Nordita Professor Emeritus Position
Retired Nordita professors will automatically be appointed "Nordita professor emeritus" at the time of their retirement by decision of the board.
The initial appointment is for five years and can be extended by the board. A professor emeritus will have office space at Nordita, access to all IT support, and can use Nordita as affiliation for publications and conference contributions. Nordita will act as host for any grant application. The professor emeritus will have access to travel support at the discretion of the relevant group leader.
Nordic Associate / Assistant Professor Position
The Nordic associate/assistant professorships, which are joint appointments with some Nordic university, plays a dual role.
For Nordita it increases the possibility to maintain a large pool of excellent young scientists at the junior faculty level, which is crucial for the scientific environment, and needed for a proper interaction with and/or, supervisions of, fellows and postdocs. Since the Nordic assistant professors are joint positions, special rules have to apply when it comes to the following:
Recruitment
Since different countries and different universities differ in their recruitment procedure, strict rules cannot be formulated, only general principles.
Since the host university has the long-time responsibility for the appointment, the recruitment procedure has to be made in accordance with the local rules.
When a host university decides to recruit a faculty member jointly with Nordita, it signals its interest to keep a close and long-term relationship to Nordita, and wants to profit from the competence of Nordita's faculty, and committees as well as the recruitment strength of Nordita. Thus, the selection of the candidate should be made with a major involvement of representatives for Nordita. How this is done administratively, will differ from case to case, but it is important that Nordita representatives are involved in the full process of selection. Persons hired into tenured (tenure track) positions will be associate (assistant) Nordic professors.
Nordita has a reputation of excellence to protect, and the position as a Nordic professor is meant to be one of prestige. Thus, the Nordita representatives in the selection process will have the right to veto an appointment. This will not prevent the host university to go ahead with the appointment, but it will then not be a Nordic assistant professorship jointly with Nordita.
Salary and Other Costs
The basic principle is that the cost for salary is divided in proportion to time spent at Nordita, and the hiring university respectively. The employment of the Nordic professors will be at the host universities, and Nordita will annually transfer to the host university an amount covering the salary for the time the Nordic professor spends at Nordita. Any deviation from this has to be negotiated specially between the host institutes. The Nordic professors are encouraged to apply for external grants to cover costs for travel, postdocs and students. When at Nordita, they will have access to the travel funds that are distributed among the research groups.
Time Allocation
To contribute maximally to the scientific environment, it is very important that the Nordic professor will be present at Nordita during extended periods. Normally this means first a period of 2-3 years at Nordita and then 3-2 years at the hiring university, but the order can reverse depending on teaching obligations. Other allocation of time could be possible, but this should be spelled out in writing before the appointment is made. During the time at Nordita, the Nordic professor should not have any teaching duties at the hiring university.
External Grants
Here a distinction must be made between Swedish and other Nordic universities.
Non-Swedish Nordic Universities
Grants from a national research council should be administered by the hiring university.
Grants form VR or other Swedish sources should be administered by Nordita. Grants from ERC or other non-Nordic countries should, when it comes to overhead, be divided in proportion to the time spent at the two institutions. This should be arranged by transfer from the host university to Nordita of an overhead cost of 20% for the time the Nordic professor spends at Nordita. The host university should not charge any extra overhead during the time spent at Nordita. Any deviation from this principle has to be specified by special agreement between the host university and Nordita.
Swedish Universities
The overhead from all grants should be divided in proportion to the time spent at the two institutions. This should be arranged by transfer from the host university to Nordita of an overhead cost of 20% for the time the Nordic professor spends at Nordita. The host university should not charge any extra overhead during the time spent at Nordita. Any deviation from this principle has to be specified by special agreement between the host university and Nordita.
Criteria for Appointing Nordita Affiliate Professors
Senior professors of high international standing can be affiliated to Nordita if at least one of the following criteria is satisfied:
- The professor will actively take part in or promote Nordita's activities, for instance by regular visits, or by facilitating contacts with other institutes and with funding agencies.
- The professor will support the activities at Nordita by various collaborative arrangements, such as funding of postdocs Ph.D. students or guests.
Professors are affiliated to Nordita for a period of 5 years, which is renewable. The decision is taken by the Nordita board after consultation with the director and the permanent Nordita professors.
For persons not employed by Stockholm University, the director will ask the vice-chancellor to affiliate the person in question to Stockholm university.
The home institute of candidates for Affiliate Professorships should be contacted to make sure that there is no conflict of interest with Nordita, and in particular, it should not be possible for Affiliate Professors to locate grants at Nordita solely to reduce overhead costs.
Criteria for Appointing Corresponding Fellows
Active researchers at other Universities or institutes can be appointed corresponding fellows if they have strong ties to Nordita and actively contribute to the scientific environment at the institute. Typically, the corresponding fellow will work actively with researchers at Nordita, and make regular visits to the institute.
Corresponding fellows are appointed by the board for a period of five years, which can be extended. Nordita will cover reasonable costs for travel and local expenses for a corresponding fellow. A person working at AlbaNova can normally not be appointed as a corresponding fellow.
