HoD News - 18 December 2017
Dear Colleagues,
Christmas and the end of the year are rapidly approaching, and we are all busy finishing projects and tasks to get ready for the holidays and the new year waiting.
The year 2017 has been a very hectic year including uncertainty regarding the management of the department. I am very grateful for the positive attitude, help and support that I have received and felt in all respects after I decided to take up the role as (acting) head of department. I hope I will be given the opportunity to continue the work of bringing together the department and setting a direction for the future with your help.
Despite the uncertainty and lack of management, many colleagues at our department have taken a great responsibility in steering the ship and solving the daily work w.r.t. teaching, research and the necessary administrative tasks. Thanks for that.
In addition to the tasks mentioned, many of you have been very active in writing research funding applications, and 2017 has been a truly successful year. The NCRR has attracted major funding from the Lundbeck Foundation in addition to significant funding from other sources to continue the research activities in the coming years. At the rest of ECON, TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research has attracted DKK 40 million in their second period of funding; Philipp Schrøder has received a DKK 15 million grant from the Carlsberg Foundation to establish the centre ReFind; The Dale T. Mortensen Centre (DTMC) directed by Bent Jesper Christensen has been established with a DKK 10 million grant from Aarhus University strategic funds; Martin M. Andreasen has received a Sapere Aude grant worth DKK 5.5 million, and I could continue. In addition to the significant funding to the NCRR, ECON has attracted almost DKK 90 million during 2017, and there are still applications awaiting a decision. This is indeed very very amazing and augurs very well for the future and the solid financial foundation of the department. Thanks for your efforts; continue the good work.
Despite the general success with attracting external funds, we are still less successful as regards ERC grants and grants from the Horizon 2020 programme. Hopefully, we will see increasing funding from EU sources in the future. Our department can document research of high quality and should be able to attract more EU grants judged from objective criteria. In the 2017 Shanghai global ranking, Aarhus University is placed as number 44 worldwide (number 15 in Europe) within the field of economics. Even though rankings should be read and interpreted with care, this placement is pretty good, and a big step forward compared to rankings in previous years.
In 2017 we have said good bye to many colleagues and welcome to many new. We presently have several openings at the professor and associate professor level, and there will be new junior openings in 2018, so we can also expect many new colleagues during 2018. Amongst the professor and associate professor calls for which decisions were made in 2017, we can look forward to welcoming three new colleagues recruited internationally: Margarita Protopappa-Sieke will join the Logistics section as a full professor in August. She comes from a position at University of Cologne. In the spring, Timo Hener will join the Labour and Public Policy section as an associate professor. His field of expertise is labour economics, and he also has interest in environmental economics and other fields. He comes from the Ifo Institute in Munich. Finally, Nicola Maaser will join our
department as an associate professor in April. Her fields of expertise include public economics, political economy and public choice. She comes from University of Bremen.
Last week we were informed that Aarhus BSS has been awarded a 3-year accreditation from EQUIS. This follows the 5-year AMBA accreditation that was awarded earlier this fall. The prestigious EQUIS accreditation now includes the entire BSS, not only ECON and MGMT. Including the AACSB accreditation it means that our school continues to have a triple crown accreditation. One may question the importance of accreditations, but it doesn’t change the fact that being a triple crown business school is an important quality stamp and only includes the best. I would like to congratulate all of us on this great achievement for our department and for Aarhus BSS.
I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Niels