Associate Senior Lecturer in plant physiology with focus on plant embryo development

An appointment as Associate Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in Plant Physiology with focus on plant embryo development is available at the Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Umeå. The department is part of Umeå Plant Science Centre . This recruitment is part of an excellence initiative – SLU Futures – which aims to attract and support promising young researchers within the strategic themes of Future Sustainable Plant Production Systems, Resilient Ecosystems, and One Health.

Last day to apply: September 15, 2025

Faculty of Forest Sciences - The Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology

The objective of the SLU Futures initiative is to create conditions for successful research in future-oriented, strong academic environments through long-term employment. Read more here https://www.slu.se/slu-futures .

The Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology within the Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC) is a world-leading environment integrating experimental plant biology and forest biotechnology research. UPSC has strong platforms for plant growth, microscopy, metabolomics and conifer genomics. UPSC has one of the largest facilities in the world for tree transformation, including a facility for somatic embryogenesis and transformation of Norway spruce, important tools for all basic research connecting genes to gene function.

Read more about the department and UPSC at www.upsc.se/ .

Subject Area

The subject area is plant physiology with focus on plant embryo development.

Duties

The Associate Senior Lecturer is expected to develop their own research line within the subject area. The department will provide the holder with development opportunities to be able to qualify as docent and Senior Lecturer in the subject of the position.

The research shall aim to develop the subject area to also include conifer embryo development and the use of somatic embryogenesis as a research tool.

Research should be carried out in close collaboration with colleagues at the department, faculty and other parts of SLU, as well as through national and international collaborations.

In addition, the holder of the position is also expected to:

• act in accordance with the vision, goals and basic values of SLU
• initiate the development of their own research group within the subject area
• apply for external research funding in competition and publish scientific articles
• participate in postgraduate education as a co-supervisor
• conduct research-based teaching at first, second and third cycle level
• receive pedagogical training, and are expected to fulfill the requirements for promotion to senior lecturer during the employment
• collaborate and communicate with relevant stakeholders in the surrounding society

Swedish and English are used in parallel at the department. The Associate Senior Lecturer should be able to perform most of their tasks in English. However, as a public authority, the university has Swedish as its main language according to the requirements of the Language Act. Non-Swedish-speaking staff members are expected to, within four years of first being employed, have sufficient knowledge of Swedish/Scandinavian to understand information in Swedish. The department will support the holder to achieve this goal.

Qualifications

Eligible for employment as associate senior lecturer are candidates who hold a PhD or have equivalent academic qualifications. Priority will be given to candidates who have received a PhD or equivalent qualifications no longer than seven years before the application deadline. Other candidates may also be considered if there are extraordinary grounds for doing so. Extraordinary grounds consider leave due to illness, parental leave or similar circumstances.

For employment as associate senior lecturer, the candidate must be scientifically proficient within the subject area of the position.

Experience in research on plant embryo development and the use of molecular genetic and genomic tools is a prerequisite for employment.

Good ability to communicate in written and spoken English is required.

Assessment Criteria

The assessment criteria for appointment as an associate senior lecturer will primarily be based on the degree to which the applicant/candidate possesses the required qualifications specified for the position.

The assessment for appointment as an associate senior lecturer will primarily be based on qualitative indicators of the applicant's scientific skill within the subject area of the position.

The applicants’ experience in conifer somatic embryogenesis will be assessed. Also, the applicant’s competence in communication, collaboration skills and experience in administration and teaching will be assessed.

Furthermore, the assessment includes evaluating the applicant’s ability to develop an independent line of research within the subject area, and to qualify for promotion to senior lecturer during the employment period.

The position will be offered to the person who, after a qualitative overall assessment, is assessed to be most suitable to carry out and develop the above-mentioned duties and to contribute to the positive development of the organization.

Form of employment

This is a fixed-term appointment (4 years) as regulated in the Higher Education Ordinance. The role of associate senior lecturer is a career-development position that is the first step on the academic career path at SLU. During their employment, an associate senior lecturer is entitled to apply for an evaluation review for promotion to senior lecturer. They will be assessed based on the criteria that are established when advertising the position of associate senior lecturer.

* Swedish “biträdande universitetslektor”, a tenured position approximately equivalent to Associate senior lecturer (UK) or Assistant professor (US). The applicant who is offered this employment at SLU will be employed as Associate senior lecturer.

This position offers the vibrant research climate at SLU. The benefits of the position include Swedish family health care provisions, parenting support including generous paid leave of absence policies that allow both parents to care for newborns and toddlers. Additionally Sweden has a well-established pre-school structure as well as an educational system that provides no-cost education through university studies.

Application

Application deadline: 2025-09-15

Place of work: Umeå

Extent: 100%

Starting date: By agreement

It is desirable that the application is written in English, because the applications will be evaluated by expert advisers both in Sweden and abroad.

For the guidance of your application, there is SLU's appointment procedure for teachers at SLU and General assessment criteria for the appointment of teachers, which you can read here.

You can find the full job description on the SLU homepage following the below link. Please apply via the e-recruitment system of SLU using the apply-button at the bottom of this page: https://www.slu.se/en/about-slu/work-at-slu/jobs-and-vacancies/bitradande-universitetslektor-i-vaxtfysiologi-med-inriktning-mot-vaxters-embryoutveckling/
Ref: SLU.ua.2025.2.5.1-2301

Contact persons:

Ulrika Ganeteg, ulrika.ganeteg@slu.se
Ove Nilsson, ove.nilsson@slu.se  

About Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC)

The Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology is part of Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC) which is a centre of excellence for experimental plant research and forest biotechnology in Northern Sweden. Our mission is to perform excellent and innovative basic research and generate knowledge that benefits forestry, agriculture, environment and society. We work across a wide range of disciplines in plant science reaching from cell biology to ecophysiology and from basic research to industrial applications. Our common goal is to understand the plants’ ability to grow, adapt and acclimate to a changing world and how we can breed better plants.

UPSC belongs to two universities, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and Umeå University . About 200 people from more than 40 different nationalities work here. We host some 30 principal investigators, and our researchers have access to state-of-the-art analytical platforms, unique tree germplasm resources and plant growth facilities. We strive for a collaborative work environment and support our scientists throughout all career stages by providing professional training opportunities and individual career mentoring.