Here you will find the events organised by UTRI. For a comprehensive list of activities from 2023 and 2024, please visit our Swedish webpage.
2023-04-02 | Advancing urban health and resilience to climate change through nature-based solutions
REPORT
The unpredictable nature of climate change poses considerable challenges to public health because it acts as a multiplier on existing exposure pathways and thus exacerbates existing vulnerabilities. Urban settings are particularly susceptible to the impacts of extreme weather events due to high population densities with shared exposure pathways.
These challenges were addressed at the UTRITransformationTalk on 2 June by Jan Semenza on Advancing urban health and resilience to climate change through nature-based solutions. The around 40 participants at the event jointly hosted by UTRI and the department of public Health and Clinical Medicine could follow the very insightful talk by Jan who is an environmental epidemiologist with research interests in climate change and public health at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine.
With his extensive experience in the field at universities in Europe and United States, CDC Atlanta, ECDC, and substantial work engagement in many countries of the world and in IPCC and Lancet Countdown, Jan were able bridge across multiple important and interlinked issues and transformative ways to circumvent negative impacts. He showed the importance of not only improving the built environment, but that interventions must also be designed more holistically to also advance social capital to enhance community capacity, resilience, and mental health.
One of the most important conclusions as well as messages of the talk was the need to transcend the traditional disciplinary boundaries and embrace a more multi-faceted approach to public health, which he referred to as lateral public health.
The one hour talk by Jan was directly followed by a very rewarding 40-minutes discussion across the seminar participants.
2023-01-10 | A sustainable future for minoritized languages in the Nordics
REPORT
On 10 January 2023 the symposium Applying linguistics for sustainability in Nordic contexts took place at Umeå University in Vardagsrummet/ Humanisthuset. The event gathered around 30 participants from the Nordic countries who were all keen to discuss minoritized languages and sustainability.
Language is a crucial component in achieving a sustainable life and world, but so far language and linguistics have largely been missing from the agenda of sustainability studies. The symposium at Umeå University brought language researchers and minoritized language practitioners such as e.g. mother tongue teachers, translators, minoritized language activists and representants from the culture sector together, to discuss applications of linguistics for sustainability in Nordic contexts. The main aim was to share to share multifaceted approaches and examples from branches of linguistics where sustainable development goals have been explicitly addressed, for instance minoritized language education.
After words of welcome by Daniel Andersson, Head of the Department of Language Studies, and Annika Egan Sjölander, leader and member of the UTRI: s steering group, the symposium featured three interesting keynote lecturers. First out was Coppélie Cocq (UmU) who presented results from her recent FORMAS-funded research project on the visibility of minority languages in public spaces. After this followed a presentation by Pigga Keskitalo (University of Lapland) focusing on Indigenous language eduction in the Arctic. The third keynote lecture was given by Liisa-Rávná Finbog (University of Tampere) who spoke about archives of invisibility and the brutality of dispossession discussing the notion of sustainability through an Indigenous lense.
The finale of the event was a roundtable discussion between PhD-students in language studies from Umeå University and UiT- The Arctic University of Norway, in which they reflected on how to implement sustainability and transformation in their ongoing research projects. The roundtable was moderated by Haley de Korne (UiO).
The symposium was also part of a Nordic workshop series on Linguistic and sustainability and was made possible by financial and administrative support from UTRI, the Umeå Transformation Research Initiative.
2022-08-25 | Participation at the MedFak's administrator day
REPORT
On August 25, Maria Nilsson, Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Global Health together with environmental and sustainability strategist Lisa Redin, participated in an inspirational morning for the Medical faculty's administrators. The focus of the session was Agenda 2030.
Maria talked about the history of sustainable development, how the concept came about and how it has led to the 17 global sustainability goals decided by the UN today with its 169 sub-goals. Maria highlighted special goal number 3, Good health for all who have a special bearing on the Faculty of Medicine, the teaching and research and collaboration conducted there. Maria went on to say that the goals are indivisible, that they are all connected and all include all three dimensions of sustainability: the social, the economic and the environmental.
Lisa continued her presentation where Maria left off and concretized what sustainable development and Agenda 2030 mean at Umeå University. She also told us what work is going on linked to sustainability today and gave some examples of what Agenda 2030 could be linked to administrators' work more concretely. Lisa said that, for example, administrators could perhaps be teaching staff help and, with an overall view of the department, book the "right" teaching room for the different courses depending on group size and also to perhaps get a better spread during the day. Lisa also talked about dilemmas around air travel, purchasing and suggested that administrators might be able to help achieve more sustainable meetings.
- It was fun to participate with, Lisa said afterwards. I received a lot of questions and good suggestions from the administrators that I can take with me into the university's continued overall sustainability work.
2022-05-23 | 2nd Umeå Symposium on Hypoxic Biology with focus on Microbiology
REPORT
The symposium focused on understanding the importance of low oxygen concentrations in the microbiology research field. The Umeå Hypoxic Research Facility (UHRF) was introduced, and eight world leading researchers presented their most recent achievements on hypoxic research.
The symposium was divided into two sessions. The first session was focused on hypoxic research in microbial ecology, and the second one was centered on the importance of controlling oxygen concentrations when working with human commensal and pathogenic bacteria.
The symposium had more than 100 participants from all around the globe and the attendants had the opportunity to watch cutting-edge research performed in different prestigious institutions.
The mission for UHRF is to play a role in supporting the international well-being agenda not only by facilitating fruitful interactions among scientists from very different research fields, but also by enabling the greater access to the latest research advances.
2022-05-09 | Effects of the pandemic on the European Arctic and Indigenous Health
REPORT
2022-03-22 | UTRI Lunch-pitch: Green societies – green knowledge?
REPORT
On the 22nd of March, Janina Priebe, Erland Mårald from History of Science and Ideas at Umu and Hanna Vikström from History at Luleå University of Technology arranged a lunch pitch where they presented their ongoing work on a research proposal. Under the title ‘Green societies – green knowledge?’ they presented their ideas and case studies about how the green prefix of the ongoing re-industrialization of northern Sweden creates new views on knowledge.
The participants came from a variety of disciplines, including medical sciences, architecture, and business and economics.
“It is great to see that researchers from different disciplines can gather around the issue of transformation and support each other in the attempt to formulate new ideas. This is what we need if we want to do research that considers all human dimensions of change in society”, Janina said afterwards.
Hanna added, “The lunch pitch was a great opportunity to present ideas and get feedback on our proposal. We encourage others to arrange similar seminars, we most certainly will!”
2022-03-15 | Fika-pitch with YRN
Title: To transform and utilise knowledge and ideas
REPORT
On March 15th, UTRI Young Research Network arranged another fika-pitch in which the innovation office at Umeå University was invited to talk about Transforming and utilizing knowledge and ideas.
“In real-life meetings are appreciated, and we at UTRI Young Research Network feel encouraged to continue arranging events to promote discussions about transformative research.”
2022-02-03 | How do societies really change? Human perspectives on forest, climate and sustainability
Link to the event in calendar (in Swedish)
REPORT
On Thursday, February 3, UTRI, in collaboration with the research project Take Down the Sky to the Earth (Formas), conducted the online meeting “How do societies really change? Human perspectives on forest, climate and sustainability ”. Short research presentations by Erland Mårald, Isabella Hallberg-Sramek, Janina Priebe and Elsa Reimerson shed light on how the forest can be used to make the climate issue constructively attackable in local contexts.
The lectures discussed how the overall global climate issue can be anchored in a human and local perspective to create conditions for change that is inclusive and that gives people opportunities to take control of their situation.
During the meeting, Clara Bodén's film "First Here" was also shown and Andrea Rodriguez, Secretary General of Studiefrämjandet, discussed the importance of self-education and study circles for creating engagement and rings on the water. (Link to film on SVT Play, in Swedish)
The meeting ended with a panel discussion between Göran Ericsson, Dean of SLU; Helene Hellmark Knutsson Governor of Västerbotten; Hans Adolfsson, vice chancellor of Umeå University, and Kerstin Dafnäs, Chair of Spillkråkan, a network for women forest owners.
The entire meeting took place under the chairmanship of moderator Malin von Essen. A total of 135 listeners attended the meeting "live" and over 200 registered to take part in the meeting, which was available for a week.
2021-12-08 | Fika Pitch Christmas closing
REPORT
At the last pitch for the autumn semester, the steering group for UTRI was invited to discuss issues of relevance to young researchers. Annika Egan Sjölander, Erland Mårald and Carina Keskitalo answered questions regarding building a career whilst focusing on sustainability, interdisciplinary and transformative research and how we can work with these challenges within UTRI YRN.
2021-11-24 | Fika Pitch for young researchers
Link to article before the event
REPORT
The Scandinavian school of degrowth advocates profound changes in our socio-economic structures. Sufficiency is one of the central concepts in degrowth. We got to learn more about a project that explores ‘lagom’ as a culturally adapted manifestation of sufficiency.
The presentation was held by. Robert O. Nilsson
2021-10-27 | Fika Pitch for young researchers
REPORT
At this pitch, we listened to Iana Nesterova. The title for the pitch was: Being in the world locally: degrowth business, critical realism, and geography.
The structure of this autumn's Fika Pitch is that young researchers briefly present their research, a problem they want to discuss or future research ideas. The purpose of the meetings is to create an informal environment and a network for young researchers who are interested in interdisciplinary research that focuses on adaptation and sustainability.
2021-10-13 | Fika Pitch for young researchers
REPORT
Tomasz Forsberg presented a student-run course that is available in Uppsala.
The structure of this autumn's Fika Pitch is that young researchers briefly present their research, a problem they want to discuss or future research ideas. The purpose of the meetings is to create an informal environment and a network for young researchers who are interested in interdisciplinary research that focuses on adaptation and sustainability.
2021-10-07 | Information meeting on Formas' call on preserving biodiversity and ecosystems
REPORT
On the digital meeting about the call European Biodiversity Partnership: Supporting the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems across land and sea the participants got the opportunity to get information about the EU's partnership call, both about the pre proposal and the full proposal, requirements when applying for partnership funding from Formas, and available support from the Research Support and Collaboration Office. The meeting was led by Johanna Gardeström and Agneta Plamboeck, Research Support and Collaboration Office.
2021-09-29 | Fika Pitch for young researchers
In this first Fika Pitch Eleonora Borén held a presentation entitled enhanced biogas production, and how interdisciplinary research is key in improving anaerobic digestion for bioenergy production.
After that, Anna Valverius talked about sexual communication skills and how interdisciplinary research is crucial to expand the current research on consent and sexual communication skills.
The structure of this autumn's Fika Pitch is that young researchers briefly present their research, a problem they want to discuss or future research ideas. The purpose of the meetings is to create an informal environment and a network for young researchers who are interested in interdisciplinary research that focuses on adaptation and sustainability.
2021-09-10 | AI Day
Participation in the AI Day arranged by the Faculty of Medicine.
2021-06-14--16 | DevRes 2021
Participation in the conference DevRes, held in Umeå (digitally).
2021-06-04 | Seminar in cooperation with the Section of sustainable health
THEME West Nile Virus in Europe: what are the drivers behind the increasing trend?
Link to the event in the calendar
Zia Farooq is a PhD student at the Section of sustainable health. His research focuses on machine learning and mechanistic mathematical modelling of emerging infectious diseases. He will present the preliminary results of his second manuscript within the framework of his dissertation.
2021-05-31 | What makes an application for an EU-funded research project successful?
Link to the event in the calendar
UTRI and Research Support and Collaboration Office arranged a discussion seminar, where the participants got the chance to listen to and discuss with colleagues that have been part of successful applications for EU-funded projects and/or have evaluated EU applications.
The discussion was led by Johanna Gardeström, coordinator at Research Support and Collaboration Office.
2021-05-26 | Lunch workshop with UTRI Young Researcher Network
THEME What is cross-interdisciplinary research?
REPORT
The UTRI Young researcher network’s third and last lunch seminar of this spring was held on the May 26th with title “What is cross-interdisciplinary research?”
Questions such as: “What are the benefits of interdisciplinary research, why can it be a problem, and when should you start looking into finding collaborators from other disciplines?” are oftentimes posed by young researchers in the early days of their carrier.
These questions were alongside other myths of hardships with interdisciplinary research argued/refuted during the workshop by Jon Moen, professor at Department of Ecology and Environmental Science at Umeå University, who has been engaged in a large number of interdisciplinary research projects throughout his research carrier.
Jon discussed how interdisciplinary research is needed to successfully address complex problems and highlighted the fact that collaborations range from gaining additive knowledge to synthesising new knowledge together. The take away message from the break-out discussions was the need of listening to each other, being curious about others point of view and having continuous conversation to enable collaboration and cross-interdisciplinary research.
2021-05-05 | Covid-19 symposium
THEME COVID-19 - from vaccine strategies to effects in developing countries and green recovery
Link to the event in the calendar
Link to article about the event before the symposium
Due to accessibility requirements, no films from the symposium have been uploaded. However, you can take part in these through membership in UTRI:s Team. Apply here
Link to article after the symposium
2021-04-28 | Lunch workshop med UTRI Young Researcher Network
THEME What is research towards sustainability?
Link to the event in the calendar
REPORT
On the 28th of April we had the 2nd workshop from our UTRI Young Researcher Network's lunch seminar series entitled “What is research towards sustainability?”
We hosted speaker Rosa Goodman from SLU. Her research focuses on tropical forest management and conservation, particularly in the context of climate change mitigation and sustainable development through improving the tropical timber industry.
Rosa presented her research and its relevance to the seminar theme and also actively involved participants by posing interesting questions.
We discussed our goals, how we can achieve them and how it makes us feel. The participants pointed to the importance of being structured and taking one step at a time, collaborating and having a solid and strong network to be able to conduct research towards a sustainable future. The predominant feeling was that time ran out and that there is a big need of more discussions with our peers!
2021-04-16 | Seminar in cooperation with the Section of sustainable health
THEME Lag-response associations between air pollution and CVD incidence
Link to the event in the calendar
Hedi Kriit is a PhD student at the Section of sustainable health and she will present preliminary results of her fourth manuscript within the framework of her dissertation.
In this manuscript she has focused on identifying the time-windows of importance for the associations between air pollution exposure and CVD incidence using prospective multi-cohort data.
2021-03-30 | Webinar on EU financed research
Link to the event in the calendar
This webinar focused on cooperation projects but also touched briefly on single partner projects within the new European framework programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon Europe).
During the session, the participants had a chance to deepen their knowledge about calls in the six different clusters within Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness (Pillar 2), as well as first-steps in consortia-building practices, partnerships, and proposal preparation.
2021-03-24 | Lunch workshop with UTRI Young Researcher Network
THEME What is transformative research?
Link to the event in the calendar
REPORT
UTRI young researcher’s network just had its first workshop on the theme “What is transformative research?” on the 24th of March. During the workshop, professor Carina Keskitalo held a presentation on her experiences on doing transformative research, followed by group discussions on the participants’ experience of the subject.
Attending the workshop were participants of wide variety of research disciplines at varying career stages that lead to interesting and fruitful discussion of different vantage points.
Our discussions can be summarized in that we are many young researchers who were searching for what transformative research is all about. Also, many of the participants were eager to pursue and strive toward that line of research which we find very encouraging in this newly formed network!
2020-12-14 | The Swedish Launch of the 2020 Lancet Countdown Report
Link to the event in the calendar
Link to article about the Lancet Countdown (only in Swedish)
REPORT only on the Swedish site
2020-11-30--12-01 | UTRI Kick-off
Link to the website for the kick-off
Link to program site with speakers
Link to interview with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus before the kick-off
Interview series before the kick-off with members of the UTRI steering group:
Annika Nordlund - Changing one’s behaviour is the key to sustainable transition
Erland Mårald - Various perspectives on sustainability issues are necessary
Jon Moen - Sustainability and transformation require an interdisciplinary approach
Maria Nilsson - In order to develop good collaborations, we need to meet
REPORT only on the Swedish site
Due to accessibility requirements, no films from the kick-off have been uploaded. However, you can take part in these through membership in UTRI:s Team. Apply here