University’s global talent search draws 1,325 applicants

A global recruitment drive launched earlier this year by a leading Swedish university, which seeks to fill 25 academic positions – 15 tenure-track assistant professors and 10 visiting professors across all faculties – has attracted a total of 1,325 applications from all over the world.

The main focus of the recruitment drive has been on AI research and other areas in which the university has a strategic focus. Eight of the 15 assistant professor positions have a specific focus on AI research.

In total, 968 people applied for the assistant professorships and 357 applied for a visiting professor position at Lund University, which launched its largest ever international recruitment drive in June this year.

“We have noted a USA effect at some of our faculties,” Erik Renström, vice-chancellor of Lund University.

He was referring to American academics seeking to leave the US, where President Donald Trump has intervened in the higher education sector to deny federal research funding to universities ostensibly in order to encourage them to take antisemitism on campus more seriously and has put pressure on universities to end all diversity, equity and inclusion activities.

However, Renström also said there had been a “strong response from many other parts of the world, such as Singapore and Australia, countries that the university has focused on particularly.”

Applicants from top universities

Among the applicants are researchers from Switzerland’s largest university, ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich), and the highly respected Max Planck Institutes in Germany. There are also applicants from other higher education institutions in Europe, such as KU Leuven, Oxford and Cambridge, as well as from Harvard, Princeton and Stanford in the United States.

A position at the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology was the most sought-after, with 234 applications.

The investment into new international talent, totalling SEK85 million (US$9.1 million), has two parts: the assistant professorship, which targets top international researchers at an early stage of their careers and is in response to the Swedish Research Council’s forthcoming investment in career support; and the visiting professorship, which is aimed at professors at higher education institutions outside Sweden in order to strengthen the university’s international impact.

“The initiative has generated great interest among highly qualified researchers,” Erik Renström, vice-chancellor of Lund University, said in a press release.

The investment is drawn from university-wide funding. The funding for assistant professors is SEK75 million and the corresponding figure for visiting professors is SEK10 million. Additional funding may be allocated by departments.

The Faculty of Science attracted the most interest regarding visiting professorships, with 86 applicants.

“The great response is a result of Lund University’s good international reputation and the extensive work that our faculties and departments have done to reach out globally. We can now expand our international networks, and they will help us to become even better,” Renström said on his blog page.

AI fields get 386 applications

“The faculties have worked hard,” he said. “They have activated their networks and used e-mails and social media to spread the news from Lund University. On average 64 have applied for each assistant professorship, and for some of the AI fields announced, 368 persons applied,” he added.

Lund University currently has around 3,400 salaried employees in the research staff category.

“This investment strengthens Lund University’s position as a leading research university, both nationally and internationally,” Renström said at the launch in June.

Lund University is now moving on to the selection and appointment stages. The aim is for all the positions to be filled by late 2025 or early 2026. The university will also select 10 candidates who will be nominated for the Swedish Research Council’s call for applications concerning assistant professors, which opens in January 2026.

Inspiring for other universities

Malin Broberg, vice-chancellor of the University of Gothenburg, told University World News the Lund University initiative was “perfectly timed and inspiring for other Swedish universities”.

“It strengthens their position as a world-leading academic environment. The large number of international applicants is a sign that Sweden is perceived as an attractive country and has the potential to attract talents worldwide.”

Professor William Brustein, former vice-president for global strategies and international affairs at West Virginia University in the United States and a member of the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT) advisory board, told University World News: “I like the way Lund University is opening itself up to global recruitment when so many universities, particularly in North America, are retrenching and cutting back on global recruitment of faculty.”

Brustein said several universities in Europe (for example, France) are focusing on recruiting top research scientists away from elite US universities.

“However, unlike Lund, they don’t seem to be casting a wider recruiting net with the aim to recruit high-quality applicants from across the globe.

“What Lund University is doing reminds me of what it was like in the US before the Trump era, when US universities pursued a strategy of comprehensive internationalisation, including an effort to recruit the best and brightest faculty and students from around the world.”

Brustein said the “exceptionally large number of applicants” suggested there was “a tremendous global supply of newly minted PhD applicants who are searching for faculty positions at highly respected universities such as Lund”.