The development plan for the subject areas at the LTV faculty

Read the development plan here (In Swedish) 

The development plan in short

The faculty is starting a cultural journey where development and change work must be a natural and recurring process with evaluation and benchmarking of subject areas and subject managers to ensure high quality and relevance. The overall development plan for the faculty's subject areas must be governing (FN) as well as process-oriented (in the departments).

The FN decides on principles and frameworks for subject areas, subject managers, subject resource allocation and incentives/strategic investments February 2024. Current process documents from the subject area review need to be processed further at the institutions before decisions can be made, which means that further process steps need to be initiated.

Processes at the institutional level will include that the institutions will be tasked by the FN in March 2024 to work further in inclusive processes with the support of professional process management based on the proposals sent to the FN (and based on the principles decided by the FN and based on dialogue with the faculty management). Some proposals are expected to be decided before the distribution of grants in 2024 and 2025, while other proposals from the institutions can only be decided by 2026.

A communication plan will be drawn up and dialogue will be carried out continuously during the process with the faculty's heads of department, the faculty board, the university management and the unions.

The further process steps include

1) Four working groups (consisting of members of the faculty board) will be appointed to prepare documentation for the faculty board decision in February 2024 regarding the following:

1.1)Principles* for definition of subject area (incl. task, role, function and responsibility), name and description of subject area, minimum size for a subject area should be 15-20 people consisting of sufficient distribution between different job categories (professors, lecturers, assistant lecturers, researchers, assistant professors, postdocs, doctoral students, etc.) to ensure strong and sustainable environments, as well as principles for follow-up, evaluation and re-examination of subject areas.
Work period for work group A is 231004-240228.
Decision in the faculty board February 2024.
To be implemented before the allocation of funds in 2025.

1.2) Principles* for describing the subject leader's task, role, function and responsibility as well as principles for follow-up, evaluation and re-examination of the subject leader.
Working period for working group B is 231004-240228.
Decision in the FN February 2024.
Implemented before the allocation of funds in 2025.

1.3) Principles* for the allocation of subject funds and amount per subject area. An investigation of criteria and factors for subject funding allocation and the size of funding will be carried out.
Working period for working group C is 231004-240228.
Decision in the FN February 2024.
Implemented before the allocation of funds in 2025.

1.4) Principles* for faculty-funded strategic initiatives and identification of which incentives/investments (meeting arenas, thematic initiatives based on societal challenges, workshops, etc.) need to be initiated in order to achieve interdisciplinary, dynamic and mobile research groups and smaller boundaries between subject groups and institutions.
Work period for work group D is 240101-240601.
Decision in the FN in June or September 2024.
Implemented before the allocation of funds in 2025 .

*In the development of principles for subject areas (1), subject leaders (2), subject funds (3) and faculty-financed strategic investments (4), consideration must be given to SLU's and LTV faculty's governing documents.

2) That the departments further process their proposals in the current situation analysis based on the principles and tasks that the faculty board decides on in February 2024. The departments' further work with development and change in the subject areas must take place in inclusive processes where the faculty co-finances professional process management . At the same time, risk and impact analyzes must be included.

Timetable for the departments' work:
- Start March 2024 (if the departments wish, the work can begin in parallel with the work in the faculty board's working groups, e.g. concerning the discontinuation of the subject area applied statistics, but the faculty board otherwise recommends waiting for the framework and principle decision from the faculty committee's decision in February 2024).
(the departments may need different time to carry out the implementation in the operations).

3) continued process based on wishes for change (ongoing follow-up, evaluation and re-examination of subject areas and subject leaders).

4) incentives to increase dynamic collaborative mobility across subject and departmental boundaries are initiated from the faculty (strategic investments, meeting arenas, workshops for the identification of societal challenges and themes to address) .

5) Decisions about subject areas (after dialogue with the Vice Chancellor), subject area names (after dialogue with the Vice Chancellor), subject area descriptions, subject leaders and distribution of subject funds are decided by the faculty board before the 2024/2025/2026 allocation of grants.