Department of Bioscience
The department is constituted by consolidating the subject-related groupings at the current Department of Biological Sciences (NAT) and incorporating the subject-related groupings in freshwater ecology, terrestrial ecology, Arctic environment, marine ecology and wildlife ecology and biodiversity at NERI. This provides strong subject-related groupings, and the new department will altogether represent one of the strongest of all the scientific environments in this field in Europe. This is the vision the Department of Bioscience is based on.
As its starting point, the department will be widespread geographically, with activities in Silkeborg, Kalø, Roskilde, Rønbjerg, Zackenberg and at Campus Aarhus. The activities in Silkeborg, Kalø and at Campus Aarhus will be consolidated in the short term of four to five years at Campus Aarhus, physically located at the campus section (biokæden), which will be extended with new buildings.
However, the marine ecology and Arctic environment groupings will remain in Roskilde for the time being. In this case, the principle of safe operation and maintenance of contracts with the public authorities is given priority over the desire for geographic localisation at the same site at Campus Aarhus.
However, the location in Roskilde is not ideal because of the difficulty in maintaining close contact with Aarhus University’s attractive student environments and the other strong research environments. In the five-year term, it is therefore planned to vacate the facilities in Roskilde and move the marine ecology and Arctic environment groupings to Campus Emdrup, provided the necessary authority approvals for building laboratories can be obtained.
The experimental/field stations in Silkeborg and Rønbjerg will be retained, as well as the Kalø Estate and Zackenberg with a certain staffing level. The extent will be clarified in more detail in a subsequent process.
The university is investigating options for extending the buildings in Silkeborg and Kalø for teaching purposes and holding courses. Attention is drawn to space requirements for continuing education, for example, as well as activities in connection with the Summer University.
Public sector consultancy
The department makes significant contributions to research-based public sector consultancy in the areas of environmental management of marine and terrestrial ecosystems, catchment management, and monitoring. The department provides consultancy services for the Ministry of Climate and Energy, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the Self-Government of Greenland and the European Environment Agency. Together with the Department of Environmental Science, the department will to a considerable extent handle the public sector consultancy tasks performed by NERI until now.
Education
The department makes considerable contributions to the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes, PhD programmes and continuing education programmes.
Staffing
Includes approximately 480–500 members of staff (about 340–350 academic staff and 140–150 technical and administrative staff).
Head of department
The department consists of units from:
- Department of Biological Sciences
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and Biodiversity
- Department of Arctic Environment
- Department of Terrestrial Ecology
- Department of Freshwater Ecology
- Department of Marine Ecology
