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Primo Schär Hands Over the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Medicine
On August 1, 2024, Prof. Dr. Primo Schär will take up his new position as Vice President for Research at the University of Basel and therefore relinquish his position as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Here we briefly recap who is leaving us after six years of intensive work.
Schär studied biology and obtained a doctorate in molecular genetics, has been Professor of Molecular Genetics at the Faculty of Medicine since 2003 and conducts basic research in the field of cancer research at the Department of Biomedicine. He was Vice Dean of Research from 2014 to 2018 and then Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.
As Dean, Schär took the extensive cuts imposed on the university in September 2017 with the bicantonal decisions on the performance agreement and global contributions as an opportunity to convene a strategy working group for the first time in the history of the faculty. It united members of the faculty and delegates from the university hospitals and, together with other boards, explicitly formulated the faculty's common values, goals and measures for the coming years.
Put simply, the aim was to put the Faculty of Medicine in a position to "overcome boundaries together for optimal healthcare". This is the motto of the 2021 strategy paper in which the results of the joint negotiations were recorded. For example, it formulates the vision that the Faculty should open up spaces and shape an environment in which creative thinking and inspired action is possible, in which researchers, teachers and students can develop their potential and thus jointly set standards for optimal prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.
Such a decision is remarkable for an institutional structure of the size and heterogeneity of the Faculty of Medicine and its partners. The fact that the savings round did not turn into a battle over a cold buffet for those involved, but rather a trigger for productive self-determination, is of course primarily due to the will of those involved to pull together, but also to Schär's disarming confidence in their genuine interest in pooling their strengths for the benefit of patients. During his six-year term of office, he succeeded in uncovering long-standing commonalities, bringing them to the fore and thus taking the Faculty of Medicine on its own journey, as it were, through dedicated and precise leadership, patient insistence and leading by example.
The processes that Schär initiated as Dean are not complete and cannot be. Negotiating common values, goals and measures remains a daily task, especially in such a heterogeneous organization. But the faculty now knows each other much better, there is good mutual trust, the tone is right, the willingness to work together is there, and so the chances for the future are good, even if Schär uncovers common ground that has long existed elsewhere.
In any case, the University of Basel's outstanding research can look forward to a Vice President for Research who has the ability to bring people with different interests, goals and backgrounds into productive discussions and negotiate common values, goals and measures with them. This is not to say that we know what Primo’s agenda in his new position. But we do know two things: we look forward to seeing him back with us from time to time on his new mission. And: exciting times are ahead!
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