SLU

Sveriges Lantbruks Universitet

SLU – Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is a sector university under the Ministry of enterprise, energy and communications. The SLU mission is to develop knowledge and expertise that contributes to quality of life and sustainable growth, based on a long-term utilization of biological natural resources. SLU activities are characterized by a strong link between education and research of high international standards and close collaboration with industry and sectors concerned. The SLU role is integrated with developments within agriculture and forestry sectors, food industry, veterinary medicine, natural resources and the environment, as well as within rural development and landscape architecture.

SLU has national responsibilities as well as international obligations as part of Swedish international commitments and policies. Therefore, SLU has a vast network of regional partners and agencies within Sweden and all around the world including countries in Eastern Africa, South East and Central Asia, Central America, Europe and US, Canada, China and Russia. The international cooperation is predominantly financed through Swedish research and development financing institutions and through the European Union Framework Programs. Presently SLU is successfully participating in more than 60 EU Framework programs, several of which as coordinator.

SLU’s sectors encompass the agrarian industry, veterinary medicine, natural resources and the environment, as well as rural development and landscape architecture. As a sector university, SLU has a clear profile and is the sole player in Sweden within several areas. With ca 3000 full-time staff, ca 4000 full-time students and ca 700 PhD students, education at SLU is closely linked to research. SLU has a long tradition of international institutional collaboration, including capacity-building activities mainly in East Africa, South East Asia and Central America. SLU’s program Agricultural Sciences for Global Development; SLU Global is a research, education and capacity building unit in the Vice-Chancellor’s office dedicated to food security and poverty alleviation issues.

SLU Global focuses on four interdisciplinary themes – Efficiency in Farming Systems, Restoration of Degraded Rural Landscapes, Scale Issues in Relation to Food Security and Poverty Alleviation, and Urban and Peri-urban farming

Activities

SLU will be leader of WP3 (Information Generation and Knowledge Management). SLU will mainly work within Task 3.1 with clustering of related projects and of thematic Networks.

People

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ioannis Dimitriou is SLU Global’s Deputy Director and a researcher at the Dept. of Crop Production Ecology, which works with sustainable agro-ecosystems, with the aim of improving productivity and sustainability of food, feed, fuel crops, and cropping systems. His research investigates biomass systems for energy in agriculture and the implications of such cultivation on sustainability and efficiency (environmental, energy, economic), in relation to alternative agricultural crops. Other research areas focus on effects of multifunctional biomass crops for energy on the environment and on the surroundings. Dimitriou is involved in national and international projects (both EU and other, with main focus on South East Asia and Africa).
Dr. Elisabeth L Rajala is a research officer at SLU Global and a veterinary epidemiologist with focus on emerging zoonotic infections in urban areas in low-income countries, veterinary public health, and antimicrobial resistance. She is currently involved in projects in sub-Saharan Africa, central Asia and Southeast Asia.