Ilona Bärlund – working on coordination of UFZ’s water research

After working for ten years at SYKE in Helsinki in national and EU research projects on modelling of water and chemicals, Ilona Bärlund first moved to the University of Kassel in Germany as an expert in the SCENES FP6 project and then in autumn 2010 to UFZ in Magdeburg.

What do you do at UFZ and why did you decide to move to Germany?

At UFZ I have fewer research tasks than in my previous jobs, and focus more on research coordination. I work for UFZ's water research topic “Sustainable Water Resources Management”, which means increased networking, searching for links between working groups and research areas, reporting, and being the representative of the topic to outside stakeholders.

This is not strictly speaking staff exchange as I have resigned my position at SYKE end of last year and will be at UFZ presumably at least for a couple of years. However, at the job interview I got the impression that it was an advantage that I had worked for a long time at another PEER centre. A German husband, a wish for change and a possibility to work in another position with new issues also inspired me to change jobs.

Do you have any suggestions for others considering working at another centre?

I would advice to go abroad for at least a year. The difficulty is to leave and come back, especially if you are working in projects. You may have several ongoing projects at the same time, all with different schedules. There never seems to be a good moment when everything is finished to start something new in a structured fashion. Old tasks will inevitably fall on your colleagues.

Thus, I feel a short term exchange might not be worth it, and that is why a year or two would be better.

I encourage others to seek international experience. You will get a new perspective on working methods and, above all, on research questions. For example, I only noticed in Germany how focused my work previously had been on nutrient leaching. This topic being so relevant for the Baltic Sea region is much less of an issue in parts of Europe where water scarcity affects both society and the environment.

How do you find living in Germany?

As a Finn it is not too difficult to adapt to living and working in Germany, where the culture and value system is very similar. At the same time, Germany is also very different compared to Finland - a big country politically and economically at the heart of Europe. The population density is much higher, you find built environment everywhere, as you will also the Autobahn.

I will always be an immigrant to some extent, as are also many Germans who have moved for instance from Bavaria to Saxony-Anhalt. It is not necessarily a bad thing. Being a Finn you have always material for some anecdotes and it makes it easier for new people to remember you.

One German peculiarity are the similarities and differences between former West and East Germany. Many things have changed in 20 years but you can still observe differences in daily life, which is very interesting for an outsider like me.

What do you miss from Finland?

I miss the sour dough bread and the specific dry humour that Finns have. Of course I miss family and friends whom I rarely see. Fortunately, the distances are not great, so we visit each other several times a year.