The Swedish government states in both the Research Bill and in the autumn’s budget proposal that it intends to allocate part of the direct research grant to profile areas at each University. The University Management sees considerable opportunities for Lund University to obtain a considerable share of the government’s planned investment in profile areas totalling SEK 500 million.
In June this year, the Swedish Research Council and the other major research funding bodies presented a proposal for a model that outlines how grants could be allocated to profile areas through an application procedure. The proposal is based on each university submitting an application that is then assessed according to specific criteria.
At Lund University, we have been critical about the government’s intention to control profiling via resource allocation. At the same time, we see from both RQ20 and the Research Barometer 2021 that there is a need for the University to become even better at utilising our strengths and the University’s breadth in order to create exciting and unique research.
The process to identify profile areas begins with an open meeting on 12 November. The meeting will be filmed and can also be viewed afterwards. Shortly after the meeting, the vice-chancellor will decide on the process to be used and management rules will be established. We will then arrange thematic and open discussion sessions as well as further meetings in which it will be possible to ask questions. We will also start a blog, which will cover all the information relating to work on the profile areas.
Work on the profile areas at the University is based on the proposal submitted by the Swedish Research Council and the other research funding bodies. We will adapt our work when the proposal is more well defined. We are preparing to submit a collective application for the entire University that includes five profile areas. These five profile areas are to be complete knowledge environments involving research, education and external engagement. More information about the process, criteria for the profile areas and the timetable is available in a memorandum sent out to the faculties by Erik Renström and me on 3 November and below.
I want to welcome everyone to take part in the work on the profile areas and would also like to take the opportunity to highlight the new Research Portal, which is a fantastic tool to familiarise yourself with research at the University in general and with the profiling process in particular.
/Per Mickwitz
Read more
- Description of the work on profile areas at Lund University, memorandum from the vice-chancellor and pro vice-chancellor
- Lund University’s updated research portal
