News from the NJ Faculty Board meeting, 15 September

Recruitments

The faculty board decided to publish a vacancy for a professor of plant pathology with a primary specialisation in agricultural crops at the Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology.

Evaluation of strategic investments

The faculty funds some substantial investments in different fields, from infrastructure to activities such as collaboration with the sector. For some of these investments, there has been no time limit and no model for evaluating them. To remedy this, for the 2021 allocation of funds the faculty board has asked the dean to draft a proposal for a review of all investments without a time limit. That proposal has now been discussed and resulted in decisions on actions to be taken (see below).

SLU Fältforsk: Activities will be evaluated by an internal reviewer during 2022 and the results of the review will underpin a decision on long-term funding.

Instrument funding: The entry “Instrumentbas” will be phased out during three years. This entry is an investment linked to the old NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) instrument and has been included in the allocation of funds for a long time.

Climate station: The faculty will continue to fund this in 2022. An internal review will take place in autumn 2021 or spring 2022. The review will look at possible advantages of including the Ultuna climate station in long-term field experiments, its location and reasonable operating costs.

Long-term field experiments: Activities will be evaluated by an external reviewer during 2023 and a decision on funding after 2023 will be taken based on the results.

Model organisms: Funding will cease as of 2022. This entry has its origins in an older, KAW-funded project called ”Wallenbergkonsortium Nord (WCN)” aimed at providing a service for plant biologists.

Precision agriculture: The entry ”Precisionsodling” will be renamed ”Lanna fältforskningsstation” and as of 2022 will be allocated SEK 1,160 thousand annually. The remaining SEK 510 thousand will be included in the direct governmental resources for “Markens näringsomsättning” (Soil nutrient cycling) and be used for activities at the Department of Soil and Environment in Skara.

Everything you need to know about the faculty board elections

This autumn, faculty board elections will be held at SLU’s four faculties. There is now a dedicated web area for all information about the elections, including information on election formalities and the appointment of new members for the Board of Education. More information will be added as further decisions are taken.

Faculty board elections on the staff web

This semester’s docent trial lectures

You can attend the lectures on Zoom on 28–29 September. Programme for both dates.

Plan for Campus Ultuna

You are welcome to attend the workshops on the plans for developing Campus Ultuna on 12, 13 and 14 October. More information on the web page campus plan for Ultuna (in Swedish).

Vice dean Richard Johnson on the latest in environmental assessment

Read the dean’s letter: Looking forward to an autumn of environmental monitoring and assessment