02 March 2022

On Wednesday, the Minister for Education Anna Ekström encouraged Sweden’s higher education institutions to cease all contacts and cooperation agreements with public institutions in Russia and Belarus.
(Article updated 07/03/2022)

Jan-Ingvar Jönsson, vice chancellor LiU
Jan-Ingvar Jönsson, vice chancellor LiU Thor Balkhed

LiU turned to the EU

Linköping University (LiU) has now identified four EU projects involving cooperation with public institutions in Russia. LiU has turned to the EU and asked them to inactivate the four projects, in which several Russian state institutions are involved.

Furthermore, LiU has a handful of students and co-workers from Russia and Ukraine.

At the press conference, Anna Ekström emphasised that there are many individual points of contact between researchers in Sweden and those in Russia and Belarus. She said that it is important not to treat these contacts as the same thing as the institutions where they are employed.

Consideration and support

“We know that we have a small amount of co-workers from affected countries”, says Vice-Chancellor Jan-Ingvar Jönsson. It is, however, important to emphasise that we do not keep records of the nationalities of students or co-workers.

“I also want to be clear that it is important to take care of each other in this situation. Many are worried and fearful. We will take responsibility for the wellbeing of our co-workers. We have also activated support that can be offered by the Human Resources Division and Student Health.

LiU is also a member of Scholars at Risk, an organisation that helps researchers who are unable to work in their countries due to threats or censorship. Scholars at Risk stands ready to support and help displaced scholars.

A separate page for Ukraine is going to be created on the website for Scholars at Risk.

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