SDU’s climate centre is in the pipeline

The year 2022 has been proclaimed by the UN as the year of basic sciences with the desire to reach out to a wide audience and communicate about science with the overall purpose of having increased and targeted focus on the importance of science. As for SDU, the new year will be the kick-off for the University’s climate centre under the name of SDU Climate Cluster (SCC).

The intention is that the new centre will be an excellent and interdisciplinary mission-driven climate research cluster that supports the climate agenda and society’s need for sustainable transition.

The research cluster will consist of various interdisciplinary research consortia, centres and projects, research networks and a professionally diverse group of world-class national and international researchers.

Adjustments to the set-up

According to Pro-rector Sebastian Mernild, the reason for having turned more towards a research cluster model with inspiration from DIAS is that this set-up will ensure an even stronger interdisciplinary involvement of researchers from SDU and external collaborators.

- The advantage is that we reach the academic environments directly in order to get a closer centre with a stronger integration at the entire SDU so that we can help solve the challenges we face together and ensure that the centre does not become a kind of bubble.

Sebastian Mernild is Pro-rector at SDU and Professor of Climate Change. He is leading the start-up of the climate centre up to and including the summer of 2022.

In addition to contributing new knowledge, SCC will also stimulate SDU’s faculties to carry out programme activities for students and research talents with academic weight and breadth in climatic core areas, he explains.

- We hope to be able to attract both established and experienced researchers but also PhD and postdoc students. It will be possible to apply for funding for climate-related research projects through five tracks, and SDU’s already existing climate-related projects can be connected to the climate centre, says Sebastian Mernild.

The plan for the beginning of 2022

The SDU Climate Cluster will have its own secretariat, including a specialist consultant, an office employee and its own communications officer and a day-to-day head of the centre. And then there will be hard work until the opening.

- I expect that in January, we will describe the criteria for the research programmes so that during the spring, we will see some activity in the centre. Later, we hope to offer a seminar series, debates and PhD courses, among other things, in order to create some attention before the official launch in a few months. We want to create internal visibility and relevance but also external visibility so that we can reach out to the surrounding community.

- My expectation is that we get off to a good start and that we think about interdisciplinarity in the form of, for example, climate policy, behaviour and technological solutions, which each in their own way can have an impact on society in the future in the fight against climate change, says Sebastian Mernild.

Organisationally, the SDU Climate Cluster will be anchored in DIAS, and the secretariat will also be located in the DIAS building.