“The initiative has generated great interest among highly qualified researchers,” says Erik Renström, Vice-Chancellor of Lund University.
The call for applications refers to 15 assistant professor (associate senior lecturer) positions and at least ten visiting professor positions.
In total, 968 people applied for the assistant professorships. The position at the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology was most sought after with 234 applications.
A total of 357 people applied for a position as visiting professor. The Faculty of Science attracted the most interest regarding visiting professorships with 86 applicants.
Among the applicants are researchers from Switzerland’s largest university, ETH Zurich, and the highly respected Max Planck Institutes in Germany. There are also applicants from other higher education institutions in Europe, such as KU Leuven, Oxford and Cambridge, as well as from Harvard, Princeton and Stanford in the USA.
“We have noted a USA effect at some of our faculties, but there has also been a strong response from many other parts of the world such as Singapore and Australia, countries that the University has focused on particularly. The great response is a result of Lund University’s good international reputation and the extensive work that our faculties and departments have done to reach out globally. We can now expand our international networks and they will help us to become even better,” says Erik Renström.
Lund University is now moving on to the selection and appointment stages. The aim is for all the positions to be filled by late 2025 or early 2026. The University will also select ten candidates who will be nominated for the Swedish Research Council’s call for applications concerning assistant professors, which opens in January 2026.
Lund University currently has around 3,400 salaried employees in the research staff category.
| Total number of applicants, assistant professor: 968 |
| Total number of applicants, visiting professor: 357 |
The initiative has two parts:
- Assistant professors (also known as associate senior lecturers). This is a career development position for early-career researchers that aims to lead to permanent employment as a senior lecturer. The focus is on recruiting top international researchers at an early stage of their career and the initiative is in response to the Swedish Research Council’s forthcoming investment in career support.
- Visiting professors are employed for a fixed term and scope, and contribute unique expertise that the faculty lacks within its subject area. The initiative is aimed at professors at higher education institutions outside Sweden in order to strengthen the University’s international impact.