Strategic initiatives at the LTV Faculty – call for associate senior lecturers (BUL)

Background

The position as associate senior lecturer (BUL) is an important step in the tenure track in the Swedish academic system. It was introduced in its present form during 2017, and is the only career-development position that is intended to result in a permanent position (as a senior lecturer) for the employee. However, there are signs that the number of associate senior lecturers in Sweden is decreasing. This is in particular true for SLU where the number of associate senior lecturers have been more than halved since 2019, and as of October 2022 only two are employed at the LTV faculty. It is thus rather clear that the departments at the faculty do not have the incitements to recruit associate senior lecturers.

This initiative aims to remedy the lack of associate senior lecturers at the faculty by supporting the departments financially for their recruitment. In order to ensure a strong link to the strategies at SLU and LTV, this call will have two thematic focuses:

• The next step for sustainable development
• Digitalisation and technology

Purpose, objective and scope

This initiative is an investment in strategic competences and increased attractiveness in order to develop and strengthen the quality of research and education. By offering tenure-track position in open competition, the hope is to attract future key competences for the departments and the LTV faculty as a whole. As interdisciplinarity and a system perspective approach are believed to be important in the future, applications including more than one department will be prioritised. Up to three applications will be granted.

Time plan and process

• Applications must be submitted by 1 February 2023 to tomas.osterman@slu.se
• The decisions will be sent out once the minutes from the faculty board’s meeting on 8 March 2023 have been finalised.

The aim is to finance up to three associate senior lecturers with SEK 1 300 000 each per year during four years.

The process for applications and for the announcements of positions are as follows:

a) The heads of departments, together with subject area leaders, identify a strategically important research area for an associate senior lecturer (BUL) within and across the departments (the latter of course require consultation between the involved departments).

b) An application with motivation for the subject focus of an associate senior lecturer must be submitted by the head of departments to tomas.osterman@slu.se at latest by 1 February 2023.

c) A review panel consisting of the dean, deputy dean, research officer, vice dean for doctoral education, head of faculty administration and the faculty board’s member of the working committee of the faculty board will assess the applications and propose prioritisations to the faculty board.

d) The faculty board decides which of the prioritized applications will be granted funding based on suggestions from the review panel at their meeting 8 March 2023. The heads of departments will be notified concerning granted applications as soon as the minutes from the faculty board’s meeting have been finalised.

e) The heads of departments corresponding to the affiliation of the respective granted applications for associate senior lecturers send an advertisement draft (in English and Swedish) to the recruitment committee of the appointment board (denis.avdic@slu.se) at latest 12 April 2023. The head of department meet with the recruitment committee of the appointment board during April 2023 for discussion of the advertisement.

f) When the advertisements have been approved by the recruitment committee of the appointment board, the faculty board will decide on the advertisements to be announced at their meeting 16 May 2023.

Requirements and assessment criteria

The following requirements must be fulfilled by each project.

The research focus of the associate senior lecturer should:

• Be innovative/new and show a clear development compared to already existing research focus, whilst being feasible.
• Contribute to the development of strategically important research environments that renew, complement and strengthen the department(s), the faculty and SLU.
• Link to the faculty’s and departments’ strategic prioritisations by addressing either (or both) of the two thematic focuses.
• Have an interdisciplinary and a system perspective approach.

Applications including more than one department will be prioritised.

The review panel will assess the applications based on the extent to which they fulfill these requirements.

The application must include

• Departmental affiliation of the associate senior lecturer to be recruited, including any collaboration departments.
• Description of the subject of the associate senior lecturer, including a description of the research focus.
• Description of the duties of the associate senior lecturer.
• Explanation/motivation of how the suggested research focus of the associate senior lecturer contributes to the purpose, objective and scope of the call, and a description of how it meets the requirements and assessment criteria above.
• Description of possible internal and external groups that might host potential applicants interested and qualified for the position. NB! Potential applicants have graduated from their PhD studies at a maximum five years ago, after standard deduction for parental leave etc.