Summer greetings from the dean 2022

Dear all,

The summer holidays are fast approaching and I would therefore like to take this opportunity to take stock of a time of change but also of new, exciting opportunities for Tech.

2022 has been a busy year for all of us so far. The openings of large research centres such as START, Land-CRAFT and CORC have greatly underlined the strength of Tech´s academic environments and our strong profile in internationally recognised research.

It's impressive what we can collectively achieve. Tech's researchers have been extremely adept at bringing research funds home, in addition to the two major centers, CORC and Land-CRAFT, Tech has at the time of writing started projects for DKK 524 million in 2022. The Dean's Department is proud of the enormous success of the faculty's researchers with the take-home of funds. This means that Tech can deliver even more of the research that makes a big difference to society.

At the start of 2022 a political agreement on "more education across the country" also fell into place. Specifically, for Tech, this means that we are facing a new era with the establishment of AU Viborg - Research Center Foulum. As a single national beacon and educational campus in agricultural sciences and food production, there are great expectations for our new study programmes and our future students in Foulum. As the green and collaborative faculty, we must be able to deliver on all parameters and this is both exciting and challenging.

The process of establishing AU Viborg is underway and both the dean' department, department management and employees are involved in the work on the development of the new campus. A number of coordination groups and working groups have been set up in areas such as construction, education, research, recruitment and the future study environment in Foulum. We want to involve as much as possible in the process and will therefore also continuously communicate about the process, progress and the development of AU Viborg.

We will continue our focus on engineering until 2026. A big thank you for the great effort that has been put in to give shape to our four engineering institutes.  We now have a solid foundation for strong and professional communities between the departments that can also meet a growth scenario in the engineering programmes.

I know that relocations have taken up a lot of space with many of you. It requires extra work and perhaps new ways of arranging everyday life when transitioning to new offices and laboratories.  Employee well-being and a good study environment for our students is a high priority for all of us.  Therefore, a big thank you to the affected employees for showing goodwill, patience and adaptability in relation to the necessary adjustments in daily life.

I believe that through Campus 2.0 we can create a greater coherence across AU and Tech, so that we can continue our common direction and ambition to create green and societal impact and educate our students for a hungry labour market.

Recently , we finally signed the new framework agreement 2022-2025 between AU and the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. This year's framework grant is DKK 364 million. The framework agreement has been cut for many years and continues to be and therefore the research amount has been decreasing for years. Negotiations to restore the research amount will continue for 2023. Despite the fact that the agreement was formally signed well into the year, our researchers and advisors have continued to work strongly on the tasks that have been planned.

On the occasion of the impending summer holiday I would like to wish you all a very nice summer.

I look forward to meeting you again this fall when I and the deanship plan to tour our locations.

With these words, I want to wish you all a really good, well-deserved and sunny holiday!

Yours sincerely,

Eskild Holm Nielsen

Dean, Faculty of Technical Sciences