Dear All

Economy
As you may have seen the Board of Directors accepted the 2013 at a meeting held on 18 December. The budget implies permanent reductions - and for Health future reductions will amount to 21.1 million Dkr. In 2014 and 2015 the budget must be reduced by an additional 10 million Dkr.  The consequences for the Department of Biomedicine will be announced in Mid January. In order to minimize the number of layoffs the following measures will be introduced:

• A modified hiring freeze with effect from 16 December 2013.
• Increased awareness on the possibilities offered by existing senior schemes, including the possibility of a reduction in working hours.
• And possibilities for voluntary redundancy packages. More on this later.

Meeting between the Dean and the department's professors Wednesday 18/12
In response to a letter to Dean Allan Flyvbjerg from the biomedical professors as to economy and priorities a meeting was held last Wednesday 18 December. At the meeting many issues were discussed: i.e. causes of the deficit, the economic effects of departmental mergers, attempts to convince foundations to finance derived costs. The meeting was held in a constructive tone and the Dean was prepared to look favorably at the department's special economic challenges - a kind of "Marshall aid" was mentioned. The letter is available here in Danish http://biomed.au.dk/fileadmin/www.biomed.au.dk/Til_Dekan_Allan_Flyvbjerg-101213.pdf

New call for experts for Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme

Please look here:

Horizon 2020 – evaluatordatabase

Forskningsstøtteenhedens Health-team

New stipends from the Novo Nordisk Foundation
Applications can be made at the homepage of the Foundation from December 16th, and the deadline is January 29th.

So much for now. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Best regards
Thomas G. Jensen