The following texts inform about Uppsala University and can be copied and pasted into applications where applicable. Texts in [square brackets] should be replaced with adequate texts. The web links take you to pages with additional useful information.

See also "Uppsala University in Brief".

The university

Uppsala University, founded in 1477, is a comprehensive university with nine faculties, about 40,000 students, and c. 6,000 employees. The university has c. 600 full professors, 22% of which are women. Some 4,200 undergraduate degrees and about 330 doctorates are conferred every year. The annual turnover of Uppsala University is c. MSEK 5,300; nearly 70% goes to research and postgraduate education. About 50% of the research budget is funded from external sources.

Quality of the research in an international perspective

Throughout centuries, Uppsala University has striven towards excellence in research and teaching with well-known results. This ambition is expressed in a policy document "Goals and strategies". Uppsala University – a member of the COIMBRA group that includes, among other, the universities of Bologna, Cambridge, Oxford, Heidelberg, Helsinki, and Leiden – has been the highest-ranking comprehensive research university in Sweden – and among the top 20 in Europe – for five consecutive years. Some 5,000 scientific publications are produced each year and Uppsala University is foremost among the Swedish universities regarding publications in prestigious journals like Science and Nature. The road map to the success  includes a variety of components like strategic recruitments,  international co-operation with the best universities in the world, participation in student and post doc mobility programs, build-up of appropriate infrastructures, openness for renewal and change, and last but not least continuously working with quality criteria and attitudes.

As the first university in Sweden, Uppsala performed, in 2006-07, a comprehensive evaluation, with an international perspective, of the quality of its research. A similar evaluation was undertaken in 2010-11 (see "Quality and Renewal" in the right hand column). They were conducted with a peer review process with international experts. [expand with references to KoF07 and KoF11 as applicable]

International perspective

Uppsala University has a significant presence on the international academic arena, with many collaborations in both education and research. The university has agreements for student exchange with nearly 500 foreign universities in more than 50 countries. In addition more than 1,000 international universities, primarily in Europe, U.S., and Asia,  are involved in more than 3,000 research partnerships with UU. [indicate some important collaborating universities here] are examples of some important collaborators. The width of the  Uppsala University activities in the international community is further illustrated by the International Science Program (ISP), directed towards the development countries, to build up scientific capacity by shared PhD education between home universities and Swedish universities. Uppsala University is also an important collaborator at several international large-scale facilities (CERN, ESRF, HASY lab, ISIS,  GSI, …..) [give example when applicable of important facilities for this proposal]. Finally, Uppsala University is a very active partner within the European framework programs. [add when appropriate for this application the programs involved]

Undergraduate and graduate education

Uppsala University offers more than 50 programs for beginners, about 50 master programs, and nearly 2,000 single-subject courses. Some 40,000 undergraduate students are enrolled in the classes and c. 2,000 graduate students, that earn c. 375 graduate (doctorate and licentiate) degrees each year. Uppsala University has been a pioneer in developing new education programs in areas like medicine, pharmacy and engineering. The eight Master of Science in Engineering programs are closely connected to the main research profiles at the university. For this application the programs of [please specify, give also www address] are of particular importance. It includes different aspects of […….]. [when appropriate add also a sentence or two to be more specific].

Innovation

Uppsala University has an impressive track record concerning innovations and utilization of research results. During the last ten years, more than 100 companies  have been founded, many localized at Uppsala Science Park in the campus area. Examples of companies started within the current research area are [examples of companies, can also be omitted]. Close collaborations between companies of different sizes and Uppsala University research groups are common and widespread. Creative collaborative platforms like [example] with financial support from [insert funding source, e.g. Vinnova] have been generated. [one sentence describing the platform] Advanced support regarding all aspects of patent issues are given by the patent office, Forskarpatent. UU Innovation is the university’s organization to support innovation and commercialization, by e.g. facilitating industrial research collaborations, licensing, and start-up companies. UU Innovation collaborates closely with the Uppsala University Holding Company (UUAB), presently supporting c. 50 start-up companies spun out from the university. UU Innovation plays a central role within the whole innovation system with close co-operations with the business incubator Uppsala Innovation Centre AB (UIC), including UIC Business Start, UIC Business Lab, and UIC Business Accelerator.

The knowledge triangle; research – education – innovation, rests on an extraordinarily strong foundation at UU. Links between research and education, as well as between research and innovation, are straightforward. However, links between education and innovation are often less obvious, but not so at Uppsala University: the university hosts a special chair (the Anders Wall Chair in Entrepreneurship) that leads the Entrepreneurship Group that offers, among other, special masters and doctoral programs in entrepreneurship.

Cross-disciplinarity

A report on cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary research by the Swedish Research Council (VR)(Report VR 10, 2005 (in Swedish)) found that Uppsala University is the most cross-disciplinary university in Sweden. This is no coincidence: for several decades, the university worked hard to create an infrastructure in terms of both premises and organization to facilitate cross-disciplinary research and education. Uppsala University is the first university founded in the Nordic countries (1477), but in another sense, it is the youngest: since the middle of the 1990’s, more than 80% of the employees and students have moved to new premises (“the big migration”) and new large campus areas as well as departments have been created in this process. Examples of such campuses are the English Park – Centre for the Humanities, the Centre for Evolutionary Biology (EBC), the Uppsala Biomedical Centre (BMC), the Ångström Laboratory, Information Technology Center (ITC), the Geo Centre, and the Rudbeck Laboratory. This consortium is localized at [complete as applicable…].

Visibility and outreach

A measure of visibility is Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-13 and Academic Ranking of World Universities 2012. In these Uppsala University is number 106 and 73, respectively, indicating a high web presence and availability. Uppsala University provides easily accessible information about the entire span of its research on the web.

Gender equality

Gender equality work at Uppsala University is both short-term and long-term and conducted in accordance with the Swedish Discrimination Act (SFS 2008:567). Mandatory gender equality plans are drawn up at central, faculty and department levels. The University has a management group for gender equality issues, and gender equality officers provide individual employees/students and management at all levels with information, advice and training in gender equality issues.

Uppsala University strives for gender balance, and recently initiated activities to increase the proportion of women at senior positions. Extra resources of 4.5 MSEK/year have been allocated for this cause. Within this initiative, the entire recruitment process is investigated from an equality perspective. Other measures are university co-financing for departments recruiting female candidates for senior positions, and financial support for persons of the under-represented sex that within the near future could qualify for promotion to professor. A new leadership program for women, focussing on leadership and gender issues in the academic environment, has also been launched as a part of this gender equality initiative.

[If applicable, insert here gender equality aspects concerning the application…]