Crown Prince inaugurates new interdisciplinary centre

Glorious sunshine, a packed Main Hall, panel debate, presentations and speeches from The Crown Prince, the Minister for Higher Education and Science Tommy Ahlers and Professor Lotte Bøgh Andersen, among others. In short, all of the ingredients for an interesting afternoon devoted to leadership research were in place when Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary arrived at Aarhus BSS at exactly 13:02 on 23 May to inaugurate the new Crown Prince Frederik Center for Public Leadership, which was made possible by a donation from Købmand Herman Sallings Fond.

It is no coincidence that The Crown Prince is lending his name to a research centre at Aarhus BSS. Indeed, the Crown Prince is an alum from the Department of Political Science, and is his welcoming speech he emphasised that the new centre represents a good opportunity to maintain and extend the contact with his former university. He also stressed that public leadership research is necessary for maintaining a strong public sector for the benefit of citizens and the business community - and that he looks forward to contributing actively to the centre as part of its governance committee.

“A well-functioning public sector is a prerequisite for a successful business community - and vice versa,” The Crown Prince said.”Although there are some differences between the two types of leadership, today is about all leaders and employees in the whole of Denmark. I look forward to contributing to the work at the centre and in this way contributing to the continuous development of the Danish public sector.”

The centre to embrace interdisciplinarity

The objective of the new centre is to improve the public sector through research and by educating the public sector leaders of tomorrow, said Professor and Center Director Lotte Bøgh Andersen in her speech. Like The Crown Prince, she also emphasised that the interplay between the public and private sector is a core part of the work at the centre, as the two sectors can learn a lot from each other. For this reason, the centre is already collaborating with public as well as private companies that are all invited to contribute actively to the centre’s research – and to suggest ideas for new research.

In fact, one of the cornerstones in the new centre is to ensure a close relationship between theory and practise. In other words, research at the centre must be based on and contribute to the reality of the leaders - and not exist in an ivory tower, Bøgh Andersen emphasised. She also explained that the new centre will be drawing a great deal on researchers from across the school:

“To exercise good leadership, you need to collaborate with people from many different disciplines. That’s why it makes good sense that the centre is anchored at Aarhus BSS as we are indeed a broad business school. Researchers from Political Sciences are already collaborating with researchers and students from a number of academic fields, and this is a great advantage in leadership research.”

After the event in the Main Hall, the official inauguration of the centre took place outside building 1340. Here, Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Speaker of the Danish Parliament Pia Kjærsgaard presented the gift to The Crown Prince from the Danish Government and Parliament; a painting by Anette Flensburg that is now gracing the wall in the centre’s main entrance hall. The New Carlsberg Foundation has also donated several paintings by John Kørner to the centre.

Facts about Crown Prince Frederik Center for Public Leadership:

• The establishment of the centre was made possible by a generous donation from Købmand Herman Sallings Fond.
• The centre is located at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus BSS.
• The centre will be headed by Professor and Center Director Lotte Bøgh Andersen and Associate Professor and Deputy Center Director Christian Bøtcher Jacobsen.
• The centre will collaborate with VIVE (The Danish Centre of Applied Social Science), among others.
• The centre will engage in research collaborations with e.g. Harvard University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Texas A&M, University of Georgia, University of Utrecht, Leiden University and University of Lausanne.

Read more about the centre.

See photos from the inauguration.

Watch a short film from the inauguration.