The Board of the Faculty of Science decided on 4 November on the scope of an establishment in Science Village. All employees at the Faculty of Science received a Dean’s letter/bulletin with information about the decision and the Science Village Group has chosen to publish it in its entirety below.
Dear all,
This is the longest newsletter you will ever have had from me, the reason for which is the largest and most exciting change the faculty and Lund University has faced for a long time!
As many of you no doubt know, Science Village and the University’s establishment there have been important topics over the past few years. This was already laid out in Lund University’s strategic plan for 2017-2026. Our faculty board took a decision on 4 November on how the Faculty of Science is to implement the decision regarding establishment in the Brunnshög area taken by the Lund University Board this year. As the decision directly affects two departments common to both the faculties of science and engineering, our decision is coordinated with the corresponding board decision taken at LTH. The points decided are specified below with an explanation of what each sub-decision entails in practice. It has been an often long and winding road, but now we have arrived.
Decision
The timetables for each stage of the establishment are approximate and will depend on both funding and staff resources in the planning stage.
The decision provides us with a basis for calculating what the establishment – to the extent decided on by the University Board – will cost. Without a detailed plan we cannot get an answer to that question. This is an establishment we want to implement, but the finances are, and must be, a constraining factor. The timetable is consciously optimistic and we are well aware of this.
The faculty board of the Faculty of Science resolves to implement the establishment at Science Village in accordance with stage 1 and stage 2 of the faculty’s inquiry:
Stage 1 (~2025) Laboratories for Lund Nano Lab (Nanolab Science Village) and the Lund Laser Centre.
Stage 2 (~2027) The Department of Physics and parts of the Department of Chemistry to an extent corresponding to the combined activities of the Chemical Physics division and the Centre for Analysis and Synthesis. The Faculty of Science board tasks the Department of Chemistry board with deciding exactly which of the department’s activities are to be affected. A decision on this issue must be taken during the first quarter of 2021.
The extent of the establishment set out here is largely determined by the conditions laid down in the University Board’s decision. Our work as a faculty is to clarify how the decision is to be implemented at our faculty in a little more detail, but also to pass the issue on to the departments for further refinement.
The Faculty of Science board resolves to continue the establishment in a third stage with the ambition to move activities corresponding to half of those identified in stage 2. This phase of the establishment is to be preceded by a thorough investigation concerning the activities at the faculty that should be established at Science Village.
It is important that we view the establishment of activities in the Brunnshög area as part of a very long-term migration of the whole of Lund University in a northeasterly direction. This migration has been under way since the University came into existence, but has accelerated as the University has expanded. The wording is consciously very open to ensure all activities are engaged in these ongoing efforts.
The Faculty of Science board resolves that first-cycle education is to be established at Science Village to an extent roughly corresponding to the education carried out by the units involved in the establishment. The establishment of courses is to take place following further investigation and in consultation with all departments concerned and the student union.
The intertwining of education with the faculty’s research is to be maintained after the establishment in the Brunnshög area. Chemistry and physics students must therefore be able to take part in teaching at both the units established in the Brunnshög area and those remaining on Sölvegatan in all cycles and for both practical and theoretical components.
Future
Although the actual migration of activities does not affect the majority of our units in the initial stage, all of us will be affected in one way or another over the long term. We want to create a cohesive campus that stretches from Sölvegatan all the way to Science Village – to achieve this, we all need to work together.
On Friday 13 November, between 09:00 and 10:00, the vice-chancellor and others will hold a webinar concerning the establishment. Read more and sign up to listen in and get an idea of what this will mean for us all. Learn more: https://www.staff.lu.se/article/vice-chancellors-webinar-on-science-village
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Sven Lidin
Dean