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The
Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM) was established
at the University of Oslo in 1990. The University
of Oslo was established in 1811 making it Norway's oldest education
and research institution. Today the University of Oslo has approx.
30,000 students and 4,600
employees. Within its eight faculties, the University covers a wide
range of academic fields while maintaining expertise in very specific
areas of interest. Four Nobel Prize winners gives an indication of the quality
of the research at the University.
Because of its interdisciplinary mandate, SUM is placed
directly under the Board of Directors of the University of Oslo
rather than attached to a particular faculty. The Centre has its
own Board which includes representatives from four faculties (Social
Sciences, Arts, Natural Sciences, and Law) as well as two members
from outside the University. More than 50 people are affiliated
with the Centre.
The University provides core funding, but most of
our activities are externally financed. The Research
Council of Norway is the most important single source. Others
include NUFU (the Norwegian Universities' Committee for Development
Research and Education),
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Environment, NORAD,
the World Bank, and a number of NGOs.
In geographic terms, research at the Centre is broadly
spread. Outside Norway, many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin
America are and will continue to be covered (See location
of SUM's research).
In SUM's Strategic
Plan for 2005-2009, a number of research
areas have been selected, each with one or two senior researchers
attached. These are important for increasing the quality and coherence
of the research undertaken, and thus the sense of common purpose.
It is important to stress, however, that there are areas of interaction
and overlapping between these programme areas.
The intention is not to create barriers or demarcation
lines between researchers; quite the reverse. What is common to
most of our research is a critical approach, challenging dominant
values and perspectives - whether based on gender, culture or disciplinary
orientation. We are especially concerned with comparative analysis,
over time and space, and with different levels - the global, regional
and local - and interactions between these.
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