Miriam Frida Karlsson - global network coordinator at the NJ faculty

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am a researcher of plant protection, specifically insect pests and biological pest control, now employed at the Ecology Department. I see agriculture as a corner stone in sustainable development in every country, as important in Sweden as anywhere else and as important on a local as a global scale, maybe because I grew up on a farm.

What is your experience from global development work?

What does global development work really mean? If it is global, it means everywhere, no? If you mean work in low-income countries, then I have experience from living, working, and collaborating in some countries in South America and Africa that fall into that category. I have currently research collaboration ongoing in Benin and Tanzania. The experiences is partly thanks to scientific research, Minor Field Studies, and Linneaus Palme exchange, but also through NGO work. 

How can you contribute to SLU´s global mission?

I hope to contribute to SLU's global mission by increasing the chances that we work together in the world to create evidence-based decisions on how to ensure equalities, basic needs for food, shelter, decent jobs and income. I hope to encourage researchers and students at SLU to look at the world as a whole, and not divided into categories of people, income levels and problems. In that way we can more easily conduct research together and really contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Agenda 2030.