SLU news
VH faculty board meeting on 8 February 2020
Published: 17 February 2021
As usual, chair Rauni Niskanen offered a solid agenda at the first meeting of the year. The annual report with the 2020 figures was presented to the faculty. SLU and the faculty have new strategies that will apply 2021-2025, and work is in progress on linking actions to the various focus areas.
Finances
Covid-19 has had a major impact on the faculty's operations and on its finances. A lot of planning and work has been done to make practical and clinical teaching function in more and smaller groups. The transition to online teaching has also required a lot of time and effort. This means that research projects have taken second place this past year.
Several factors have had an impact on the 2020 finances. The annual result for the VH Faculty is a SEK 4 million deficit, which is better than expected given the effects of Covid-19 and the fact that grants were lower than budgeted.
Skills supply
Staffing has continued to increase during the year, primarily researchers and teachers. At the same time, we will see several retirements during the next five years, something which is a challenge. Almost 60% of our professors and close to 20% of university lecturers will retire. Within the faculty, we are working on an overall plan for skills supply. We need to ensure the skills supply if the faculty is to continue to be at the forefront and meet future needs for research and education.
Fundraising
Åsa Formo, fundraiser at VH, is pleased to see that over SEK 9 million were raised last year, from 16 donors over 13 different projects. Also, approximately SEK 12 million are on their way as a testamentary gift for research on diseases that affect dogs and humans. To keep up this good work, it is important that you submit proposals for projects to Åsa Formo, no later than 31 March. Send your proposald via this link.
SLU's staff survey
The survey has now been completed and 79% of SLU employees participated. The compilation of results is in progress, and we will soon receive the results for the VH Faculty. The results will then form the basis for continued discussions within the departments. Dean Rauni Niskanen will actively follow the work and is confident that there will be interesting dialogues and an excellent job will be done to identify the most important measures to take, enabling the departments to become even better workplaces for everyone at the VH Faculty.