Summer greeting from the dean

Dear employees,

The summer holidays are approaching and we have already had a taste of the great summer weather. Before we all take a well-deserved break, it is time to look back - and ahead to some of the things we can look forward to after the holidays.

It has been an interesting year at Aarhus BSS. For one thing, I’m very pleased that we’ve succeeded in securing grants from some of the large private foundations such as TrygFonden, the Salling Foundations and the Danish Industry Foundation. They not only strengthen our research but also allow us to consolidate the quality of our degree programmes.

This year, we in the faculty management team have made a targeted effort to find out how we can strengthen the school’s external grants - among other things, with a specific focus on the large private foundations. For that reason, we have appointed a research committee that will work towards improving the quality of major research applications and consolidate the administrative support and processes that are already taking place at the departments.

Major applications often pose high demands for the societal - and not just academic - contribution of the research. One of the committee’s objectives will thus be to help applicants place their academic interests within a larger societal framework.

At Aarhus BSS, we need to become even better at seeing our research as part of the solution to some of society’s main challenges. Due to our school’s academic breadth, we truly have something to contribute. We must dare to think bigger and think big.

A good example of thinking big is the new interdisciplinary research centre the Crown Prince Frederik Center for Public Leadership, which opened in May. The centre’s ambition is to become a powerhouse within leadership and organisational research for the benefit of society as a whole - and the centre was indeed made possible by a donation from Købmand Herman Sallings Fond.

The centre is anchored at the Department of Political Science, and at the same time, it is relevant to all of Aarhus BSS, as researchers from all of the school’s departments will contribute to the centre’s research. At the centre, the business and social science disciplines work together side by side, and this opens up many interesting possibilities across the school.

Another thing that we can look forward to is the annual Aarhus BSS Summer Festival, which takes place on Friday 17 August. As always, the departments will be hosting academic events in the afternoon prior to the festival. At the Department of Law, the afternoon event includes the opening of the new Centre for Law and Digitalisation. In this way, the day is a perfect combination of academic and festive activities.

This year’s Summer Festival is held at Fuglesangs Allé.  I hope to see a great many of you there.

Finally, I would like to add a few words to the consultation process that will take place during the autumn here at Aarhus BSS in connection with the new University City, which gathers all of our activities in Aarhus across Nørrebrogade. Although the University City is quite a few years away, this autumn is the time for us to make our mark on our future surroundings.

The Department of Management and the Department of Economics and Business Economics will be moving to the University City, but the entire school will benefit from the new surroundings. For that reason, I hope that many of you will contribute to the consultation process in the autumn. Right now, we are busy planning the process here at Aarhus BSS, and you will find out more after the summer holidays.

With these words, I would like to wish you all a great summer!

Best,

Thomas Pallesen