Dean to visit departments at the Faculty of Technical Sciences

Dean Eskild Holm Nielsen has started his round of visits to all departments and units at Tech. His aim is to greet the staff and introduce the new strategy process. There will be ample opportunity to take part in the dialogue and ask questions.

AU in Foulum (Photo: Anders Trærup, AU)
AU in Foulum (Photo: Anders Trærup, AU)

A clear strategy for the new faculty is important for Eskild Holm Nielsen, who took up his position as dean of the Faculty of Technical Sciences on 1 January. The strategy process is to translate AU's overall strategy into practice and give the new faculty and the departments a common direction.

“Establishing a new faculty has given us a unique opportunity to forge a strong foundation for collaboration on a common direction for the faculty, including all units. We’re responsible for realising AU's overall strategy, so that we exploit the synergies arising from being one united faculty, where we build a shared identity internally and a strong profile externally,” explains Eskild Holm Nielsen.

The new Faculty of Technical Sciences consists of many locations and subject areas, and according to the dean, uniting these into a strong and consolidated unit will be a challenging and exciting task.

"Our new faculty has great potential in the interface between our academic strongholds of the environment, agriculture/food and engineering, and we have an important part to play in translating research into new innovative solutions and partnerships within the green transition; a part we must all play together,” continues Eskild Holm Nielsen.

The faculty strategy should be considered as a supporting platform to help the strategic development of the individual departments and public sector units. Therefore, the round of visits will include an introduction to the upcoming strategy process, followed by dialogue.

“I'm looking forward to meeting you all in your own individual realities, wherever you’re based in Denmark. This is where the most important force for strategic development lies, through the departments' research and education activities, and I look forward to an open dialogue with you about developing our faculty together," Dean Nielsen concludes.

The strategy process will be rolled out over the autumn

After the dean's visits tour and presentation of the strategy process, the strategy work itself will be launched. The goal of the process is to implement the AU strategy into a TECH context, and in this connection establish a common understanding of TECH and how we can work together to achieve the ambitions for the faculty.

The process has three main tracks. The first track deals with management development in the faculty management team. Work here addresses the role of management in relation to implementing the strategic decisions. The second track concerns coordination and collaboration in the administrative area, internally at the faculty, and with NAT and the administrative centre. The third track covers the focus groups that will work with strategic themes such as "Identity and Culture", "the Green Transition" and "Digitalisation".

Whitepapers from the focus groups will be included in further work by the faculty management team on the final strategy for TECH. The common thread for all sub-processes is how we at TECH can implement the AU strategy and at the same time clarify what TECH stands for and what it is to be recognised for as a faculty.

The strategy process is expected to continue into the early spring, after which the overall strategy will be presented.

Plan for the tour of Tech departments:

Department of Environmental Science, Bioscience, DCE (Roskilde): 1 September 08:30 - 12:30

Bioscience, Kalø: 4 September 09:00 - 11:00

Department of Food Science: 4 September 13:00 - 16:00

Department of Animal Science and the Department of Agroecology QGG, DCA (Foulum): 11 September 11:00 - 15:30

Bioscience, Silkeborg: 17 September 08:15 - 10:30

Aarhus University School of Engineering: 17 September 12:30 - 15:30

Department of Engineering: October (date pending)

Department of Agroecology, DCA (Flakkebjerg): (date pending)