I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University (TNMU)

Project Title: Capacity Building for Research Internationalization in TNMU

Submitted by: Dr. Oksana Shevchuk, Head of the Research Office of TNMU, associate professor of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology Department, I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University (TNMU)

City: Ternopil

This project was implemented within the Training Course “Management of Internationalisation and German-Ukrainian Academic Cooperation 2020-2021”, led by the Leibniz University Hannover (LUH), funded by the DAAD (Germany), 2020-2021

Goals, objectives and outcomes

  • overview of possibilities and pathways for internationalization,
  • developing the skills and capacity for presenting institution, developing communication, problem solving, negotiation,
  • promoting cultural awareness for internationalization,
  • proving insight into different education and research systems,
  • promotion of academic mobility and staff exchange.
  1. Research fundraising – to increase the external funding of research – prepare and apply 3 applications for research grants – during the whole year.
  2. Staff motivation – personal ranking with indicators of research activities and additive salary (bonuses), compensations for publications in well-known peer review high-impact journals.
  3. Activation of collaboration with TNMU partners abroad
  4. English proficiency of academic staff and students – increased number of teachers/ researchers with B2 certificates (IELTS, TOEFL, FCE) – training courses – during year, 3 groups 10-15 persons.
  5. Seminars and webinars about Web of Science and Scopus-indexed journals – e.g., how to select a journal for the manuscript, researcher’s profiles (each semester).

Deliverables

  • Successful international collaboration – 9 new grants from RECOOP HST Association for Study of pathogenetic features of post-COVID-19 restorative period.
  • Submitted applications to the National Research Foundation of Ukraine (deadline 12 August 2021).

Year Scopus TNMU H-index    / progress compared to previous year Scopus Web of Science
Number of publications / Number of citations

August 2021

Number of publications / Number of citations

August 2021

2019 11 (+1) 149 / 487 91 / 231
2020 14 (+3) 198 / 820 75 / 350
2021 18 (April 2021)

19 (August 2021) (+5)

102 / 1446 44 / 263
  • Increasing h-indexes of individual researchers and TNMU rankings (Scopus TNMU h-index 2019 = 11           2021 = 19).
  • Increasing the number of publications affiliated with TNMU in highly cited journals which are indexed in Web of Science and Scopus bases. Increasing of number of teachers/lecturers/researchers with B2 level English proficiency certificates (FCE). More
  • Increasing of visibility and creditability of TNMU researchers’ – Individual pages and academic profiles (Google Scholar Profile, LinkedIn, ORCID, ResearchGate, Scopus, Web of Science, etc.) on webpages of departments.  More Each Department’s Team (in Ukrainian are available) in university webpage.
  • Systemic popularization of internationalization and increasing of visibility and credibility of research for Ph.D. students and TNMU staff – webinars, internal TNMU ranking with additional monthly salary, informing about opportunities for mobility and fundraising ,  youtube channel – alumni life stories

Challenges and Support

Main challenges: COVID-19 pandemic, Skills to Communicate Effectively and Productively, Timing and Planning, Delegation of Tasks.

Resources to Overcome: Team, Authority Support, Experience (including failures and conflicts), MoI Ukraine course data and webinars.

Lessons Learnt: What are your lessons learnt and recommendations you would like to share?

  • Communication matters
  • Internationalization is a great tool for research promotion
  • Fix on the final goal working on everyday tasks
  • Timing and control: planning / work / feedback / correct / planning….
  • Internationalization starts from the door of campus

Impact:

This project lies in the frame of the Mission and Vision of Ivan Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, and it is the part of Strategy for TNMU Development.

Outlook and Sustainability: What happens to the project after the end of the course (are there any follow-up projects? What are you going to do to ensure the sustainability of the project results?

The main deliverables of the project (as Number of publications in Q1 and Q2 journals, Collaboration with international partners and co-publications, Highly Cited in Field Publications, h-index (of individuals and of university), Promoting of TNMU laboratories and fundraising, etc.) are the target for everyday work of University staff and authorities, it helps to promote the institution and foster its position in rankings, maintains the reputation of TNMU.