Dear All

Please read this last newsletter before the summer holidays. I’ll be on holiday for three weeks in July (July 8 to 26), but Anni will be available from her office to take care of requests and inquiries to the management team. My plan is to camp a few weeks in Southern England and bike around a bit.

Here follows the latest news:

Construction
Our "big" construction project (new buildings and renovation) is on the agenda of the next board meeting in September, and if accepted there the new building is scheduled to be completed in late 2016 and the renovation projects in June 2018.

Expansion of dissection facilities
Expansion and modernization of the dissection facilities in the anatomy building, including the possibilities for further and continuing education have been accepted. The construction project, which has a total budget of approx DKK 35 million is scheduled to start in 2014 and should be completed in the fall of 2015.

Follow-up on the psychological workplace assessment (APV)
The departmental APV group has put special focus on three areas: Bullying, stress and uncertainty about the future. The last two areas especially applies for the academic staff - both for the permanently and non-tenured staff. As for bullying targeted action is planned where the figures show a particularly high incidence. There are plans of including information of expected and required conduct in the introduction material issued to the new employees at the Department. The causation of bullying, stress and uncertainty as to the future will be included and hopefully clarified in connection with the staff development dialogues by additional questions and then followed by targeted efforts against the underlying causes. The local APV group has informed the Health APV group that there are problems that cannot be solved at the departmental level, but need to be addressed higher up in the organization. This especially concerns the problems reported by the administrative changes and the professional adjustments. The follow-up on the psychological APV will be discussed at the next Department meeting after the holidays.

Follow-up of the physical APV
Many of the problems described have been solved at the local level by the work environment groups. Other problems, such as draught, poor shading and inappropriate devices which cannot be resolved in an orderly manner at the present time, will be included in the building group requirements for the construction project. As a result of odor problems in building 1180-1182 a major project to locate and repair leaks has been initiated. The precautionary measures are coordinated by the buildings supervision unit. To facilitate the handling of heavy waste containers a new system for the extraction of used litter and new lightweight containers will be installed in the animal facilities in the Bartholin building in week 28. The "Job and body" theme days were a success and have been followed up by fixed times for elastic exercises in several of the biomedical buildings.

Introducing the new employees
A subgroup of the departmental Cooperation Committee has produced information to new employees. See the material (in Danish).

The subgroup continues with an actual introduction programme for new employees.

Network for new permanently employed associate/assistant professors at the Department
We have had the first meeting of the network counting 15 employees. The topics covered research management courses, opportunities for mentoring and matching of expectations. A series of future meetings was decided.

Help from the Secretariat
Finding the right people for the right questions/issues in the administrative centers is still difficult. Therefore we encourage you to first contact the local secretariats. The secretaries are in many cases fully capable of handling your problem/issue or refer you to the right person immediately.

IT Support
It has been difficult to get the proper support to IT problems in the teaching rooms. Before, the support was divided between the Technical Department and AU IT. As from the coming semester the support will be entirely with AU-IT and with only one contact number. From the start of the coming semester contact information for the new IT support will be posted in all teaching rooms covered by the support.

Meeting with Human Resources and Finance
The Department has pointed out a number of identified ongoing administrative problems, especially in connection with HR and finance, and as a direct result a special meeting with the deputy directors of the two areas (Louise Gade and Søren Trangbæk) will be held on 2 July. Anni Mandrup, Morten Pless and the undersigned will participate.

Draft for the departmental guidelines for research funding - and related costs
The draft has been submitted to the permanently employed departmental staff. The background for the draft is a rapid growth in the number of externally financed projects while the forecast shows that the fixed funds remain fairly unchanged. This may eventually prove problematic, since the externally financed projects may result in increased costs for the university/departments. Health has instructed the heads of department to prepare an implementation plan to ensure real expense coverage and quality of transmitted fund applications. The goal is to go for (increased) external funds and simultaneously ensure that the funds contribute to the daily operation of the Department. The draft has now been discussed in the various departmental forums and the management has received a large number of relevant comments and responses that will form part of the further work to revise the draft. The comments have focused on whether the proposal that the Head of Department must approve applications can be implemented without harming the research and research freedom, and whether it is reasonable to shift project spending from the actual research activity to the Department’s fixed operating costs. In the coming time, the guidelines will be reviewed and coordinated with other departments at AU.

Status of staff development dialogues (SDD)
Development dialogues with the permanently employed academic staff will continue until the end of August in order to ensure that members of the academic staff themselves have been to a SDD interview before being able to hold a SDD interview with their own employees. In September SDDs with all other members of the staff will be prepared. Further information about SDD will be provided at the next Department meeting including an offer for a short course for managers who are in the process of holding SDD.

News from the Danish National Research Foundation
The deadline for submission of expressions of interest for funding for new centers is 25 November 2013. Read more on www.dg.dk.

Information meeting with Novo Nordisk Foundation's medical and scientific committee
Representatives from the committee have offered to provide information on fund distributions and answer questions from future applicants. Briefing in Aarhus is planned for Monday 2 September at 03:00 p.m. More information will follow.

News from the Department Forum
The Department Forum has held its second meeting and a minute will be posted as soon as possible on the Department’s internal website. Please note that the departmental staff may contact the Department Forum members for topics they want to be discussed at the meetings.

Have a great summer!

I look forward to the next year – the Department’s 3rd year – which will be guaranteed also exciting.

Thomas

Translation: ZGN