Expanding and developing an interdisciplinary research network to improve cardiovascular care

Background: Cardiovascular disease is still the main cause of death in Sweden and to optimize treatment and care, strengths to conduct high quality research need to be joined, knowledge shared between researchers and research groups on a national and interdisciplinary level.

Furthermore, junior researchers who have developed their knowledge, skills and contacts in this research field should have the opportunity to further develop in the field.

A strong network that gathers enthusiastic, skilled, and successful researchers in this area is therefore needed.The network: CESAR stands for ‘Collaboration and Exchange in Swedish cardiovascular caring Academic Research.’ The CESAR Network is an interdisciplinary network of researchers for collaboration in the area of research in cardiac care in Sweden.

Currently about 40 researchers are connected to the network with researchers from a large number of disciplines and we have extensive international collaboration.Goals of the network: The main goal of CESAR is to increase collaboration in the field of cardiovascular care between researchers in Sweden, to support young researchers in their career development, and act to support research implementation in clinical practice.

We have previously organized meetings, international visits, writing retreats, career development, and implementation activities.Funding needed for: The coming three years we would like to broaden and further develop our network and would like to use FORTE funding to extend the network both to more national spread.

We also plan to Intensify the career development of junior researchers, intensify the output and increase the interdisciplinary research funding opportunities. Finally, we plan to increase implementation and utilisation of research.