News in brief from the Faculty Board meeting on 11 June

Recruitment Matters

The board decided to make some minor changes to the advertisements for the recruitment of associate senior lecturers. These are minor adjustments with significant potential to either prevent or cause problems in the event of an appeal against an appointment decision. In such cases, the advertisement forms the very basis upon which the Academic Appointments Committee’s recommendation can – or cannot – be defended.

The board approved the advertisement for the recruitment of a professor in soil and environmental physics. This position will eventually replace the current professor of soil and environmental physics at the Department of Soil and Environment upon their retirement.

The board also appointed a number of external experts in several of the ongoing recruitment processes within the faculty.

Members of the Academic Appointment Board

The Faculty Board also appointed members to the Academic Appointment Board. The board had previously appointed the dean as chair and has now appointed the following members:

• Seema Arora Jonsson, Department of Urban and Rural Development
• Sara Hallin, Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology
• Rob Hart, Department of Economics

Group deputies:

• Anna Gårdmark, Department of Aquatic Resources
• Björn Lindahl, Department of Soil and Environment
• Charles Melnyk, Department of Plant Biology
• Martin Weih, Department of Crop Production Ecology

These individuals will play an important and time-intensive role during the upcoming three-year period.

Discussion Points

In addition to the above decisions, the Faculty Board also discussed the following points:

• The annual review of the quality of field research overseen by SLU Fältforsk was presented and discussed. This is a recurring item that relates to a central function of our faculty – the statistical methods and quality assurance of the extensive field research conducted in collaboration with a number of Rural Economy and Agricultural Societies (Hushållningssällskapen) across the country.
  
  
• The board also discussed a long-term financial forecast for the faculty. Currently, the faculty holds a considerable amount of central funds, but a large portion of these are already committed, primarily to the major co-financing initiative for doctoral students, which runs until the end of 2026. The board will return to this matter during the autumn's work with budget allocation.