The working environment for the personnel and the student is an important part of ITM’s work. At Dean’s office we have weekly meetings between me, Annika Lilja and Sofia Granberg and sometimes even other persons to discuss the progress regarding our systematic work focusing on the different part of the environment. During the last two years we have tried to organize the work in different groups. This has led to the decision that we have hired the following persons part time at Deans* office to be responsible for the following tasks:

• Valter Ström for the chemicals
• Anders Tilliander for the fire safety
• Peter Hill for the inflammable goods

Each of these three persons is in turn responsible for a group consisting of people from each of ITM’s departments. They meet four times a year to discuss different issues such as needs for education of personnel, smart solutions that was found by one department and that can be transferred to other departments, etc. Thus, we have created groups of specialists that can learn from each other as well as discuss issues related to their focus areas.

As an important part of the Deans’ office systematic work on issues related to the working environment, we also meet Valter, Anders and Peter four times a year to inform each other regarding what each group is working on. At these meetings, Annika and Sofia inform and discuss activities that take place in their KTH network on environmental issues. In addition, Anna Thöresson Berg participates as the responsible for the psycho-social work within ITM. The last important member of this group is Staffan Qvarnström, who is ITM’s main Health and safety representant. He also has his own network of people from each department.

I should also mention that within ITM’s group we make a budget for the coming year regarding the needs of educations, support etc. Thereafter, this budget is later on presented for the ITM board that makes the final decision on the amount. So far the board has been very positive towards our activities so we feel that we have a strong support from the leadership. You can find more information on our at ITM’s intranet.

I also want to inform you about an important part of our systematic environmental work that will take place soon. It is time for our annual safety inspections at each department. These will take place at the following times:

• March 7, Materials Science and Engineering
• March 9, Industrial Economics and Management and Deans Office
• March 11, Industrial Production
• March 14, Applied Mechanical Engineering
• March 21, Machine Design
• March 29, Energy Technology

As part of the budget each year we also include specially targeted wellness activities directed to promote your health (friskvård). Here, we send out a question to you (both our personnel and scholarship students) to ask which activities you prefer. Thereafter, we select the activities that most people have voted for. Please visit ITM’s intranet to see what activities that are offered by us.

Personally, I try to join the floorball group once or twice a week because I think it is a whole lot of fun. Maybe I will see you at that activity or at least that I see you in the KTH hall in the future?

Pär Jönsson, Vice Dean

An intensive work was carried out at Dean’s office and the departments now at the end of this year to reach the last possibility to submit our positions to the KTH Faculty Council, at their last meeting for the year which was held on December 8. Some of these recruitments were part of the normal strategic faculty plans that are made at each department. In these plans we consider both how many faculty members that will retire within the coming years, the needs in research and education at the departments as well as the general needs in the industry and society. It should be mention that the role of The Faculty Council is to judge if the new position is part of the future strategic plan of the department to meet the demands in research and education. However, they also judge whether the financial body of the department is large enough to host another faculty position.

On December 8, four “normal” strategic faculty positions were put forward to the Faculty Council. Professor Pontus Braunerhjelm and his co-workers at the Department of Industrial Economy and Management submitted two positions: an Assistant Professorship in Industrial Economy with Focus on Entrepreneurship and an Associate Professor in Industrial Economy with a Focus on Supply Chains. Also, Professor Björn Palm and his co-workers at the Department of Energy submitted an Associate Professor position focusing on Energy and Sustainable Development and Professor Mauro Onori and his co-workers at the Department of Industrial Production submitted an Assistant Professor position in Cloud Based Manufacturing and Robot Technology. The first three positions passed the scrutiny of the Faculty Board and were sent to the next control mechanism at KTH, namely the Employment Council. Their job is to go through the employment profile in detail to make that it is clearly written.

We got some minor complaints regarding the title of the fourth position. It seems like Professor Onori has to modify his visionary “cloud” formulation to something that is more “earthy” (jordnära), so that “the rest of us” can follow his ideas! By the way, this is not the first time this department seems to come up with new ideas before anyone else does. As an example they did lots of research in 3D printing/additive manufacturing many years ago but it was stopped due to lack of interest from society and industry at that time. However, as many of you know they are back in business in this area again, now when the industry and society has caught up with their visions.

On December 8 a historical event also took place, namely that we started the process to build the research at the Department of Applied Mechanical Engineering. This is currently a department that is totally focused on education, but in the strategic plans they will grow in research up to a size of a typical ITM department. This is a huge transformation that will take place the coming years. Here, I would like to stress that Associate Professor Kristina Palm and her co-workers have worked hard for a long time to carefully study the needs of future research at this new research department. As I mentioned before, they have planned seven new faculty positions. Thus on December 8 the following first four positions were put forward to the Faculty Council (note, that at this stage the English names are not finalized):

• Assistant Professor in Operational Production Management (Biträdande lektor i operativ industriell produktionsledning
• Associate Professor in Production Systems Technology (Lektor i produktionssystemteknik)
• Associate Professor in Sustainable Production (Lektor i hållbar produktion)
• Professor in Industrial Production Management (Professor i industriell produktionsledning)

All four of these positions passed the needle’s eye set by the Faculty Council and will now be scrutinized with respect to the formulations of the employment profiles. Thereafter, the will be announced in Swedish and International media in order to attract talented co-workers. To be continued……

Finally, I would like to wish all people at ITM a happy holiday with their family and friends. I am aware of that we celebrate different occasions during this holiday and that we even celebrate the “New Year” at different times. Nevertheless, I hope that you will enjoy “this” particular holiday period.

Pär Jönsson, Vice Dean