NEWS The government has urged Swedish universities to discontinue ongoing collaborations with Russian and Belarusian state institutions and not to start any new collaborations. "So far, we see only a marginal impact on the University's operations, says Per Ragnarsson, chair of the central crisis management group at Umeå University.
On Wednesday 2 March, the government called on Swedish universities to freeze and stop their education and research collaborations with state institutions in Russia and Belarus.
Umeå University is following this recommendation and has, after a quick review of ongoing student and staff exchange agreements and research projects, identified a handful of collaborations that fall within this definition, and after consultation with the relevant head of department or manager have been immediately halted.
Per Ragnarsson is deputy university director and budget director at Umeå University. He is also head of the Planning Office.
ImageMattias Pettersson"Umeå University is a government agency and we follow and will continue to follow the recommendations that we receive from the government on academic collaborations," says Per Ragnarsson, chairman of central crisis management group and deputy university director at Umeå University.
Current Russian and Belarusian researchers at Umeå University, as well as other staff and students are not affected by these measures.
Some international collaborations that are exisiting between individual researchers at Umeå University and researchers in Russia and Belarus will continue as usual. In these collaborations, neither funding nor agreements are conducted with Russian or Belarusian government agencies.
"The Russian researchers at Umeå University are employed at Umeå University," says Per Ragnarsson. "We see no reason to act in any particular way when it comes to these researchers, rather that they continue with their important work in research and education, respectively. Umeå University sees it as important with the state's values and that all people who work at the university are respected and have good working conditions and that we provide support to all employees and students who are concerned about the war in Ukraine."