Holiday Greetings from LINXS Director

LINXS Director Trevor Forsyth. Photo: Kennet Ruona.

With Christmas just around the corner, it is inevitable to end up reflecting on what has been a very rewarding and intense year. The move onto Science Village (SV) has been the most obvious change and has brought about a huge flux of activity throughout the institute, starting with a remarkable inaugural event in the week of midsummer.

However, under the surface there have also been other major initiatives for the development of LINXS as an advanced studies institute. Crucial funding from the Crafoord Foundation was awarded in association with the move to SV and is now having a very visible impact with the appearance of new widescreens throughout the office, and most recently, of high-end workstations that will be mobilised for use in data analysis clinics.

The workshop rooms are also being upgraded with state-of-the-art audiovisual systems designed to facilitate activities. In addition, the major increase of core funding from the Science, Engineering and Medical faculties at Lund University as well as from the university centrally has had a very direct effect in that our new themes are funded with higher levels of coordination resourcing, a support that will also go to our currently active themes.

This resourcing will have direct and indirect impacts on LINXS activities – direct in terms of the science being initiated, and indirect in that the coordination component will support the smooth running of the themes. As of 2026 we will have 10 active science themes, all operating with greatly increased human resourcing. The young researchers’ initiatives (YRI), which have steadily grown over the year, will also benefit from the new and wider range of science.

We are glad to introduce three of our four new themes through interviews with the respective theme leaders. In the articles on our website you can read about the genesis of each theme, its aspirations and goals. Should you be interested in joining any of the themes or its working groups, you are welcome to make contact either with the theme core group, working group leaders or with LINXS staff.

We also want to highlight the current national and international theme call, which closes at the end of January 2026. This is a great opportunity to pursue a new science initiative that exploits large facility research capabilities (including but not restricted to MAX IV and ESS) and complementing techniques, and to contribute to growing user communities. Remember that LINXS themes are not restricted to Swedish applicants – applicants can come from anywhere (see the call text for eligibility) and there are also special possibilities for theme applications that connect facility centres worldwide.

The fifth AMBER postdoctoral call will open in early January 2026 – we are looking to recruit talented, eager and passionate researchers to our programme. If you are curious about what the AMBER programme might hold for postdocs, read our interview with postdoc Cindy Yunxin Xiao who is based at the Department of Experimental Medicine Science (EMV) in the Lund University Medical Faculty. Relocating from Australia to Sweden to take up the position, she highlights the opportunity to contribute to — and learn from — a dynamic and interdisciplinary research environment.

On our website, you can read highlights from our theme events. We also share an interview with one of our new guest researchers, Professor Anders Tunlid. Anders is staying at LINXS as part of the Environment and Climate theme. He is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Biology at Lund University and acted as Chair for the LINXS Board between 2021– 2023. We extend a very warm welcome to him.

All best wishes to everyone for Christmas and the new year: the LINXS community, its Board, Scientific Advisory Board, Management, Staff, Lund University, the Crafoord Foundation, and partners. It has been an amazing year! We hope you all have a restful break over the Christmas holidays and see you in 2026!