No. 35, 21 October 2008

ERC grant to Aarhus University

Prestigious European distinction to Professor Søren Kragh Moestrup, Faculty of Health Sciences.

Professor Søren Kragh Moestrup is the only Dane among this year’s winners to receive one of the coveted ERC Advanced Grants in the Life Sciences domain. He won the award for his TROJA project, which stands for Targeting Receptors Of Jointly Assembled Ligand-Drug Constructs .

The scientific breakthrough in this field has enormous perspectives for medications of the future. In popular terms, TROJA is about using the organism’s systems for the molecular sorting of waste products to direct medications to those cells where they are intended to work specifically. In this connection, some of the body’s own proteins are used as “Trojan horses” to enable medications to enter the diseased cells. The TROJA technique can also be used to render certain types of parasites harmless when they have attacked the body.
“The TROJA project can make us entirely reassess our way of treating with medications. We anticipate that medications will have a far greater effect in treatment and will be able to be used for far more patients. We also expect that the TROJA technique will make it possible to use effective medications that are unsuitable today because they are associated with too many side effects or because they are regarded as being too toxic,” says Professor Moestrup.

The attractive award is accompanied by a grant of approximately DKK 18 million over five years. According to Professor Moestrup, this will be used to strengthen the research group by providing expertise in chemistry and pharmacology.

Heartiest congratulations from the rectorate.

Aarhus University has previously received two Advanced Grants and three Starting Grants. See the media release at: http://www.au.dk/en/news/archive/2008/050808a.

Accreditation of degree programmes

At their meeting on Monday, the deans were given a status report of the work involved in accrediting degree programmes.

Firstly, during the course of five years, the Danish Accreditation Agency (ACE) is to carry out an accreditation process for all existing university degree programmes in Denmark. The following degree programmes at AU have been included in the pilot accreditation stage: BSc (Business Administration and Business Law), BSc (Business Administration, Tax and Business Law), MSc (Law), Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes in Physics, Master’s degree programme in Technical IT, and Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes in the Study of Religion. The current status is that the Accreditation Agency has submitted a report to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation regarding these existing degree programmes. AU is now anxiously waiting to hear what the conclusion will be.

Secondly, the Accreditation Agency is to accredit new degree programmes, and the following AU degrees are currently being assessed: MSc in Food Chain Management, Master’s degree programme in Human Security, part-time Master’s degree programme in Danish as a Second Language, and part-time Master’s degree programme in Management (the latter in collaboration with the University of Southern Denmark).

The rectorate will invite ACE’s chairman and director to visit AU for discussions about experiences gained during the first rounds of the new accreditations and the pilot stage for accrediting degree programmes that are already approved.

Budget negotiations for 2009

As always at this time of the year, the politicians are in full swing with their budget negotiations. The rectorate is anxiously awaiting the conclusion, particularly the crucial outcome of negotiations regarding overhead contributions and the future model for distributing basic funds. See Jens Oddershede (Chairman of the Danish Rectors’ Conference at Universities Denmark) discussing with Helge Sander, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, in the Danish TV programme Deadline on DR2 on Monday evening (in Danish only).

Entrepreneurship

AU wants to be a visible and active partner in developing the level of knowledge and competence in the business community and public institutions. An academic and administrative structure has therefore been set up with the Aarhus Entrepreneurship Centre to effectively support and develop the combined entrepreneurship activities.

These activities range from general consultancy, individual coaching, courses, and teaching that gives credit in entrepreneurship to running knowledge workshops and developing business concepts. They should also be regarded in context with the university’s combined Tech Trans activities and its collaboration with science parks, specific companies, authorities, etc.

The new director of the centre, Flemming K. Fink, will coordinate and develop the in-house activities, while linking these with equivalent and related outside activities at a regional, national and international level. The Aarhus Entrepreneurship Centre is expected to be staffed by 10–15 employees, and will be located in suitable rooms in Katrinebjerg, in the immediate proximity of the planned student greenhouse and the entrepreneurial growth environment in this area. Read the media release (in Danish only) here.

Analysis of continuing and further education activities

At their meeting on Monday, the deans decided to initiate an analysis of the status of the main academic areas, and the strategies and visions in this area. The analysis will result in a combined AU strategy presentation in spring 2009.

Kind regards
The Rectorate
21 October 2008

The rectorate publishes Rectorate News every Tuesday – apart from holidays and public holidays. 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 Rectorate News, please go to http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve/index.asp?sprog=en. The English version of Rectorate News is published every Wednesday and is available at http://www.au.dk/en/uni/rectorate/newsletter.

You can read previous editions of Rectorate News at http://www.au.dk/da/uni/rektorat/nyhedsbrev/2008 .