News from the Vice-Chancellor’s Office
No. 33, 24 September

Vice-Chancellor ’s position extended to 2013

The University Board decided at its meeting on 22 September to extend Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen’s tenure as vice-chancellor at Aarhus University by a further three years. The vice-chancellor’s present contract expires on 6 August 2010 and is thus extended to 6 August 2013. The Board is very satisfied with the development currently experienced at the university, and gives its complete backing to providing the vice-chancellor with peace and tranquillity to continue his future-oriented work as of now.

The Board also decided that the Vice-Chancellor’s Office should continue with the current staffing level, i.e. the vice-chancellor, the pro-vice-chancellor and the managing director. This means that some of the current tasks and representative assignments undertaken by the Vice-Chancellor’s Office will take place from now on in closer collaboration with the university management (the deans and the director general at NERI). In connection with this decision, the Board noted that Aarhus University has now made significant progress in the merger process and in setting up a united management involving the Vice-Chancellor’s Office and the main academic areas.

From the Board meeting on 22 September:

• The university in China now a reality
• Aarhus University has now formally approved the partnership agreement regarding a Danish/Chinese research and education centre in Beijing. The Sino-Danish Centre (SDC) is a unique project in several ways. Denmark is the first country in which all the universities of one country set themselves up in a joint university centre in China. SDC is being established in partnership with the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (GUCAS), and the formal signing ceremony is scheduled to take place on 23–24 November 2009 in Beijing.
• The plan is to erect a building on the GUCAS campus in the northern part of Beijing, and the Danish Industry Foundation has just decided to provide the sum of DKK 80 million required to carry out construction of the university centre. SDC will be able to admit 300 Master’s degree students. A further 75 PhD students and 100 researchers will be equally divided between the two countries.
• Keeping to the budget
• The Board approved the interim accounts for Aarhus University. The Vice-Chancellor’s Office also stated that the budgeted deficit of DKK 50 million for 2009 is a maximum figure and that this amount is expected to be less.

Prestigious EU grant to researcher from Aarhus University

Senior Researcher Jeppe Vang Lauritsen has just been awarded the prestigious Starting Independent Researcher Grant by the European Research Council (ERC), an award allocated every year to a number of promising young European researchers. The grant is valued at DKK 7.8 million and will be used over the next five years to build up a research group and carry out a research project in the field between physics and nanoscience. Jeppe Vang Lauritsen is attached to the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Centre, iNANO http://www.inano.dk .

The Vice-Chancellor’s Office would like to congratulate Jeppe Vang Lauritsen on his recognition. He follows in the footsteps of three young researchers from the university who received ERC Starting Grants last year http://www.au.dk/en/news/archive/2008/050808a .

A total of seven Danish researchers were awarded ERC Starting Grants in this round of allocation. They were selected from among more than 2,500 applicants. Incidentally, the Research Committee has appointed a working group to strengthen efforts to attract EU grants to Aarhus University in the years ahead.

Input to new Danish development strategy in developing countries

A new report released on 23 September by the Universities Denmark organisation http://www.au.dk/da/nyheder/presse/2009/230909/stronger_universities.pdf proposes recommendations as to how research and education can be strengthened in developing countries. This report was prepared by the Universities Denmark working group on developing countries, chaired by Vice-Chancellor Lauritz B.Holm-Nielsen. One of the aims of the report is to present an overview of the many special competences that the Danish universities can provide as regards building up well-run universities and research environments in the developing countries. The Vice-Chancellor’s Office hopes that by publishing this report, Universities Denmark can provide input to the forthcoming debate about a new Danish development strategy, and that the constructive proposals contained in the report will be well received.

Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University, has prominent Internet profile

The Cybermetrics Lab, the largest public research body in Spain, ranks the Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University, as the fifth-best business school in the world in terms of visibility and sharing research results on the Internet. The aim of this list is to create positive awareness about the sharing of scientific results, and one of the factors assessed is free accessibility to scientific publications (Open Access initiatives) on the websites of business schools. The Copenhagen Business School gained a fine third place. The top five also included Harvard Business School (no. 1), New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (no. 2) and HEC Montreal (no. 4).

See more at http://business-schools.webometrics.info .

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