ClimBEco autumn meeting 2025

The Erasmus+ Staff training application

The processes for applying for Erasmus+ funding from Lund University, the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers are rather similar and straight forward. There are many steps however, and each of them has to be done correctly, which may feel overwhelming and time-consuming. Have no fear, we at ClimBEco have your back and will make it as simple as we can.

While it is ClimBEco that has been promoting and arranging this event, it's important that YOU as the PhD student can identify and articulate your own motivation for the exchange with Hamburg University.

Why Hamburg University?

Welcome to browse the webpages of CLICCS, SICCS or CEN. Full disclosure: the following summary is generated on 14Apr from Copilot upon my promt, "What are the strengths of the University of Hamburg when it comes to research on climate and climate change?".

The University of Hamburg is renowned for its comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to climate research. Here are some of its key strengths:

1. Cluster of Excellence CliCCS: The Climate, Climatic Change, and Society (CliCCS) initiative builds on the previous CliSAP program. It focuses on understanding climate changes, including natural variations, extreme events, and unexpected effects. CliCCS integrates basic research with climate system dynamics and social dynamics, aiming to develop plausible future climate scenarios on all scales—from global to local[1][2].

2. Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN): This center supports interfaculty project development, academic management, and communication. It represents the core research area of Climate, Earth, and Environment at the university. CEN facilitates collaboration among various faculties and research centers[1].

3. Interdisciplinary Collaboration: The university collaborates with several research partners, including the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Institute for Coastal Research, and the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine. This collaboration enhances the breadth and depth of climate research[1].

4. Innovative Projects: The university is involved in numerous key programs and collaborative projects, such as the Priority Program on Regional Sea Level Change and Society, the BMBF-Project HD(CP)² for advancing climate prediction, and the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL)[1].

5. Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook: This initiative provides insights into how climate change adaptation can succeed through meticulously thought-through measures that are climate-friendly and socially just. It emphasizes the importance of public involvement in developing these measures[2].

The University of Hamburg's strengths lie in its ability to combine excellent basic research with complex computer models, case studies, and concrete adaptation scenarios, making it a leader in climate change research.

What will we do there?

The exact program of the ClimBEco meeting is currently being designed by me and my counterpart, Dr. Berit Hachfeldt, at SICCS, to make it as relevant and interesting to your research areas as possible, and also to have a great time. The general idea is that we will start with a dinner together on the evening of the 15 September, followed by two days of full activities morning until evening on 16 and 17 September. From the morning of 18 September the event is officially over and travel elsewhere can begin.

How will we travel?

Normally ClimBEco arranges all transportation, but the advantage of making this an Erasmus exchange is that you are allowed to extend your stay abroad on either side of the ClimBEco meeting for private travelling/holidays if you want (follow your own institutions policy regarding booking and reporting holidays). This means that each person should book their travels to and from Hamburg themselves. Choose a low-emissions mode of transport (bike 🤯, bus, train, car-pooling, etc) and book it through your regular means of booking international travel from your university (Lund uses BCD Travel or Togrejse, UGOT uses Egencia).

Where will we stay?

ClimBEco has booked all accommodations from 15 September until 18 September (3 nights) at the The Pyjama Park Hotel and Hostel in Schanzenviertel. You will be staying in a same-gendered room, only with other ClimBEco participants, which is either a six-bed room or a quadruple room. It is a very cool place, be sure to check it out.

Ok, back to the Erasmus+ application

Below is detailed information for when you apply for Erasmus+ Staff training (kompetensutveckling). The required information is the same for all universites, but please do contact me if your form looks different/needs different info. Please note, the application page will time-out after some hours so if you cannot do it all at once, consider writing in Word then pasting into the form when you're ready.

Lund University Erasmus+ staff training page - has a step by step guide

University of Gothenurg Staff portal

Start an application, select the Staff Training (STT) application form.

General data

All should be self explanatory. Choose Workshop as type of training. Your Contact person is your line manager or supervisor, whichever makes most sense for you and can sign your application.

All LU funding can be directed to ClimBEco, and we will try to cover all of the costs of the trip from ClimBEco directly. You can therefore give ClimBEco accounting data:

Cost centre: 156918
Activity: 100144

Mobility data

Type of mobility - Physical

Start date - 2025-09-16
End date - 2025-09-17
NB! The mobility days does not include travel days. We will have a welcome dinner on 2025-09-15 but the programme officially starts in the morning of September 16.

Pedagogical skills - No, Staff mobility for training

Fewer opportunities - No

Green Mobility - Yes

Motivation

These four sections under Motivation will require a bit of thinking on your part, but they are relatively short. Here are tips to help you writing them.

1. Objective

   Here is where you need to articulate your own objectives and how it will support your learning. You may start with the following sentence that puts this exchange into the context of ClimBEco; "I am a member of the graduate research school ClimBEco, a two-year graduate research school that promotes interdisciplinary research by supporting PhD students in networking and learning in the fields of climate, biodiversity and ecosystem services. As part of this mobility, my ClimBEco colleagues and I will visit the School of Integrated Climate and Earth System Sciences at the University of Hamburg, which is renowned for its comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to climate system dynamics."

   Continue with something like, "My objective with this mobility is..."

   Consider using a concept or two such as cooperation, quality, inclusion, equity, excellence, creativity or innovation, and speak in the I-form. And be bold! They want to know what training or learning you can get from this mobility. ("I want to become better at..."). What is UHH good at, that would benefit you? All of our universities aim to improve climate models and develop actionable insights for policy and adaptation strategies, integrating social dynamics - which of these skills or perspectives compliment your own learning goals?

2. Added value

   Again, this needs to be written from your perspective as a research student, but may also include how it supports internationalisation strategies of your home institution. Lund, Gothenburg and Chalmers are all working to create a better world, improve the human condition, or be a university for the world. Look up your university's visions or internationalisation plans, and refer to them. You are all arguably in a research field that is fundamental to solving major sustainability challenges. Leverage that!

3. Content

   This part you may copy verbatim from below into your application 👏. If you choose to arrive earlier/stay later than skip the text about travelling:

   The general activity plan is as follows:
   15 September. Travel day from Sweden, get settled at hotel. Have an informal welcome dinner and ice breaker.
   16 and 17 September. Two full day thematized lectures, workshops and study visits together with participants of the SICCS graduate school. This will include guest presentations from senior members of the “Climate, climatic change and society” (CLICCS) Cluster of Excellence and tours of some of the state-of-the-art research facilities at UHH. It will also include an element of getting to know another European city and culture by, for example, taking a city or harbour tour of Hamburg. 
   18 September, travel day, returning in the evening to Sweden.

4. Outcomes

   Here you write how you will develop as a staff member, including your professional and personal development. Can this mobility have outcomes for the development of your institution? For example, could you imagine joining in collaborative projects with UHH to produce high-impact research? Or perhaps you want to be able to co-publish or share data sets in the future? Maybe you can bring specific lessons back to your institution or research group. Or create a more robust and interconnected research network to bring respective strengths forward together.

5. Digital skills - Not applicable

Host organisation & travel data

Destination - Germany

Name: University of Hamburg

Department/Unit - School of Integrated Climate and Earth System Sciences (SICSS)

Organisation type - EPLUS-EDU-HEI (higher education)

Erasmus code - D  HAMBURG01 (start to type in University of Hamburg and this code comes up)

Contact - Dr. Berit Hachfeld

Contact email - berit [dot] hachfeld [at] uni-hamburg [dot] de

Contact phone - +49 40 42838-4206

Street address - Grindelberg 5/7

Zipcode - D-20144

City - Hamburg

Travel days - 2 days (adjust accordingly 👇)

Means of transportation - (choose relevant 🏃‍♀️🚌🚄🚲🛴🛸)

Real distance: from Gothenburg 478.37 km, from Lund 315.4 km. Using Distance Calculator

Complete your Mobility Agreement

When you're application is complete, print it and gather the three signatures (yours, your institutional contact person, and the host contact person), then upload it again. Dr. Hachfeld is prepared to sign it as the 'host contact person', just send her an email (see contact email above) stating that you are from ClimBEco.

Complete your Grant Agreement

Once your Mobility Agreement is complete and turned 'green' you get access to your Grant Agreement. Read the agreement closely and when you're ready, sign it. It will be countersigned by the Erasmus office so you do not need to collect any other signatures.

Certificate of Attendance

You can download this certificate and send it by email to Cheryl. In Hamburg she will collect necessary signatures, scan it, and return it to you by email.