News from the Senior Management Team no. 17/2015

New Foulum plant converts grass to biofuel 

On Friday 22 May, a pilot plant for the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of biomass was inaugurated in Foulum. The plant will produce biofuel which can be mixed with or even replace  conventional fuels and chemicals.

The new facility is part of BioBase, a major biorefining and bio-based production initiative which is currently being carried out at Aarhus University.


New diabetes centre opens in Aarhus

On Friday 22 May, a new research centre opened at Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital. The International Diabetic Neuropathy Consortium (INDC) will conduct research into how to prevent neuritis caused by diabetes, also known as diabetic neuropathy. 

In Denmark, 320,000 people suffer from diabetes, while a further 30,000 new patients are diagnosed with diabetes each year. Almost half of all diabetics are affected by neuritis, which in the worst cases can result in amputation. 


Consultation on merger between SKT and Dentistry

Allan Flyvbjerg, dean of Health, is inviting employees to contribute their thoughts on on what concrete benefits might result from a merger between the School for Dental Assistants, Hygienists and Clinical Technicians (SKT) and the Department of Dentistry, especially in relation to improving the teaching in the dentistry teams and common degree programme elements.

The consultation period runs until 9 June, and the consultation responses – together with the proposal – will be presented to the Aarhus University Board on 17 June 2015 for consideration.


Rigmor and Carl Holst-Knudsen Award for Scientific Research

On Thursday 28 May, Aarhus University is awarding one of Denmark’s oldest and most prestigious awards: The Rigmor and Carl Holst-Knudsen Award for Scientific Research. The prize of DKK 100,000 will be awarded to two researchers who have distinguished themselves at the very highest level. On the same occasion, the Aarhus University Research Foundation will be awarding five PhD prizes. The event will be held in the Main Hall from 11.00 to 13.30, and seats are still available.


Internet Week Aarhus success to be repeated

For the second year running, Aarhus University is co-organising Internet Week Denmark on 1-5 June. The event is a professional festival which celebrates the internet and the digital economy. The idea behind Internet Week Denmark comes from Smart Aarhus, which is a partnership between the City of Aarhus and a range of institutions and companies – including Aarhus University. The university supports the event by making its expertise available.


AU to chair UN Centre for Children’s Rights

Until the end of 2018, the Department of Law at Aarhus BSS will hold the chairmanship of the UNCRC Policy Centre ‘Hope for Children’. The university received the good news from Joseph Varughese, director general of the centre. The centre aims to protect and advocate the rights of children, for example through the work of leading researchers in the field, dissemination of their research and collaboration with children’s organisations around the world.


New Leiden ranking

The new CWTS Leiden Ranking has just been published. The ranking list is based exclusively on analyses of the universities’ academic publications. This year’s results show that Aarhus University’s academic production has been cited 22 per cent more than the world average. This results in a ranking as no. 81 among the 154 largest universities in the world.

The huge volumes of data on the Leiden Ranking website can be organised according to several parameters which users can select themselves. For example, it can be seen that 59 per cent of the registered articles from Aarhus University are published in collaboration with foreign research institutions.

The top places in the ranking list are dominated by American universities. Of the top 25, nineteen institutions are American, and five are European (Cambridge, Oxford, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne). The Israeli Weizmann Institute of Science is also in the top 25. The ranking list covers the 750 largest universities worldwide measured in terms of their publication output.


Calendar

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/2015.