In 1999 The Department of Plant Physiology at Umeå University and the Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) joined to create Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC). This was initially only a “virtual centre”, with both departments located in different buildings on the campus, but with coordinated teaching, PhD education and seminar se
ries. In 2001 the two departments moved together to create a common scientific environment and new facilities – in particular a new growth facility – were constructed. Although now housed together in the same building, UPSC remains administratively split between the two universi- ties and each department has its own head of department (prefekt) and all employees officially belong to one of the universities. To balance this split administration, a com- mon board has been appointed by the two universities and is responsible for the scientific environment, common in- frastructure and platforms, common applications and joint courses, and the “brandmark” of UPSC. Research within UPSC is organized in research groups of variable size, each led by a competely independent principal investigator (PI) or group leader, who is either a full professor, associate professor (universitetslektor) or assistant professor (forska- rassistent). We have a long tradition of extensive collaboration between research groups within the centre and in addition to the P*s employed at the two departments that make up UPSC, several researchers are affiliated to UPSC as “associate P*s” and their research is also described. Much effort has been spent to organize the infrastructure and equipment into common platforms and resources that all UPSC researchers can use. Most of this is financed by external grants, and UPSC has successfully competed in many larger calls for “Centres of Excellence”, and some of these Centres are also presented, as well as the internation- alization and educational programs. In order to understand and experience our international scientific environment, a visit to UPSC will tell you more than a brochure can, so if you have not yet been here we hope to see you here soon, either as a visitor or perhaps as “one of us” for a shorter or a longer time. Therefore, we wish you very welcome to UPSC
