No. 19, 19 May

Divine enlightenment

In and out like a flash. Nowadays, politicians build financial incentive tunnels that must at any cost get young people to work their way through the education system as rapidly as possible. One of the consequences is the direct opposite effect – many young people wait several years to embark on exactly the right study programme. And to make matters worse, many of these young people unfortunately end up not making the decision to get started on a course of higher education.

Perhaps a more flexible education system with the opportunity to change track along the way would get more young people to commence higher education programmes and to begin earlier. A flexible education system with the chance and support to change subject, drop one or take an additional choice along the way, as well as the opportunity to transfer reasonable credits for students wanting to change track. It might well be that the students take a bit longer – but what does it matter if they begin earlier, are more content during their years of study, go straight into a job, and perform better on the labour market? Let us therefore put an end to the narrow tunnel vision that demands divine enlightenment on the part of young people, preferably as early as when they choose their upper secondary school education.

Read the leading article by Nina Smith (in Danish only) at www.au.dk/avis/2009/campus-nr-9/leder

Open access at Aarhus University

The university management has just decided that Aarhus University will make further efforts with its work on the open access (AO) concept. In recent years, AO has attracted increasing interest both in Denmark and abroad. AO ensures public access to publicly (and possibly privately) funded research using databases in the form of institutional repositories, or alternatively national repositories.

The Danish Government has also responded to the Council of Ministers’ suggestion to strengthen access to scientific/academic information, as well as relaying and storing such information. OA also means that the “rich countries” provide the “poor countries” with their knowledge free of charge. A survey of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences’ publications also shows that OA articles are cited twice as frequently. Aarhus University will now gradually introduce more systematic work with OA. Several local initiatives are already in process at places including the Department of Mathematical Sciences, the Aarhus School of Business and the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, and benefits can be gained by building on these.

ERC Advanced Grants give fine placing to Aarhus University

Aarhus University does really well in the competition for the attractive European Research Council’s Advanced Grants (ERC Advanced Grants).

In 2008, Aarhus University was successful in three applications for three ERC Advanced Grants. A summary from the Coimbra Group, which consists of 38 elite universities in Europe, shows that the three grants place Aarhus University as number six on the list of the most favoured recipients of ERC Advanced Grants among the Coimbra universities – after the universities in Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Geneva and Heidelberg.

Aarhus University gives very high priority to taking part in the competition for research grants such as the ERC Advanced Grants, because scientific/academic excellence is crucial for acquiring the grants. In 2008, Aarhus University was also awarded three Starting Grants to promising young researchers.

Read more about the ERC Grants at http://erc.europa.eu/

And about the Coimbra Group at http://www.coimbra-group.eu

Benchmarking regarding research finances

Aarhus University has just been visited by representatives from the four other universities in the North European Benchmarking Co-operation (NEBC), of which Aarhus University is a member. The theme of this meeting was internal distribution of financial resources, and discussions included performance indicators, strategic funds and models for co-financing.

The idea of the NEBC is to find best practice and share valuable knowledge and experience with each other. In addition to Aarhus University, the universities in Kiel, Bergen, Gothenburg and Turku make up the NEBC.

Prize-giving

The Rigmor and Carl Holst-Knudsen Award for Scientific Research and the Aarhus University Research Foundation’s five PhD prizes will be presented on the same day this year.

The prize-giving takes place in the main Hall at Aarhus University on Wednesday 27 May at 11.00, and the event concludes with a reception. On the day itself, the prize-winners will present their research, and the Aarhus University Research Foundation will also submit its annual report for 2008. Everyone interested is welcome to register for the event by contacting Lise Poulsen no later than Monday 25 May at 12.00 – either by sending an e-mail to lp@adm.au.dk or calling +45 8942 1140.

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation calls for EliteForsk prizes 2009

The application deadline for the 2009 EliteForsk prizes is 1 September at 15.00. This year, five of the major EliteForsk prizes are being awarded, each valued at DKK 1.2 million. Last year, Aarhus University received two of the fine EliteForsk prizes, as well as four EliteForsk travelling scholarships and four Young Elite researcher prizes.

Read more about the application conditions and the EliteForsk (in Danish only) here

Kind regards
The Vice-Chancellor’s Office
19 May 2009

The Vice-Chancellor’s Office publishes News from the Vice-Chancellor’s Office 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 News from the Vice-Chancellor’s Office, please go to http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve/index.asp?sprog=en. The English version of News from the Vice-Chancellor’s Office is published every Wednesday and is available at http://www.au.dk/en/uni/rectorate/newsletter.

You can read previous editions of News from the Vice-Chancellor’s Office at http://www.au.dk/en/uni/rectorate/newsletter/2009.