Reorganisation work at the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics

Dean, Sven Lidin, gave the following spoken information:

As you surely have heard, the last week there has been some media interest around the decision to dissolve the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics. I have been contacted by several journalists and I have answered many questions. I have chosen to do this because I believe it is important that what is reported in the media is as accurate as possible, so that no rumours are spread. 

Since our last meeting, the work on all the processes of the reorganisation has progressed.

When the decision on new placements was taken in Primula all email addresses where changed. This was not supposed to happen until 1 January 2023, and it created some problems. We are working to resolve these. That the change happened now rather than during the holidays may be a blessing in disguise, since the staffing for dealing with such issues would be rather scant on New Year’s Day.  
The written decisions concerning new organisational placements have been signed. You should receive them at the end of the week or the beginning of next.  

Yesterday, I also decided that all education, both at undergraduate and postgraduate level, will be located at the Department of Physics from 1 January 2023. Two groups will work on how education will be organized after 2023. The working groups will be led by Professor Olle Söderman. One group will work under the Faculty's Board of Education and the other under the Faculty's Board of Doctoral Education. The working groups will be appointed in January 2023. In conclusion, all necessary formal decisions in preparation for 1 January 2023 have been taken. It is important to remember courses and programmes will be available for application as usual. 

A lot of work remains to be done during 2023. An example of such a task is the decommissioning of the department's current websites and the transfer and posting of information on the websites of the receiving departments. This work is coordinated by the Faculty's Head of Communications, Johanne Elde. Cecilia Billgren will continue to coordinate the work in the parts that the faculty will be involved in during the spring. But from the beginning of the year, the continued work will mainly take place within your new departments and that is also where you will get the information you need.

This is the last information meeting this year and probably the last faculty information meeting concerning the reorganisation. If there is a need in the future, we will call for follow up meetings, but the most pertinent information will henceforth be given by your new departments.

Finally, I want to thank you for helping us taking this process forward. This has been and is a very difficult time for many of you, but I hope that in a few years we can look back on 2023 as the beginning of something positive.

I wish you all a peaceful Christmas and a good rest.

Dean Sven Lidin gave the following spoken information:

It´s been a week since the faculty board decision to discontinue the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics as an organisational unit and today I want to inform you about a number of follow-up decisions that are the result of the original board decision.

The board of LTH decided to approve the creation of a new division for astrophysics within the Department of Physics. The head of Department of Physics then created the division and a cost centre has been created. The division of astrophysics is part of the Department of Physics from 1 January 2023.

I have taken the decisions of placing the activities presently within Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics under the auspices of the Departments of Physics, the Department of Geology and the Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC) according to plan.

After my decision, the head of the Department of Physics took an overreaching decision on the placement of all individuals at divisions within the Department of Physics. These decisions were taken within the framework of the original decision by the Faculty Board. The staff got this decision in Swedish and it will shortly be available in English.

This Monday, I had a discussion with the labour organisations about individual placements for employees and we agree that all negotiations should be finished in time to allow for the heads of departments to make placements in Primula by 9 December.  The staff will then receive automatically generated messages, and later contracts signed by me and the head of human resources.        

During the week, we have started to work on the work environment issues together with an external partner. This will allow us to handle governance, management and relations. The goal is to work for an improved work environment for everyone. This is a long term project that will deal with relations between individuals, organization and management during all of 2023.  

In accordance with the decision by the faculty board, I will decide to place all education previously managed by the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics temporarily under the auspices of the Department of Physics during 2023. This applies to all education at the basic and advanced level as well as the education at PhD level. During 2023, decisions will be taken for the permanent placement of education for 2024 and onward. This work will be carried out in two working groups led by Professor Olle Söderman. One group will work under the board of fundamental studies, the other under the board of PhD studies.  

The work concerned with dividing the economy will be carried out at the faculty level. This will be led by the head of finances, Monica Bengtsson, and I will be personally involved in this process. Decisions will be taken by the faculty board as part of the normal budget procedure.

Other practical issues concerning geographical placements, access, organisational entitlement, email etcetera is the focus of upcoming work.

I, and all those who work in parallel with these processes try to be as transparent as possible with our work. The webpage that deal with the reorganisation will be continuously updated and expanded as the work proceeds with education and other issues.

Our next information meeting will take place on 14 December at 14:45 and I hope to convey further information at that time.

Dean, Sven Lidin, gave the following spoken information:

Today the faculty board has acted according to my suggestion and has unanimously decided that the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics will be dissolved as an organisational unit from 1 January 2023.

With this decision, I believe that the Faculty will create the best conditions for all employees and students at the department to have a better working environment and continue to conduct successful long term research and education in the subject areas of expertise.

Tomorrow you will all receive an email with the formal decision as well as the background documentation supplied to the faculty board. This information is only available in Swedish at present, but it will be translated into English and circulated as soon as possible.

I understand that there may be many questions and I will be able to inform you about some things today, while many details must wait for further decisions. We will return with answers as soon as we have them.

In accordance with normal procedures there will be individual decisions taken for the placements of all employees. For those of you who are members of a union, the decisions will be made after negotiations with the labour organizations. The decision will then be registered in the in the Primula administrative system. You will receive individual emails as soon as this is done. You will also receive written decisions.

Moving your place of employment automatically triggers changes in the university address system LUCAT. This governs what is shown at home pages and your entitlements in the administrative systems. We are now in the process of checking this to make the transition as smooth as possible before the turn of the year when the changes are implemented.

You will all receive new email addresses, but your old addresses will continue to be functional indefinitely. There should be no risk that emails should go astray because of the reorganisation. 

The question of physical placements is often raised. As I have stated earlier, the physical placement should reflect the organisational placement. We will work together between the faculty and the receiving departments to resolve this during 2023. 

There are several other issues that we need to address. We are working hard right now to identify all that needs doing and a lot of this will be done at the department level, but some work needs to be done by the faculty. The faculty will support the departments to make sure the transition works well.

This has been a very rapid process with a tight schedule. I am happy that everyone has contributed to make this happen through constructive meetings and through suggestions and discussion. As we are now getting ready to take the next step, we will need to keep this work going in different constellations. This is important for your sake, for the faculty and for the entire university. 

The next information meeting will be held 7 December, at 9:00–9:30 and I hope to be able to give you more details about the process forward then.

Dean, Sven Lidin, gave the following spoken information:

On 15 November, we negotiated with the unions regarding the proposal to dissolve the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics as an organisational unit by 1 January 2023. The unions had no objections, which means that the Faculty Board can take a decision on this on 29 November. Assuming that the board decides as proposed, a decision will be taken to establish a new division for astrophysics within the Department of Physics.

I will then decide on new organisational placement for all employees at the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics, and the head of the Department of Physics will decide on placements within the Department of Physics. Individual negotiations will first take place for those employees who are union members. Therefore, the final placements cannot be decided until mid-December.

The focus so far has been on the overreaching issues, but now that we have come this far, we should be able to proceed to more practical issues that need to be resolved. Some of these issues need to be resolved before the end of the year while other questions, such as the economic consequences of the reorganisation and the responsibility for courses for 2024, can be dealt with during the spring semester 2023.

The next information meeting will be held on 29 November from 14:00 to 14:30, directly after the extraordinary faculty board meeting that will decide on the proposal to dissolve the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics.

We are grateful for the constructive discussions we have had with many of you and with the unions concerning this difficult process and we need to keep working together to bring this process to a successful conclusion.

Dean, Sven Lidin, gave the following spoken information:

As most of you know, last week the plan for the reorganisation changed. We now see that the larger group from the sub-unit Astronomy, which is recommended to be placed within the Department of Physics, will form a new division there after the reorganisation. This will be called the Division of Astrophysics.

The management of the new astrophysics division will have a great responsibility. We will also need to work together to make the integration of this new division into the Department of Physics work.

We must also ensure that collaboration can be developed between the employees of the department, who in the future will work in the Department of Physics and the Department of Geology. We have had constructive discussions about this, particularly with those who are expected to be part of the new management of the Division of Astrophysics. 

Last week we also completed risk and impact assessments for the reorganisation. These have been carried out with the management of the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics, the host departments and with the safety representatives of the departments involved. The documents have now been sent to the staff organisations/unions. 

The next information meeting will take place on 16 November at 9.00-9.30, after the MBL negotiation on 15 November.

Joachim Schnadt, Head of the Department of Physics gave the following information, which mainly concerns the sub-unit Astronomy:

Over the past few weeks, I and the management of the Department of Physics have had many discussions and meetings with the heads of the divisions at the Department. After these meetings, I and the entire management, have come to the conclusion that we need to change the working hypothesis that we have been working with so far.

We now see that the only viable way forward for the continued reorganising process of the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics is for the Astronomy Unit to form its own research division within the Department of Physics. This division will be called the Divison of Astrophysics.

From an integration perspective, this is by no means an ideal solution, but for various reasons it is the only one available at this stage. This organisational solution implies that all astrophysicists will have a major responsibility and will have to work hard to integrate all activities in the Department of Physics.

The Department of Physics also expects a very strong willingness to collaborate and to cooperate. We expect that everyone will work for the integration to succeed and that everyone accepts that the routines, processes and working methods of the Department of Physics will apply for you and for all of us. In the coming weeks, we will work on several measurable goals that will be monitored regularly. There are some basic conditions for successful integration. I would like to mention a few here:

• The Division of Astrophysics will move in 2023 from the Astronomy Building into the premises of the Department of Physics.  
• The name of the new division will be the Division of Astrophysics. This will be part of the establishment in the Science Village.
• The Head of the Division of Astrophysics will be supported by one or two external deputy division heads. These will be appointed by the Head of Department of Physics for at least one term (three years).
• To provide a good starting point, the Head of the Division of Astrophysics will be supported by a targeted support package, that among many things, will include a competence needs inventory and competence development.

I would like to stress that I am very much looking forward to working with the Head of the Division of Astrophysics. I would also like to mention here that the sub-unit Theoretical Particle Physics has shouldered a great responsibility in recent years for keeping the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics running, by taking on a disproportionate number of leadership assignments.

The Division of Astrophysics will contribute in 2023 to the funding of the theoretical particle physicists who have these assignments.The Division of Astrophysics will eventually be fully included in the Department of Physics' model for distributing faculty funds. What this entails will be analysed in 2023, with a decision on a possible transition period of up to three years starting on 1 January 2024. The same is of course true for the activities coming to the Department Physics from the sub-unit Theoretical Particle Physics.

As far as the undergraduate education is concerned, the education will continue in 2023 as planned. After 2023, there will be changes aimed at fully integrating the education activities into the undergraduate education of the Department of Physics. The master's students in astrophysics will be offered the same conditions as all master's students at the Department of Physics. 

As far as the doctoral education is concerned, all accepted PhD students will be able to follow the general study plans that applied at the time of their admission, until their defence. In 2023, the general study plans will be revised. After the revision all general study plans for postgraduate education at the Department of Physics will have the same content and wording.

The Department of Physics expects that all astrophysicists will be very actively involved in the integration work, for example by participating in joint activities. We expect to see an emerging and increasing interaction with the activities of the Physics Department, in research and education.

Lastly, I hope that it has become clear through this information that there will be both support and guidance in relation to the Division of Astrophysics. A lot of ways of working will have to change. Although some changes will be painful, I am convinced this will be positive for the development of a future Division of Astrophysics. I am also convinced that the physics area will be strengthened by the integration of large parts of the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics into the Department of Physics.

Dean, Sven Lidin, gave the following spoken information:

First of all, I would like to say that I am aware that there is a lot of concern at the moment and that this is a difficult process for many.

I have received several letters with questions, concerns and worries. And I promise to answer the questions that have been raised when I have answers to give. The local newspaper Sydsvenskan has also recently written about the reorganisation of the department. Naturally, everyone in the workplace is affected by a conflict as protracted as this.

I am also aware that my recommendation to dissolve the department does not automatically resolve the work environment problems. But a reorganisation is one step forward and allows us to work more effectively with the work environment issues. We must take this step forward.

Since our last meeting, Olle Söderman, Marianne Sommarin and I have met with the head of the Department of Physics and the director of the Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, together with the teaching and research staff who are planned to be based at these two institutions. The meeting with the head of the Department of Geology and the team planned to be based there was cancelled due to illness but will take place next week.

Although there are many issues to address, I am happy to see that there are good relations between the groups here at the institution and the host organisations. There are, of course, differences of opinion, such as whether it is necessary to allocate astronomers to more than one department in the physical institution. But I would like to think that our discussions were conducted in a good atmosphere. We simply do not yet have answers to many questions, and that is to be expected.

We are trying to get the most important decision made as quickly as possible, and that is the question of your new organisational location. All other issues will have to be resolved later. Issues relating to finances, office space and so on will require a lot of work in 2023.

There has been a lot of questions concerning how teaching will be affected by the reorganisation. I would like to emphasise that teaching on programmes and courses in 2023 will be conducted as planned. The purpose of the reorganisation is not to change the curriculum. Changes in curricula should occur over time in response to changing needs of our students and society, as well as changes in the content of our discipline.
Finally, I would like to mention that is ongoing work with risk and impact assessment of the reorganisation process. It is standard practice to try to anticipate challenges arising from changes such as this and to propose measures to mitigate them.

Risks are assessed for staff and students as well as for activities and environments - for the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics as well as for the receiving activities. Meetings are held with safety representatives at each activity. The risk and impact assessments will be included in the MBL negotiations 15 November, in preparation for the Faculty Board meeting on 29 November.

Our next meeting will be held on 10 November 15:00–15:30

Dean, Sven Lidin, gave the following spoken information:

After conducting interviews with the department’s research and teaching staff as well as associate senior lecturers (BUL), there is now a picture of how the reorganisation of the department can proceed. This means – provided that a decision is taken by the Faculty Board – that the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics will be dissolved as of 1 January 2023.

The working hypothesis for the organisational placements is:

• The sub-unit Theoretical Particle Physics is suggested to become part of the Department of Physics. A likely recipient is the division of Particle Physics.
• The sub-unit Computational Biology and Biological Physics is primarily suggested to become part of the Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC).
• The sub-unit Astronomy (Lund Observatory) will need to be split into two parts, one smaller and one larger. 
  The smaller group of astronomers should be placed at the Department of Geology.
  The larger group of astronomers should be placed at the Department of Physics. This group will probably need to be spread over two existing divisions within in the Department of Physics. That is the recommendation I will make to the head of the Department of Physics.

I’ve had discussions with the head of the Department of Physics, the head of the Department of Geology and the director at the Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC). They have given their assent to the working hypothesis and to receive the research groups enumerated above to help us reach a working solution. 

I want to emphasize that the reason for this reorganisation is to give us the necessary tools to handle the work environment issues at the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics, and it is my view that this set of new placements furnishes us with the best possibilities to create good a working environment for everyone.

My intention is to propose this solution to the Faculty Board, at an extraordinary board meeting on 29 November. 

The road forward  

Physical information meetings with the groups identified and the heads of the respective receiving departments will be held next week, or possibly the week after. 

MBL negotiations will be held on 15 November.

The Faculty Board will meet on 29 November to decide on dissolving the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics.

After this, I will decide on the organisational placement of the groups, in discussion with the heads of the receiving departments and possibly LTH.

Dean, Sven Lidin, gave the following spoken information:

What I first would like to say today, is how very important it is to have these meetings to give everyone a chance to get first-hand information about where we are in the process and what the next step is. It is also an opportunity for you to ask questions. We will publish answers to all the questions that come up at this meeting on the web page about the reorganisation process.

Since the last meeting on 13 September, Olle Söderman, Marianne Sommarin and Cecilia Billgren have met with all lecturers and researchers with a permanent position as well as assistant senior lecturers. As a result of these these meetings, they have now been able to get an overview of what collaborations that exists today and how teachers and researchers see the future, for example in terms of research collaboration, education, and organisational affiliation.

The next step is to talk to the management of the Department of Physics. This is important since the Department of Physics is the main recipient of activities from the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics. I will get back to you on the outcome of this at future meetings.  

I would also like to take this opportunity to clarify a few things that I said at earlier meetings. I understand that some things have caused concern.

It has come to my attention that our students worry. I would therefore much appreciate if you who meet the students on an everyday basis, would help them to understand what is happening. It is important to know that all students who are admitted to a programme at the department will be able to complete their studies.All students can also raise issues with their student representatives. I meet with them every two weeks and there is an opportunity then to raise issues that have come up. 

Another thing that has caused concern is my statement from the first information meeting on 30 August. Here I mentioned that at this stage we do not see that this will lead to any redundancies due to overstaffing. My motivation in mentioning this was to make it clear that the work to reorganise the activities of the Department is not being done to save money or to reduce personnel. But we do not today know our future economic situation and how this might affect our operations.

I would like to stress again that it is the organisational placement for all employees that should be ready by 1 January 2023, but much work will remain for 2023. For example, the budget work for 2023 will continue as planned. Then there will be additional work required in the spring of 2023. There is of course a lot to discuss and deal with. 

The next information meeting will be held on Thursday 13 October from 9:00-9:30. You will receive an email with the invitation. Then you will also be informed of the times of the information meetings planned for the rest of the year. As usual, today's information will be published on the webpage during the week.

Dean, Sven Lidin, gave the following spoken information:

Work has progressed on the process of reorganising the department. The proposal that I am working on together with Olle Söderman and Marianne Sommarin is that the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics will be divided. The Department of Physics will be the main recipient of the activities. We have therefore now initiated discussions with the head of department of physics.

The first question that needs to be answered is what future placements are best for research and teaching. All lecturers and researchers with a permanent position as well as assistant senior lecturers have therefore now been offered a meeting with Olle Söderman, Marianne Sommarin and Cecilia Billgren.

The purpose of these meetings is to form a picture of the possible future affiliations teachers and researchers see with other research groups, divisions and departments, both in the short and the long term. PhD students, postdocs and researchers with time limited contracts will of course be placed together with their research group leaders.

Placement of support functions, i.e. where administrative staff will have their future placements, comes in the next step. All administrative staff will soon be invited to meetings to discuss this.

I believe that close cooperation with the unions is important in this process and therefore there are weekly meetings with them.

There is now also a timetable showing that the work on developing a proposal for the new organisation will be completed by the end of October. This is so that the proposal can be negotiated with the unions in mid-November. The timeline of the work will soon be published on the webpage.

I have invited the Faculty Board to a special information meeting on 12 October. The Faculty Board will then take its decision at the Board meeting at the end of November. Should the Faculty Board decide on a change of organisation, this will be implemented by 1 January 2023. This means that by then everyone will have a new organisational placement. However, much of the practical work on finances, premises, physical placements and so on will need to be worked on during the spring.

Regarding the physical placements, the aim will always be that the physical placement of all staff should reflect the organisational placement.

This is the plan that I, Olle Söderman and Marianne Sommarin are following. I know the schedule is tight, but we need to do this urgently to deal with the health and safety issues and allow all staff and students to concentrate on research and education. It is our intention that the process is as transparent as possible.

Our next information meeting will take place on Wednesday 28 September at 11:00–11:30. You will receive an email with the invitation. In addition to these meetings, the main channel of information is the webpage to which you all have got the link to. Please have a look at it from time to time.

The work on a proposal for a new organisation of the activities at the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics is now in progress.

Lecturers and researchers with a permanent position as well as assistant senior lecturers have been invited to meetings with Marianne Sommarin, Olle Söderman and Cecilia Billgren, during the period of 19-22 September. The meetings will take place individually or in the constellations that the invited persons prefer.

The purpose of these meetings is to get an idea of the possible future affiliations that lecturers and researchers see with other research groups, divisions and departments. The discussions will be based on what lecturers and researchers see as best for research and education in the short and long term.

Dean, Sven Lidin, gave the following spoken information:

In December 2021, Marianne Sommarin was appointed as external head of department and was commissioned to work with the faculty management to develop a plan and take the necessary organisational measures to handle the work environment problems at the department.

It has become clear to me and the faculty management that, within the current organization, the deadlocks which exist are far too vast to be overcome in a credible and sustainable way.

It is the responsibility of the faculty management to provide the conditions for a good working environment. We must ensure that the educational and research activities, currently conducted at the department, can continue to be operated and developed in a successful manner. The faculty management sees that the only way to satisfy these conditions is to reorganise the way these activities are carried out. At present, we do not see that this will lead to any dismissals due to redundant staffing.

In addition to finding a long-term solution to the work environment problems, there are also subject-related reasons that support reorganising activities within the current department. These are reflected in both the RQ20-project report and in the special investigation of physics. The investigation was conducted by John Renner Hansen, on behalf of the Department of Physics, which was finally reported in July 2020.

During the autumn, Professor Emeritus Olle Söderman will assist the faculty management in developing proposals for a transformed organisation. Cecilia Billgren, who is already assisting in the work, will continue to act as administrative support.

A proposal for a new organization will be presented during the autumn to the Faculty Board which will decide on the matter. The intention is that the change will be implemented by 1 January 2023.

The Head of Department will continue to have discussions with staff about day-to-day operations. As employees, you can address your views to your safety/protection representatives and to the unions.

The Occupational Health Service is an independent organisation that functions as a support for both employers and employees in matters relating to our work environment. As an employee, you can turn to the Occupational Health Service if you need support in managing your well-being in this (and any) situation. The staff at the Occupational Health Service are bound by confidentiality. No one else will have access to anything said there.

The next information meeting for the department´s staff will take place on Tuesday 13 September at 09:15–09:45. Then I will be able to tell you more about how the work will be laid out.

Additional information:

Information to the unions was given before the meeting on 30 August. Student representatives received the same information on 31 August.