“It was a very positive outcome of the initiative,” says Per Persson, Dean of the Faculty of Science. “When going through the applications, I can see that about 30 of the 86 applicants are highly qualified international researchers. We also received applications from renowned universities such as Berkeley, Cambridge, Imperial College, and Princeton. The fact that they want to come here demonstrates the appeal of our strong research environments.”
The hope is that the visiting professorship initiative will lead to long-term collaborations, where new networks and research projects are established with an impact far beyond the faculty.
“The potential is great, but it also places demands on us, especially in terms of welcoming and integrating the professors. Several applicants, in addition to their research, have expressed an interest in contributing to teaching and the supervision of doctoral students and postdocs. If we succeed in that, it will benefit our entire organisation,” says Per Persson.
A particularly encouraging aspect is that many women have applied. Among the roughly 30 most qualified candidates, about one-third are women:
“We hope that the initiative will have positive effects on the faculty’s long-term work on gender equality, where the gender balance at the senior lecturer and professor levels is still uneven,” says Per Persson.
He also stresses that the ambition is for this not to be a one-off initiative:
“The university may not be able to announce a call every year, but hopefully on a regular basis in the future. We are learning a lot from the process this first time, and it would be a pity not to build on this experience and further develop the visiting professorship program.”
On Friday, 19 September, the Faculty’s Research Board will take on the task of reviewing the applications in more detail.
“It will be a pleasant but difficult task to select only a few visiting professors – that much is already clear after browsing through the pile of candidates!” concludes Per Persson.