Francisco Vilaplana is an Associate Professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. He has international research experience from Spain, The Netherlands, Australia and, of course, Sweden. Francisco is passionate about research on sustainable materials and processes, especially on utilising biomass for solving our material, energy and nutritional needs and understanding the molecular mechanisms behind biotechnological processes. In this blog, he will discuss in an informal setting the challenges and possibilities of a newby researcher in Sweden. Neither his host institution, none of the funding agencies, nor his co-workers can be held responsible for the opinions in this blog.