Originally published in Lunds universitets magasin (LUM) – in Swedish. This was also published on the Science Village-office blog. The Science Village-office has now been closed and thus the post is being published on the LU in Science Village-blog.
The university’s establishment in Science Village will be coordinated with the help of a new project office, coordinated by returnee Eva Åkesson, who recently left as Vice-Chancellor at Uppsala University.
The LTH and the Faculty of Science have together opened the office at Ingvar Kamprad Design Center, IKDC, on Sölvegatan. In the coming years, it is from here that the work with the establishment of the faculties in Science Village will be coordinated.
The office is open but not fully completed when LUM visits. Furniture will be brought in, workplaces will be fixed, computers and all technology are being put in place and two recruitments are on the doorstep.
Many questions
– This will be a meeting place for everyone who is curious and has questions, both those who are positive about the establishment and those who have concerns. It is noticeable that there is a pent-up need to talk about this, says Eva Åkesson, professor at the Department of Chemistry and with a past as Deputy Vice-Chancellor at LU.
Together with the Assistant Coordinator Carina Jarl, she will now ensure that the establishment takes place smoothly and step by step and that there is no duplication of work at the faculties. In five or six years, the move itself is expected to be fully completed.
Will develop the university
Both emphasize that in the end it is not just a matter of building one or more new houses and moving parts of the physical and chemical institutions from Sölvegatan to Science Village between MAX IV and ESS. Rather, it is about creating something completely new that develops the university that exists today, both in terms of research and undergraduate education. It is difficult to be more concrete than that, they say, because it is still unclear exactly which departments will be established in Science Village. It is clear, however, that those who are established in Science Village should not be divided in different places.
– Together with the faculties, we will create a cohesive environment for research and education and then of course the buildings will be important, but it is also about outdoor spaces. We still do not know if it will be best with one or more houses, says Eva Åkesson.
In a survey conducted in 2018, there were a lot of negative reactions to establishing parts of the two faculties in Science Village. Although there is still a concern among some, it is largely a passed stage, according to Carina Jarl.
– It is very noticeable. People see the potential in a completely different way. I definitely believe that the opportunities for collaborations and interdisciplinary projects will increase.
A shift towards Brunnshög
The establishment of LTH’s and the Faculty of Science’s in Science Village means a clear shift of the university’s activities to the Brunnshög area. MAX IV is already in place, the Medical Faculty’s animal house, CMU, is underway, as is Nanolab Science Village, and by 2023, ESS will be ready for use. And these are just a few examples.
There is an interest in other faculties too, but according to Carina Jarl, they want to wait and see what kind of intellectual environment is created in Science Village.
What could get more people to take the step and establish themselves in the area is if the new hospital is built in northeast Lund.
– Then it will be very interesting for, for example, the Faculty of Medicine.