The phoenix of Brunnshög

In my last blog post I brought up the importance of the ‘open’ university and having an open dialogue with the surrounding community, and wrote: “We don’t know how the world will develop over the course of our students’ careers, but we can be sure that plenty will happen that we can’t foresee today.” To the north-east, at Brunnshög, the future is quickly taking shape: MAX IV will open this summer and ESS is under construction. Two of Europe’s, and maybe even the world’s, most advanced research facilities are being built in little Lund. Perhaps this is the biggest thing to happen to Lund since the university was founded in 1666. How will this affect the Faculty of Engineering LTH?

Land has been set aside right in between ESS and MAX IV which the university owns jointly with the city and the region. The purpose of this land is to build a research village – Science Village Scandinavia (SVS). This will be an important meeting place for academia and industry, and a dynamic hub for research, innovation and development. This is definitely a place where we’ll want to be! Exactly how and in what way is something we’re currently thinking about. We have to evaluate which of our operations have the most to gain by being on site at SVS. There is research at LTH that is closely linked to ESS and MAX IV, and the same goes for other other parts of the university. Perhaps mostly at the faculties of science and medicine, but I am sure other faculties can find their own links. The opportunities are enormous!

For this reason, LTH has, together with the faculties of science and medicine, asked LU Buildings to investigate moving certain operations to SVS. They will assess the practical issues such as size, space and rent costs. It will then be up to us to consider which operations would be suitable to move. I hope that the LU Buildings will be ready with their part of the assessment before the summer.

ESS and MAX IV will attract scientifically minded people and innovative forces to our region. Researchers from all over the world will come to conduct experiments there, and they will need other resources that the university can provide. This is something we strongly encourage in order to promote new collaborations. Our role at LTH will be important – we have many years’ experience of collaborating with industry and society. We want to collaborate!

I started by asking how all this will affect LTH. Perhaps a more relevant question to ask is how it will affect Lund University and Lund? I don’t have the answer, but I am convinced that there is great potential here. Not just for those directly linked to research at ESS and MAX IV, but for everyone! The future is bright for Lund – let’s make the most of it! Let’s not get discouraged by the naysayers. Let’s make sure it’s a phoenix that rises from the earth at Brunnshög!

Viktor Öwall
Dean of the Faculty of Engineering LTH