Soon it will be possible to employ research staff in tenure track positions at Aarhus University. These positions will increase transparency and coherence in the research career paths, create greater employment security and improve the university's chances of attracting the most talented and motivated researchers despite stiffer international competition.
A tenure track path is at junior researcher level (assistant professorship), where young researchers have several years in which to qualify for an associate professorship by meeting clearly defined goals which have been agreed in advance with the academic management.
Advancing to a permanent position is thus contingent on an assessment of the candidate. A tenure track programme lasting up to six years can be agreed. A tenure review must be conducted by the end of the fifth year at which an academic assessment committee evaluates the candidate's research and teaching competencies etc. in light of the agreed goals. The same quality standards will apply to this assessment as apply to the employment of associate professors generally, and the employment of tenure track will candidates follows the guidelines in the Appointment Order.
The Talent Development Committee, together with the AU Forum for Talent Development, have developed a generic tenure track model which the main academic areas can use and adapt according to their own needs and wishes.
Last Monday, the senior management team decided to continue working with the tenure track job model, and AU HR is currently adding the finishing touches to the detailed rules for the tenure track model. It will then be up to the main academic areas – including the academic councils and liaison committees – to discuss how the model can be implemented locally.
A grant of DKK 70.5 million from the VILLUM FOUNDATION will make it possible to establish a new, ambitious research station in northern Greenland.
At Station North, researchers from a wide range of disciplines will use state-of-the-art instruments to acquire a deeper understanding of global climate change. The station will be a focal point for research collaboration between both Danish and foreign universities.
Work on Station North has started, and the research station is expected to be up and running by 2014.
At the same time, the VILLUM FOUNDATION has awarded DKK 19.5 million to four younger researchers at Aarhus University as part of the Young Investigator Programme.
Five of Denmark's best researchers will be honoured later this week.
This will happen at the annual EliteForsk event on 7 February, at which HRH Crown Princess Mary and the Minister for Science, Innovation and Higher Education, Morten Østergaard, will present five EliteForsk awards and twenty travel grants to talented PhD students.
Last year's recipients of the Danish Council for Independent Research's Sapere Aude grants as well as the Niels Bohr professorships from the Danish National Research Foundation will also be honoured. Speakers at the event include previous EliteForsk award recipient Professor Bo Brummerstedt Iversen and Harvard professor and honorary AU alumnus Lene Vestergaard Hau.
Recipients of the EliteForsk awards and travel grants will be announced on the day. The event takes place at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek at 12.30-16.30.
Kind regards,
The Senior Management Team
The Senior Management Team publishes a newsletter every week. This newsletter includes a brief description of current activities and discussions. You can sign up for the Danish version of the newsletter at http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve, after which you will receive an e-mail whenever the newsletter is issued.
If you would like to subscribe to the English version of News from the Senior Management Team, please go to http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve/index.asp?sprog=en. The English version of News from the Senior Management Team is available at http://www.au.dk/en/about/uni/seniormanagement/newsletter/. You can read previous editions of News from the Senior Management Team at http://www.au.dk/en/about/uni/seniormanagement/newsletter/2013.