Excellence Programme for Sustainable Development
Lund University aspires to be at the very forefront of both research and education for sustainability, and in 2024 Lund University was ranked 8th in the world in the QS Sustainability Rankings. As a step further in this direction, the university has decided to allocate up to SEK 100 million to a university-wide excellence initiative for postdocs and PhD students focusing on Agenda 2030 and sustainable development.
The excellence initiative consists of two parts: 1) new investment in doctoral studentships in the Agenda 2030 graduate school and 2) funding for interdisciplinary research projects as part of an excellence programme for postdocs and assistant professors.
The purpose of the excellence programme is to create internationally leading research environments, form a basis for national and European applications for research funding, and constitute platforms for career development for early career researchers including competence development in teaching and learning in higher education.
Open positions
Lund University is advertising new postdoctoral positions which together are to contribute to excellence in sustainability research. Links to Varbi recruitment system are listed below when available.
Hiring in process: Postdoctor in public law with focus on environmental and administrative law (varbi.com) Last day to apply was 31 August.
Projects funded in the second call for postdoc fellowships are listed below.
LU4Water aims to show how the complete water picture can be presented in Sweden and globally to allow for a comprehensive and sustainable water policy to be developed. This must contain reliable and sufficient knowledge of natural and anthropogenic water needs for present and future generations. LU4Water will combine cutting-edge research from six LU faculties to overcome unsustainable water use by developing a master plan for water policy starting with Swedish conditions.
Principal investigator
Kenneth M Persson, Division of Water Resources Engineering
Postdocs
- Dong An, Division of Water Resources Engineering
- Nikolas Benavides Höglund, Department of Geology
- Erik Brattström, Department of Sociology
- Juliane Koch, Department of Economics
- Johanna Ohlsson, Department of History
Other involved researchers
Global value chains are the foundation of today’s economy, account for 50% of global trade and have enormous social and environmental effects. The project is to examine the shift from global value chains to circular supply chains, which brings with it tensions between linear and circular business models and between global companies and local actors as well as a policy perspective on deregulation and forms of governance that include environmental and social consideration.
Principal investigator
Markus Grillitsch, Department of Human Geography
Postdocs
- Jonathan Friedrich, Department of Human Geography
- Vitor Miranda de Souza, Department of Design Sciences
- Linda Stihl, Department of Economic History
Other involved researchers
Projects funded in the first call for postdoc fellowships are listed below.
The project will focus on how welfare systems in OECD countries can address challenges, such as increasing inequality, demographic changes and environmental crises in the absence of economic growth, which has proven to be difficult to disconnect from greenhouse emissions and ecological footprints. The project will collaborate nationally and internationally with different stakeholders and an international expert panel to develop and evaluate ways of pursuing welfare without economic growth.
Read more about the project - portal.research.lu.se
Principal investigator
Max Koch, School of Social Work
Postdocs
- Riya Raphael, School of Social Work
- Jennifer Hinton, Centre for Environmental and Climate Science
- Timothée Parrique, Department of Business Administration
Other involved researchers
This project aims to develop a conceptual framework for how nature-based solutions – actions that protect, sustainably manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems – generate synergies and mitigate trade-offs between biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, public health and human wellbeing. The framework will be based on research in biodiversity, ecosystem processes, environmental psychology and epidemiology, and the common connections that can be found across subject boundaries. The research team’s framework will be used in a pilot study with stakeholders and the ultimate aim is to create a new field of research examining multifunctional nature, which encompasses biodiversity, climate, social aspects and health effects.
Read more about the project - portal.research.lu.se
Principal investigator
Henrik Smith, Centre for Environmental and Climate Science
Postdocs
- Pauline Rebouillat, Internal Medicine – Epidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences
- Carolina Rodriguez, Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
- Marlis Wullenkord, Environmental Psychology, Department of Architecture and Built Environment
Other involved researchers
- Cecilia Akselsson, Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
- Maria Johansson, Environmental Psychology, Department of Architecture and Built Environment
- Peter Nilsson, Internal Medicine – Epidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences
- Per-Olof Östergren, Social Medicine and Global Health, Department of Clinical Sciences
- Jonas Björk, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine
Globally, the construction industry is a major producer of emissions. It uses considerable natural resources and energy and generates large volumes of waste. The industry is in great need of adaptation in order to be sustainable in the long term. Providing support for a circular building sector requires several approaches and the research project is intended to be part of a larger centre of expertise in which experience and knowledge are shared between academia, industry and local communities. The project will cover policies and regulations, responsibilities and agreements, economic models and goals for waste and district heating.
Read more about the project - portal.research.lu.se
Principal investigators
- Dennis Johansson, Department of Building & Environmental Technology, Faculty of Engineering
- Ulla Janson, Division on Building Services, Department of Building and Environmental Technology
Postdocs
- Paul Gontia, The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE)
- Karin Farsäter, Department of Building and Environmental Technology, Faculty of Engineering (LTH)
- Sönnich Dahl Sönnichsen, Department of Business Administration
- Marcus Utterström, Department of Law
Other involved researchers
- Per Samuelsson, Department of Law
- Lena Neij, The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE)
- Jessika Luth Richter, The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE)
- Henrik Davidsson, Division of Energy and Building Design, Department of Building and Environmental Technology
- Johan Anselmsson, Marketing, Department of Business Administration
- Annette Cerne, Marketing, Department of Business Administration
Contact
For general questions about the Excellence Programme, contact:
Terese Thoni
Education coordinator
Sustainability Forum
terese [dot] thoni [at] cec [dot] lu [dot] se (terese[dot]thoni[at]cec[dot]lu[dot]se)
For questions about the projects and open positions, contact principal investigators (PIs).
The research projects in the media
Article by postdoctoral Timothée Parrique in The Conversation:
Economic growth is fuelling climate change – a new book proposes ‘degrowth communism’ as the solution, March 2023 - theconversation.com
Postdoctoral Marlis Wullenkord in a filmed conversation from 2023 for the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR) about feelings connected to climate change.
Watch the conversation at urplay.se (In Swedish)
