News from the Rector's Office no. 42/2010
Structure to be presented on 9 March
The university management’s analyses and considerations about the future academic and administrative structure will be presented on 9 March 2011. In this regard, thorough information will be provided for the university’s staff and students. Details will be made available immediately after the structure has been presented to the University Board at its meeting on 7 and 8 March.
Three of the four new main academic areas have now completed hearings of the draft of the future internal organisation, and the Aarhus Faculty of Arts will finish off its hearing stage in mid-February. Many constructive proposals to the existing hearing presentations have been submitted. The university management regards it as very positive that so many students and members of staff have actively taken part in the processes to determine the future academic and administrative structure. This has involved some very complex issues, both academic and managerial, as well as administrative, financial and purely physical matters. To ensure thorough and fair handling of the considerable input, the university management is now, as planned, in the process of getting a total overview and preparing the decisions that have to be made. Here it is also important to compare the academic recommendations of the main academic areas with those that are now also present in the administrative area. The plan is to make one combined announcement on 9 March about the future academic and administrative internal organisation of each main academic area and of the entire Aarhus University. At the same time, the university management has decided that the analysis groups’ proposals regarding the academic organisation, as well as the replies to the hearings, should be regarded as important working papers for the university management, and that they should not be made available on the Internet.
One joint website
To strengthen and consolidate future communication about the academic development process, the university management has also decided that all future information about the process will only be published at www.au.dk/fu.
Nobel Laureate continues at Aarhus University
Aarhus University has secured continued collaboration with Professor Dale T. Mortensen, who is currently in Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Professor Mortensen will work in close collaboration with a new research unit at Aarhus University, and will continue the work he initiated with researchers at the School of Economics and Management.
The new research unit – Cycles, Adjustment and Policy – will provide better tools for managing unemployment, analysing wage distribution and developing efficiency during a conjuncture period. The Danish Councils for Independent Research | Social Sciences (FSE) have granted the research unit DKK 10 million (approximately EUR 1.3 million), and the Rector’s Office is responsible for a grant of DKK 600,000 (approximately EUR 80,000) as an annual salary for Professor Mortensen.
- Read more (in Danish only) about Dale T. Mortensen and the new research unit
Grants worth millions to research leaders at Aarhus University
Twelve researchers at Aarhus University have received a total of DKK 87.9 million (approximately EUR 11.8 million) from the Sapere Aude (Dare to know) research career programme, launched by the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF). The most important aim of the programme is pave a clear career path for elite researchers from the growth layer of research, and provide them with a springboard from which to apply for grants from international councils and foundations. In this first award, thirty-one researchers received approximately DKK 230 million (about EUR 30.8 million), DKK 87.9 million (about EUR 11.8 million) of which went to researchers at Aarhus University, as mentioned above. The grants apply for a period of four years and are awarded on the basis of applications from the researchers themselves.
The twelve researchers at Aarhus University are:
Faculty of Humanities
Professor Rane Willerslev, Department of Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics: DKK 7.1 million (approximately EUR 950,000)
Faculty of Social Sciences
Associate Professor Marianne Simonsen, School of Economics and Management: DKK 5.5 million (approximately EUR 738,000)
Associate Professor Anne Skorkjær Binderkrantz, Department of Political Science: DKK 7.0 million (approximately EUR 940,000)
Faculty of Health Sciences
Associate Professor Mette Madsen, Department of Medical Biochemistry: DKK 6.1 million (approximately EUR 820,000)
National Environmental Research Institute
Senior Scientist Jesper Givskov Sørensen, Department of Terrestrial Ecology: DKK 7.3 million (approximately EUR 980,000)
Faculty of Science
Postdoctoral Scholar Victoria Birkedal, Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Centre: DKK 8.6 million (approximately EUR 1.15 million)
Postdoctoral Scholar Brigitte Städler, Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Centre: DKK 8.2 million (approximately EUR 1.1 million)
Assistant Professor Alexander Zelikin, Department of Chemistry: DKK 8.6 million (approximately EUR 1.15 million)
Associate Professor David Lundbek Egholm, Department of Earth Sciences: DKK 7.2 million (approximately EUR 965,000)
Associate Professor Simon Kristensen, Department of Mathematical Sciences: DKK 8.4 million (approximately EUR 1.125 million)
Associate Professor Anders Møller, Department of Computer Science: DKK 7.8 million (approximately EUR 1 million)
Associate Professor Jesper Buus Nielsen, Department of Computer Science: DKK 5.6 million (approximately EUR 750,000)
- Read more (in Danish only) about the individual researchers’ backgrounds and projects
- Read more about Sapere Aude
Danish preparation for the 8th EU Research Framework Programme (FP8)
Increasing international competition in the area of research, with particular focus on the challenge from the USA and Asia, was raised by Professor Flemming Besenbacher, Aarhus University, and led to considerable debate when the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation held the conference Towards FP8 – Danish priorities on Monday 6 December.
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has already made progress in clarifying the Danish priorities regarding the forthcoming EU Research Framework Programme (FP8), which takes effect from 2014. The conference on 6 December aimed to collect the most important points and opinions as inspiration for further work with FP8.
There were three themes at the conference:
- The framework programme and excellent research
- Grand challenges
- The framework programme and innovation – with a focus on applying research
Other participants from Aarhus University included Pro-Rector Søren E. Frandsen and forthcoming Dean of the Aarhus Faculty of Health Sciences Allan Flyvbjerg.
Most ideas at Aarhus University
Aarhus University students stood out as being the most inventive in the annual Venture Cup Idea Competition, which is about finding the best proposals for new products or services. A quarter of the 300 submissions came from students at Aarhus University.
The Venture Cup Idea Competition is divided into five categories: Services, Software, Cleantech, Applied Technology, and Life Science & Medtech, and the best idea in each category wins an award of DKK 25,000 (approximately EUR 3,300) in the finals, to be held in January and February 2011.
Aarhus University students won the Software and Life Science & Medtech categories in the last Venture Cup Idea Competition.
Android application won RHoK
The Connectivity Group ran off with first prize in the weekend’s Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) innovation marathon for IT developers, held for the first time in Aarhus – and the first time outside the USA. Two Aarhus University students – Tobias Sonne and Lasse Chor – were in charge of organising the event in Aarhus, hosted by the INCUBA Science Park.
The Connectivity Group has worked for UNICEF with ideas for finding networks in areas affected by a crisis. The group worked specifically on developing an application for Android, which can show the log and position of functioning networks on a map. Emergency organisations can thus coordinate how to use the networks instead of using a satellite telephone, which is expensive and unstable.
Taking part in the hackathon were more than a thousand IT developers in twenty-one cities around the world – with approximately 150 of them in Aarhus. Good contacts and open source will now ensure that the many good ideas, concepts and prototypes will be developed and put into practice as a result of the weekend’s Random Hacks of Kindness.
- Read more about RHoK in Aarhus (in Danish only) at http://cs.au.dk/news-events/news/article/value-for-money/.
- Find more information on the blog for the event at www.rhok.dk.
- And on the international website at www.wiki.rhok.org.
In the media
Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen in Politiken on Sunday 12 December:
In a lengthy interview, Rector Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen explains the visions and ambitions for Aarhus University, including the academic development process.
Søren E. Frandsen in Politiken on 6 December:
Tendering public sector consultancy in competition can impede openness in the community, and the most important public sector consultancy should be located at the universities. These were some of the key points in a presentation made by Pro-Rector Søren E. Frandsen earlier this week. He made his presentation at the Åbenhedstinget (a Danish website for wobbing) conference, which aimed to study conditions regarding the right of access to documents and to debate the proposal for a new Public Act, which was submitted in November.
- Read Søren E. Frandsen’s contribution to a debate in Politiken on 6 December (download PDF file in Danish only).
- See the conference programme (in Danish only).
Calendar
- 15 December: Farewell reception for Dean Just Jensen, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences
- 16 December: Meeting of the University Board
- 16 December: Farewell reception for Dean Søren Mogensen, Faculty of Health Sciences
- 17 December: Laying the foundation stone, iNANO
- 20 December: Farewell reception for Dean Bodil Due, Faculty of Humanities
- 21 December: Farewell reception for Dean Erik Meineche Schmidt, Faculty of Science
- 3 January: University management meeting
- 6 January: Reception for the new deans
- 17 January: EGM of the University Board
Kind regards
The Rector’s Office
14 December 2010
The Rector’s Office publishes a newsletter every week. This newsletter includes a brief description of current activities and discussions. You can sign up for the Danish version of the newsletter at http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve, after which you will receive an e-mail whenever the newsletter is issued.
If you would like to subscribe to the English version of News from the Rector’s Office, please go to http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve/index.asp?sprog=en. The English version of News from the Rector’s Office is available at http://www.au.dk/en/uni/rectorate/newsletter. You can read previous editions of News from the Rector’s Office at http://www.au.dk/en/about/uni/rektorat/newsletter/2010/.