HoD News - 28 May 2018

Dear colleagues,

The Department Management Team
As you know, Professor Nabanita Datta Gupta has been the acting section head for the Labour and Public Policy section since 1 January 2018. At the same time, she has been responsible for talent development, and she has been head of ECON’s PhD programme committee. Nabanita has also been responsible for the coordination work to attract external research funding. I am very grateful to Nabanita for efficiently solving so many tasks for an interim period, and I am glad that she has agreed to continue being the LPP section head starting 1 July 2018. I am equally grateful to welcome Professor Helena Skyt Nielsen aboard in the management team. Helena has agreed to take over the work with PhD and talent development, and the department will benefit from her great experience in coordinating and attracting external research funding.

Relocation Schedule
The previously announced office relocations are expected to commence in week 40 around 1 October, and are expected to last for a number of weeks. I cannot exclude further changes/postponements to this plan.

In week 23, starting 4 June, the section heads will receive an overview of the offices available to the respective sections together with a list of the faculty, PhD students, and staff to occupy the offices. Also, there will be a similar plan for the new macro group, where Bo Sandemann Rasmussen will be responsible for office allocations. The section heads (and Bo) together with the section secretaries will then arrange the office allocations in detail. I suggest that each section arranges a section meeting where the frames for the respective section are presented and a schedule for the work is announced. We expect the sections to have finished their work concerning office allocations before the end of June.

After the summer holidays the actual relocation plan will be arranged in detail.

I thank you for your collaboration during the relocation process, and I apologize for the inconvenience that will naturally occur for a period of time.

The New General Data Protection Regulation
The new General Data Protection Regulation, which became effective as from 25 May, require a new mode of awareness from all of us when handling sensitive and/or confidential personal data in connection teaching, exams, student matters, when handling data for research purposes etc.

We need to some extent to rethink our daily work routines in order not to violate these new regulations.

As described in today’s ECON News, AU offers an e-learning course about the new rules for personal data. The course takes you through the most relevant issues in relation to the new regulation and can be accessed any time. It takes approx. 1 hour to complete the course.

I strongly recommend that all employees at the department take this course.

Note also that we need to be particularly alert when sending sensitive and/or confidential personal data via e-mail.  Thus, we must not e-mail sensitive and/or confidential personal data outside AU's network, and special rules apply when sending e-mails containing personal data internally at AU. Please read the news in today’s ECON News about e-mails containing personal data very carefully and make sure to include the e-mail signature when you send an e-mail that contains personal data.

Read more about the new rules on personal data at AU’s GDPR website

Aarhus BSS Summer Festival
Once again, the stage is set for a great party with live music, drinks and street food at this year’s Summer Festival on Friday 17 August. This year, the festival is held at Fuglesangs Allé. The area around the S building will form the backdrop of a festive evening with a large party tent, coloured lamps, food stands and bars. There will be live music in the party tent and in the S building. This year, the music is provided by Mads Langer, tv-2 and the Hitmen.

The Summer Festival is a great opportunity to meet with colleagues from the department as well as from other units and departments at Aarhus BSS. This is usually great fun, and I look forward to seeing most of you at the party.

Note that there will be an academic programme in the afternoon.

Niels Haldrup