Agenda of steering committee meeting of Focus on Soils & Water November 17 2014, 10:00-12:00, room
Marken in the MVM centre, Ultuna, SLU.
1. Chair, secretary
Carina Ortiz chair, Maria Kahlert secretary, Richard Johnson to adjust the protocol
2. Minutes of September 11 2014
approved by all
3. Mobility stipend report
3.1. Report Charlotta Tiberg for participation in the 20th World Congress of Soil Science (WCSS), June 823 2014, Korea. Budget 16000 kr, approved 5000 kr, report 12072 kr.
Alternative 1) I approve that Charlotta Tiberg gets 5000 kr.
Approved by all.
4. Report Career Day
4.1. Career day 22/10, room J, 9-16, together with RS Ecology and Organism Biology. Maria main
responsible. Budget: 10626 kr, Report: 16396 kr.
Costs to be divided by 3 RS “Ecology its Basics and Applications”, "Organism Biology" and “Focus
on Soils and Water”, for FoSW the costs are 5465 kr.
Alternative 1) I approve the report of the Career Day of 5465 kr for FoSW and in total 16396 kr.
Approved by all.
5. Report Driving Damages
FoSW had decided to finance the workshop with 5000 kr as we assumed that 5 PhD students would
participate, and each would be supported by 1000 kr (28 April 2104). This sum was based on earlier
budgets for workshops that we had arranged in cooperation with others. As the number of participating
PhD students was 8, FoSW decided to increase the funding of the workshop to 8000 kr FoSW steering
meeting. Report: 8000 kr, 7 PhD students and one MSc student.
Alternative 1) I approve the report of the Driving Damages workshop of 8000 kr.
Approved by all.
6. FoSW, faculty, RS cooperation
6.1. FUN decision 6 of November 2014
FoSW applied for 1 286 936 kr, but will receive 1 197 000 kr (-7%).
The discussion centered on how to prioritize activities: (i) agreed that we should try to keep the resilience
workshop, but see if costs can be reduced (Maria will discuss this with David Angeler, the course organizer);
(ii) discussed removing the “current topic” workshop from next year’s program; (iii) discussed lowering the
costs for holding the PhD Biogeochemical cycles course.
In the future, FUN will probably produce guidelines concerning reimbursement for PhD courses and
number of participants. PhD students from abroad might have to pay part or all for participating in SLU’s
RSs activities. However, courses and international PhD students also give international contacts and
thereby may lead to networking.
6.2. RS cooperation meeting
Next FUN meeting 2/12, both Carina and Maria will participate to present FoSW.
6.3. Multivariate statistic course, decision 6 of November 2014
FUN decision: Will be funded by FUN 2015 (by HP), but should be included in RS 2016.
RS Organism Biology is also planning a multivariate course. Maria will talk to Ulf Grandin and Johanna
Boberg to plan the course, and to optimize if there will be 2 courses (no competition, but cooperation).
Directors of study
Maria Kahlert
Maria.Kahlert@slu.se
Carina Ortiz
Carina.Ortiz@slu.se
FoSW is concerned about that the statistical courses for PhD students at SLU: type of course offered,
schedule, pedagogical style, organization and quality, and would like to start a bottom-up discussion with
FUN about a holistic view on this. Mikael Franko, who was assigned by FUR the task of planning PhD
statistical education, did not invite the RS for a discussion, although it was agreed upon at the
“Fakultetsövergripande möte om generella doktorandkurser på SLU 7/5 9-12 2013” (organized by FoSW).
Decision of FoSW steering meeting:
FoSW would like FUN to take up the discussion about a holistic view of SLU’s statistic courses with the
example of UUs system. During the next RS coordinator meeting we should discuss what types of statistical
courses SLU PhD students need and how these courses should be planned. The RS should prepare a list of
courses that can be presented to FUN as basis for further bottom-up discussions.
Maria will send the summary of the statistic courses discussion of the meetings of the
“Fakultetsövergripande möte om generella doktorandkurser på SLU 7/5 9-12 2013” to the steering group
asking for constructive input and a statement for further discussions with FUN.
6.4. Meeting with Petra Fransson (Director of studies Ultuna) & Göran Spång (Director of studies at Forestry
faculty and PhD students)
Forestry faculty is very interested in harmonizing PhD activities across SLU’s faculties. Funding of RS in the
future might change so that both S and NJ faculty might pay for FoSW, depending on participation.
7. Ongoing activities
7.1. PhD course: PNG0057 Ecosystem functioning: From Theory to Application, 3.0 credits
2014-11-17 to 2014-11-21. Information Maria
Course fully booked (15 participants), 2 open lectures this week.
7.2. PhD course: PNS0115 X-ray image processing and analyses, 3 credits. 2014-11-18 to2014-11-21
Information Carina
16 students, more than fully booked.
8. Lunch seminars
This autumn 4 seminars, 2 lunch and 2 coffee seminars were held, with 2 more seminars planned
before the end of the year. Preetisri has contact with Björn, and also opponent of Maja Larsson for
giving a seminar.
9. Other
Biogeochemical course: Björn has met with Stephan Köhler & Magnus Simonsson and Carina.
Discussions ongoing. Björn is preparing a short schedule/aim for the course, and Carina/Lisbeth
will ask the PhD students.
10. Next meeting
2015-02-02 kl 13.
Directors of study
Maria Kahlert
Maria.Kahlert@slu.se
Carina Ortiz
Carina.Ortiz@slu.se