More collaboration between Danish universities

When Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen held the first meeting of the year last week in the Government’s Growth Forum (Regeringens Vækstforum – available in Danish only), Rector Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen spoke about issues including collaboration between the universities. The theme was “Green Growth”, and here the Rector advocated that the Danish universities should combine their strengths in international competition instead of competing among themselves. As an example, he highlighted the fact that no Danish universities were among the winners when the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) launched the first programmes in the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs).

In the Sustainable Energy programme, where Denmark holds a strong position, the Danish universities were thus unsuccessful, even though several had applied, both independently and in alliance with international consortiums. “I’m sure we would have had a better chance if the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University had joined forces,” he said, while at the same time urging the government to encourage national collaboration in connection with attracting international research centres and funds. The government had allocated DKK 30 million (approximately EUR 4 million) to the Danish university that was among the winners.

“Internal competition between researchers in Denmark is healthy and natural, but we don’t necessarily need to compete so fiercely at an institutional level when we have to make a mark for ourselves on the international scene. The Danish university centre in China and the forthcoming collaboration in the area of developing countries are examples we can learn from,” the Rector said.

Public sector consultancy tenders

Denmark’s National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) has submitted tenders for two of the three projects the Ministry of the Environment has subjected to competition and put out to tender as consultancy tasks in accordance with the EU tender directive. These projects are currently placed at NERI.

The two projects NERI has submitted tenders for are the Agency for Spatial and Environmental Planning’s reference laboratory for chemical environmental analyses and the Environmental Protection Agency’s control analysis of pesticides. NERI has assessed the projects as being purely technical tasks, which the institution has carried out under corresponding conditions until now. It also considers that these projects fit in well with related NERI activities.

NERI has not submitted a tender for the third project because it does not consider itself capable of performing the task without a background of active research in this field. This project is concerned with the Environmental Protection Agency’s risk assessment of  microbiological pesticides.

Both during the negotiations and in public, Aarhus University has declared that it views the Ministry of the Environment’s new line with scepticism as regards tendering research-based public sector consultancy as conventional consultancy tasks. This is not because the university fears competition from consultancy firms or other research institutions that can now submit tenders for these tasks – on the contrary. However, Aarhus University believes that public sector consultancy tasks of importance to society should be carried out on the basis of independent research and systematic knowledge building, where researchers are assured of free publishing opportunities, and that public sector consultancy should continue to build on the extensive research environment the universities can offer. Read Pro-Rector Søren E. Frandsen’s analysis in Politiken on 11 February (in Danish only).

Welcome to UNIvers

The first number of Aarhus University’s latest newspaper – UNIvers – was issued on Monday 1 March. The paper is for everyone at AU and is intended to unite the entire university. In order to do so, the paper is based on current activities and debates, which will help reflect the university’s atmosphere and challenges as well as possible. The new editorial team has been given a free hand to produce a newspaper that takes both readers and Aarhus University into account.

It is therefore not a management organ – as has been hinted by a number of sources – but a university newspaper with editorial freedom. We hope that staff and students will respond positively to the new newspaper.

Ground-breaking research results published in Nature

On 25 February, a team of scientists at the Department of Biological Sciences and the National Environmental Research Institute at Aarhus University had a sensational discovery published in the renowned scientific journal Nature.

The four scientists from Aarhus University have discovered that bacteria have electrical connections with each other spanning distances that can be more than 20,000 times their own length. This discovery was made in collaboration with a researcher from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan, and is expected to have an impact on teaching and research in biology and geology all over the world.

Universities to play a role in development aid

Give research and education a key place in future development aid. This is important for sustainability in long-term and equal progress in developing countries. Such is the recommendation of Rector Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen in a contribution to a debate in Kristeligt Dagblad on 27 February.

China’s Ambassador visits Aarhus University

The Chinese Ambassador to Denmark, Mr Xie Hangsheng, is visiting Aarhus University on 8 and 9 March. Ambassador Xie begins his visit in Foulum, which has had close research collaboration with the Chinese for quite some time, partly in connection with mapping the pig genome. The delegation is also visiting the Aarhus campus, where Professor Flemming Besenbacher will present the research activities at iNANO, while Professor Leif Østergaard will introduce Ambassador Xie to Aarhus University’s interdisciplinary brain research project.

Aarhus University’s contact with China has become significantly stronger in recent years, and the research environments Ambassador Xie meets in Aarhus all have key research activities at the Sino-Danish Centre in China, which is a collaboration between the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (GUCAS) and the Danish universities.

U-days at Aarhus University

This weekend, Aarhus University once more welcomes future students to the annual u-days event.

U-days (from the Danish word uddannelsesdage, which means education days) is a collaboration between all the educational institutions in Aarhus. On 4–6 March, the people behind the degree programmes at Aarhus University have organised lectures, guided tours and meetings with students and student counsellors. As a new initiative, the university’s degree programmes will be featured in an open house event in the Lakeside Lecture Theatres on Saturday at 11.00–15.00 (the Faculty of Science, however, is holding an open house event in building 1530). All members of staff are welcome to turn up and hear the numerous interesting lectures, and to see how the university presents itself to future students.

Read more about u-days (in Danish only) or see the special Saturday programme (in Danish only).

Calendar

• 3–4 March: University management seminar at Sandbjerg
• 4–5 March: The Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation's annual Dialogforum in Fredericia (programme in Danish only). Chairman of the Aarhus University Board Jens Bigum and the Rector’s Office will participate, as well as Carsten Riis and Børge Obel.
• 4–6 March: U-days at the educational institutions in Aarhus
• 8–9 March: China’s Ambassador Xie visits Aarhus University
• 10 March: The Minister for Climate and Energy Lykke Friis visits Aarhus University
• 18 March: Next phase of academic development process – theme meetings
• 22–24 April: Festival of Research

Kind regards

The Rector’s Office

4 March 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.