Sustainable development the focus of new graduate school at Campus Gotland
21 January 2021

Doctoral students from around the world will be working at the new graduate school at Campus Gotland with sustainable development as part of five unique multidisciplinary projects
On 18 January, Uppsala University’s new multidisciplinary graduate school opened at Campus Gotland. Its focus is on sustainable development. This involves research on key societal challenges within changing energy systems, sustainable consumption, digital development and climate changes based on different scientific contexts.
The starting point for the graduate school is multidisciplinary approach to important societal challenges within sustainable development. Around 20 supervisors from eight departments are participating in the graduate school: Earth Sciences; Anthropology and Ethnology; Civil and Industrial Engineering; Archaeology and Ancient History; Informatics and Media; Business Studies; Law; and Art History.
Supports the profile area sustainability
The graduate school at Campus Gotland is an important hub in the University’s ambition to achieve a sustainable society. Here, the graduate school will be firmly anchored in ongoing multidisciplinary collaborations within research and education. The goal is for the graduate school to conduct research at the highest international level based on questions relevant for local needs. Regional relevance will be combined with international excellence.
“This multidisciplinary graduate school is the biggest and single most important initiative that the University is currently working with to develop research at Campus Gotland. Through the graduate school, we are supporting research on the University’s profile area of sustainability,” says Olle Jansson, adviser to the Vice-Chancellor on behalf of Uppsala University Campus Gotland.
Significant international interest
There has been considerable interest in the graduate school, even internationally. When the doctoral positions were advertised this summer, there were close to 3000 applicants for the 12 positions. These have now been filled with students from the United States, India, Bangladesh and different countries in Europe, including Sweden.

Business Studies and director of the new graduate
school.
“There are certainly several reasons for the enormous interest,” explains Jenny Helin, senior lecturer at the Department of Business Studies and director of the new graduate school. “In part, many people want to make a difference by studying and researching sustainability and they are attracted to the multidisciplinary approach. But it also has to do with Sweden having a good reputation in sustainability. Internationally, Sweden is at the forefront, and this makes it interesting to apply for doctoral positions here. Uppsala University is also a strong brand, that’s also important.”
Five unique multidisciplinary projects
Twelve doctoral students will be working together with their supervisors, international partners, guest researchers and local stakeholders within five unique multidisciplinary projects.
The five projects are:
- Sustainable destination development. (Three doctoral students)
- Gotland’s sustainable energy system transition: resources, demand and planning. (Three doctoral students)
- Fisheries and coastal development in a small island context – the past, present and future. (Two doctoral students)
- Getting the balance right - Applying legislation when seeking a balance between energy transition and the conservation of cultural values. (Two doctoral students)
- Digital innovation for sustainable consumption. (Two doctoral students)
Starting out online
Lovely new facilities with a view over Visby harbour have been prepared for the graduate school’s doctoral students to ensure a creative and stimulating environment. The original idea was that all 12 doctoral students would be on site from the start, but the pandemic has forced a change so that everything will begin online.
“It is not just different disciplines coming together within the graduate school, but also different doctoral education traditions and different administrative processes from the supervisor group’s home departments. So, there will be challenges, particularly now when we have to begin completely online. But I am convinced that we will make it work with the eager and enthusiastic doctoral students now beginning at the graduate school. Hopefully, we will soon be able to meet here on Campus Gotland in our newly renovated facilities that are waiting for us and build a strong doctoral environment together,” says Jenny Helin.
News
-
First genetic proof that women were Viking warriors
08 september 2017
New DNA evidence uncovered by researchers at Uppsala University and Stockholm University shows that there were in fact female Viking warriors. The remains of an iconic Swedish Viking Age grave now reveal that war was not an activity exclusive to m...
-
Gustavian style – a Swedish style?
05 juni 2017
Why has the neoclassical Gustavian style become so prominent in the Swedish self-image? A new dissertation from Uppsala University shows how researchers in art history, along with museums, commercial enterprises and the monarchy, have contributed ...
-
Mandelgren Prize to Michael Neiß
13 april 2017
Svenska fornminnesföreningen (the Antiquarian Society of Sweden) has decided to award PhD student and archaeologist Michael Neiß the 2017 Mandelgren Prize for his research on Scandinavian animal art.
-
Archaeologists at the vanguard of environmental and climate research
26 februari 2017
The history of people and landscapes, whether natural or cultural, is fundamentally connected. Answering key historical questions about this relation will allow us to approach our most important environmental issues in novel ways. Today in the ope...
-
New database of Swedish archaeological research in Greece
09 januari 2017
In a recently completed project at the Swedish Institute in Athens, materials from more than a hundred years of Swedish archaeological research in Greece has been made available through the database PRAGMATA. The database includes, among other thi...
-
Bokrelease - Vicke Lindstrand On The Periphery
18 november 2016
Den australiensiske designhistorikern Mark Ian Jones lanserar sin nya bok Vicke Lindstrand On The Periphery. Detta är den första engelskspråkiga publikationen som beskriver Vicke Lindstrands liv och verk.
-
Digitisation of cultural heritage discussed at AIMday
03 november 2016
Cultural heritage has become a field of great importance for the development of modern society. Modern technology creates new opportunities for communicating and presenting cultural heritage, as well as making it accessible. The potential and chal...
-
Archaeologist appointed new honorary doctor
05 oktober 2016
Archaeologist Jeremy B. Rutter, Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth College, USA, has been appointed a new honorary doctor at the Faculty of Arts.
-
SEK 5 million grant to art project
27 september 2016
The Swedish Research Council has selected seven art research projects to receive grants, out of a total of 51 applications. One of the grants is awarded to Katarina Pirak Sikku and the Uppsala University Centre for Gender Studies.
-
Augmented reality app presents Old Uppsala in a new way
24 augusti 2016
In Old Uppsala lie the remains of one of Scandinavia’s most fascinating royal estates from the Iron Age. Once there were numerous houses and other buildings here, which visitors up until now have had to imagine from sketches. A new app called ‘Aug...
-
Innovative games win prizes at the Swedish Game Awards
20 juni 2016
Game Design students from Uppsala University Campus Gotland won half of the prizes at the Swedish Game Awards on 11 June.
-
Major international meeting on cultural heritage held
16 april 2016
Uppsala University’s Vice-Chancellor Eva Åkesson and Professor of Building Conservation Tor Broström at Campus Gotland participated in a large international conference on cultural heritage and cultural preservation at Yale University in mid-April....
-
New book documents terrorism from Shakespeare's time
02 december 2015
There was no word for terrorism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but outbreaks of terrorist violence were frequent. In his new book on terrorism in history and literature, Uppsala University Professor of English Literature, Robert Appel...
-
Heléne Lööw to be awarded the Martin H:son Holmdahl Scholarship
10 november 2015
The Martin H:son Holmdahl Scholarship is Uppsala University’s most prestigious award for the furthering of human rights and liberty. This year, the award is being given to docent Heléne Lööw at the Department of History for her important contribut...
-
Faculty of Arts awards honorary doctorates
02 oktober 2015
Robert Darnton, Professor Emeritus and previously university librarian at Harvard, and Hiroshi Maruyama, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Muroran Institute of Technology, Japan, have been made honorary doctors by the Faculty of Arts, Uppsala Uni...
-
Uppsala University recruits Professor Don Kulick
27 januari 2015
The internationally recognised anthropologist Professor Don Kulick is being recruited by Uppsala University. He will lead a broad, multidisciplinary research programme funded by the Swedish Research Council which will allow us to better understand...