HoD News - 8 April 2022

Dear colleagues,

ECON day

It was great to see so many colleagues at the ECON departmental meeting at Radisson last Thursday, and I want to say a special thank you to colleagues and speakers who contributed to making this an interesting and inspiring day. Via this SharePoint folder, you can access the presentations from the sessions concerning work environment and first-year student retention. These are important focus areas for our department, and I look forward to continuing our work in these areas.

WPA results

The results from this year’s WPA were announced earlier this week. See the reports via this link. Despite a long period of remote and hybrid working and short notice of changes to teaching and exams, I’m very pleased that the ECON report for the psychological WPA shows progress within a number of themes.

Following up on the workplace assessment (WPA) conducted in 2019, different steps were initiated to work with (preventive) stress management, workplace culture (focusing on appreciative work environment), and gender and diversity balance. This work will of course continue. In the coming months, follow-up meetings will take place in the sections as well as in the Departmental Forum and the Local Liaison Committee (LSU). Here, the results from the WPA 2022 will be discussed in detail.

External funding – calls and deadlines

In the late spring and autumn, several funds have application deadlines, and I want to direct your attention to the ECON staff portal webpage on external funding where you can find more information about funding opportunities and upcoming deadlines. Our department has a good record in attracting external funding, but we need to keep up the good work. To support applicants, the ECON external funding committee gives feedback and reviews department members' funding applications, and I encourage applicants to inform the committee about their application plans as soon as possible. Please see this link for details

Attracting external grants is essential for the financial sustainability of our department. External grants are not only important for the creation of strong research environments, but they are also fundamental in generating revenues for the department and securing positions and new recruitments.

I wish you all a good weekend and a Happy Easter Break.

Niels Haldrup