“We want to bring the staff in the centre units together in the same organisation. They already work closely together today. With a shared leadership, we can ensure even more holistic advisory services for ministries and other authorities,” says Ole Hertel, Tech’s Vice-Dean for public sector consultancy and business collaboration.

Maria Sommer Holtze, who has until now served as Director of DCE, will assume the role of Director of the merged centre unit with immediate effect. Anne-Luise Olesen, who has served as interim Director of DCA, will take on the role of interim Deputy Director until the deputy director position is filled. A new joint secretariat will also be established, headed by Line L. Dvinge.

“With the merger, ministries and other partners will have a single point of entry to our science-based advice, and they can expect greater robustness in task delivery. At the same time, the merger is an important step towards strengthening cross-disciplinary advisory services. This is something that is increasingly in demand, for example in connection with the green tripartite agreement and in addressing other major and complex challenges we face,” says Ole Hertel, adding:

“I am aware that the decision to merge the two centre units may feel overwhelming for some of our colleagues. That is why we are taking the time needed for the process and to ensure that staff can find both each other and new ways of working together. Fortunately, I see a strong willingness to collaborate across the two units, which reinforces my confidence in that this will turn out very, very well.”

A new name, logo, and strategy for the merged centre unit are expected to be ready by 1 January 2027. Until then, all publications will continue to be issued under the familiar names DCA and DCE.

A joint webinar for all Tech employees will be held on 13 March at 10:30, where there will be an opportunity to ask questions about the organisational changes. The webinar is conducted in Danish.

Fact sheet: Merger of the DCA and DCE centre units into a new combined centre unit 

• The Dean’s Office at the Faculty of Technical Sciences has decided to merge the two centre units, DCA and DCE, into a new combined centre unit.
• The merger concerns organisational structure only. The three locations in Viborg, Roskilde, and Aarhus will remain unchanged.
• The leadership of the combined centre unit takes effect immediately:
  • The current DCE Director, Maria Sommer Holtze, becomes Director of the combined centre unit. Maria will continue to be based in Roskilde.
  • A position as Deputy Director in Viborg will be advertised, reporting directly to the Director. The current interim DCA Director, Anne-Luise Olesen, will now serve as interim Deputy Director until a permanent appointment is made.
• The Dean’s Office has based the decision on an organisational analysis carried out over the past five months.
• The merger does not entail savings or staff reductions.
  • No employees will be relocated or dismissed as a result of the decision.
  • All employees will retain their salary and seniority.
  • For most employees, day-to-day tasks will remain largely unchanged. 
     

“All research environments at Tech – and in fact also at Nat – have so far been on the same network, which means that 300–400 research environments have been connected. We are now moving from a faculty-wide research network to a network per research environment, so you no longer have to fear spreading an infection to all your colleagues if you are unlucky enough to have your equipment compromised,” says Thomas Louis Merton Hansen, project manager at AU IT.

At the same time, the shift from a shared network to many separate networks provides greater flexibility in the IT solutions available to researchers.

“When you work with a network at faculty level, it naturally becomes very restrictive. The smaller networks we are now moving to can be far more flexible in terms of what we can allow researchers to do, giving us the opportunity to support their work more effectively,” says Thomas Louis Merton Hansen.

Strengthening cybersecurity across AU

More than 50 research environments at ECE and other departments have now been migrated, and it is time to extend the project to the remaining departments at Tech and, eventually, to the university’s roughly 650 research environments. This will take the form of four to five standard solutions that each research environment can choose from – all developed in collaboration with researchers from ECE:

“When we launched the project, ECE were quick to say they wanted to help develop the new solutions. We started by bringing some of the most complex research environments on board and created solutions that are fully supported. So we’ve had a really good collaboration with the researchers,” says Thomas Louis Merton Hansen.

The project, informally known as the implementation of CampusNet 2.0, is part of a broader effort to strengthen research security and flexibility at Aarhus University. It was therefore natural to begin at Tech, which has a high concentration of critical research.

“With AU’s new focus on cybersecurity and the establishment of AU Cyber, we have taken on a responsibility to help strengthen Denmark’s digital resilience. With CampusNet 2.0 and the close collaboration between AU IT and our researchers, we are, so to speak, taking our own medicine to protect our research from being misused or becoming a target for espionage,” says Brian Vinter, Vice-Dean for research at Tech and Chair of AU’s URIS implementation group.

Timeline

The migration of research environments at Katrinebjerg and the IT Byen is expected to be completed before the summer holidays, after which the migration of AU Viborg’s research environments will begin. The new University City is also on the new network.