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16 June 2022

Summer greetings from the Director

Time flies. It seems like yesterday when nature was painted in shades of brown and grey and we were gradually recovering from the pandemic. Now nature shows its best face – lush and an amazing display of color. At the same time, it feels that we have taken a step back since most of us are affected by yet another new lock-down, but for a very different reason. The good news is that we know when this one will end.

CEC is a comparatively small unit with high ambitions. I guess that is part of the reason why time seems to pass so quickly – we are simply very busy. Therefore, it is important to look back, reflect and acknowledge all the great things we accomplish together. A few examples from Spring 2022 are:

  • the successful Swedish Climate Symposium
  • the results from a broad faculty survey highlighting the excellent quality of our education resulting in relevant jobs for our students
  • the launch of two major research programs (BioPath and ForestPath)
  • a wonderful urban walk-and-talk staff day
  • last but not least our Friday Fika with great presentations, discussions, laughter and, of course, sandwiches.

All these things, and many more, have been possible thanks to you all.

The coming months we are facing challenges including new localities at Geocenter II as well as handling the outcome of the two faculty-initiated investigations. Together, I am convinced that we will make the best out of these challenges. But before we do that, we should enjoy summer, and I wish you all a relaxing, fun, and sunny holiday with family and friends!

Best wishes,
Per

From the Management

During the temporary close-down of parts of the Ecology building until 31 August, you can find updated information on the link below. To improve the work environment, the flex office in Mikroben on floor 2 will be supplemented with external screens, keyboards and mouses next week. You are free to book any of the four bookable desks, or just drop by to use any of the other desks. There are also two rooms in Tundran that can be used, one of them equipped with an equipment for online meetings. For updated info and contacts, please see the link below. For questions, please ask your line manager.
Temporary close-down of the Ecology building 1 June - 31 August (CEC) (lu.se)

The two parallel investigations on CECs organization are ongoing. You have all received a survey from the external evaluation group to submit no later than tomorrow 17 June. On 23 August the group will make a site visit, meeting representatives from all staff categories: PhD students, Postdocs, Researchers, Research engineers, Teachers, General administrative staff, Administrative staff in coordinating and cross Faculty operations, and Management. You who are involved will get contacted by someone from the Management group. On the Friday fika on 2 September, there will be an update on both investigations by Per and Henrik. If you have any questions, please contact your line manager.

As was told in the last newsletter, CECs Finance officer Eva Stengard will leave CEC at the end of June. In her last few weeks, Eva needs to focus on handing over and closing. Thus, from now on you can no longer count on the same support from Eva. Instead, you need to try and find more answers by using the CEC staff pages (link below), where the Administrative guide, full cost template etc can be found. You can also contact the other staff in the CEC general administration, and they will try and help you out, see link below. Or you could ask a senior colleague of yours.

After the summer holidays, we will come back with more information on how the administrative support in finances and other parts of the general administration will be handled, but please be prepared for generally lower support levels during the autumn semester.
Staff pages on finances
Staff pages on applying for funding
Contact CECs administration

We are approaching the summer holidays which means that the administrative service will be reduced. Please find more information on our summer contact pages for what services are available when and who to contact. At the Friday talk tomorrow 17 June, Per will give a small talk to end the semester, and we will say fare well to the colleagues who are leaving CEC during the summer. First Friday fika and Management information after the summer break will be on 19 August. Please note that Midsummer is celebrated on Friday, 24 June and this is also a public holiday.
Contacts during summer (CEC) (lu.se)

Le Mani Café
The café is now closed for the summer and will re-open on 29 August.

People

Hanna Fors, that has been a post doc in the BECC project Forest visions for 2 years, will end her post doc position during this summer. Hanna has greatly contributed to the CEC and BECC research environment by working across several departments here at LU and also to undergraduate teaching activities. Hanna will return to a researcher position at SLU, Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, and we are confident that she will continue a high impact research career. We are also happy that Alnarp is not that far away, so hoping for continued interactions.

Educational coordinator Helena Gonzales Lindberg will leave CEC and the Sustainability Forum in the end of July. Helena will work as a Researcher II at Nordland Research Institute in Bodø, Norway. We thank Helena for her enthusiasm and engagement in her work on education and wish her the best of luck with her research.
About Nordland Research Institute – nordlandsforskning.no

BECC-funded postdoc Willian Silva will leave CEC and the Biology Department in June. We thank Willian for his important contributions to CEC and BECC and wish him the best of luck with his future research. Willian will move on to a postdoc position at SLU.

Student employee Daniella Andersson will leave CEC and the Sustainability Forum in the end of June, after one and a half years of excellent contributions to our work. Tori Jørgensen and Ronja Karvinen will continue her work on student engagement, education, and sustainability week.

On 17 August we welcome Therese Ek as a new communicator to CEC. Therese will support BECC, MERGE and LU Land in their communication activities, and will share office with Josefin and Lina N.

Opportunities

Doctoral course: Sustainability impacts and Societal Relevance in Research Proposals, 6 September to 16 December
The course is about identifying, estimating and formulating societal relevance and sustainability impacts in writing successful research proposals. The course includes course meetings (online), taking part in the workshop series on the Sustainable Development Goals (on site or hybrid) and examination.
More information and registration (before 29 August)

Dates

CEC Calendar (CEC) (lu.se)

Nailing of doctoral dissertation in Environmental Science: Adrian Gustafson, 9 September at 15:00. The title of the thesis is 'On the role of terrestrial ecosystems in a changing Arctic'.
Save this event to your calendar (CEC) (lu.se)

Public defence of doctoral dissertation in Environmental Science: Adrian Gustafson, 16 September at 10:00. Blå Hallen, Ekolgihuset.
Save this event to your calendar (CEC) (lu.se)

2nd PhD Conference on Sustainable Development, 6-7 October 2022
New ideas, research and opportunities to meet and share ideas are needed to identify and solve complex societal challenges. 6-7th of October, the Agenda 2030 Graduate School will organize a conference on sustainable development to showcase ongoing research and offer networking opportunities for PhDs with similar interests in sustainable development from the whole of Lund University. We invite for submissions of panels, papers, posters and other activities connected to the overall theme on sustainable development. Be creative regarding suggestions of themes or activities. Deadline for submission of panels, papers or other activities are 15th of August. There is no conference fee and the conference sessions will either be held on site or online.2nd PhD Conference on Sustainable Development, 6-7 October 2022 | Sustainability Forum (lu.se)

Save the Date – EC- Earth General Assembly 11 to 13 October in Lund
MERGE is arranging the EC-Earth General Assembly on 11 to 13 October Lund and registration opens during the next few days.
EC-Earth General Assembly – merge.lu.se  

Log in information to newspapers

CEC subscribes to these newspapers:
Dagens Nyheter -
www.dn.se

Sydsvenskan - www.sydsvenskan.se
ATL - www.atl.nu
Aktuell Hållbarhet - www.aktuellhallbarhet.se

All CEC staff can use the online versions. Contact lena [dot] s%C3%B6derberg [at] cec [dot] lu [dot] se (lena.söderberg[at]cec[dot]lu[dot]se) or any other admin to get the log in information.

CEC in the media

Half a degree matters a lot
Markku Rummukainen was interviewed in Östgötacorrespondenten and Västervikstidningen about the importance of keeping the 1.5-degree goal in the Paris Agreement.
Article at Corren.se (In Swedish, behind Paywall)

More and more people are interested in beekeeping – and at the same time, honeybees compete with wild bees
Vetenskapsradion (SR) is reporting that more and more people are interested in beekeeping and is also mentioning the report from CEC about how honeybees compete with wild bees for flower resources.
Article at sverigesradio.se (in Swedish)

Environmental forensic - the first result of a strategic investment in new commissioned training
The University Magazine LUM has written about the new course in environmental forensics, arranged by CEC (Martijn and Yvonne) and LUCE.
Article on lu.se (In Swedish)

How does a decline in pollinators affect wild meadow plants?
Veg Tech has written about Yann Cloughs and Veronica Hederström fieldwork, on how a decline in pollinators affects wild meadow plants.
Article on Mynewsdesk.se (In Swedish)

Pictures and videos during your time at CEC – GDPR
During your time at CEC there will be pictures taken and videos shot at staff meetings etc. If you do not wish to appear in photos, videos etc. please notify anna_maria [dot] erling [at] cec [dot] lu [dot] se (anna_maria[dot]erling[at]cec[dot]lu[dot]se) or stina [dot] johannesson [at] cec [dot] lu [dot] se (stina[dot]johannesson[at]cec[dot]lu[dot]se)
Information about data protection at Lund University – lu.se

About the newsletter
The CEC newsletter is sent to employees and those that are associated with CEC. The newsletter is sent out on Thursdays every second week. If you have anything you would like to add to the newsletter, please send your information to karin [dot] hofvendahl [at] cec [dot] lu [dot] se (karin[dot]hofvendahl[at]cec[dot]lu[dot]se) no later than Tuesday the same week.