At a board meeting on 8 October, the AU board gave the green light to establish four new engineering departments at the university. The purpose of the new organisation is to consolidate the academic environments across Aarhus University School of Engineering and the Department of Engineering. The new departments will open on 1 January 2021.

Danmarks Sportsfiskerforbund (Danish Sports Fishing Association) has just awarded its Nature and Environment award, which is presented for sustainability initiatives in nature and the environment. This year, the award went to Professor Stiig Markager from the Department of Bioscience at Aarhus University. He received the award for his vigorous participation in the public debate on research in the Danish marine environment.

VILLUM Experiment has just awarded grants to a number of researchers, who each represent innovative approaches to their research areas, and who can now test their courageous and strange technical and scientific research ideas. At Aarhus University, nine researchers received a total of DKK 17.8 million.

After three years of strenuous effort, the Faculty of Technical Sciences (Tech) has now obtained documentation for the high quality in its public sector consultancy: Last week, the faculty was the first in Denmark to be certified under the international ISO 9001 standard for its public sector consultancy. This documents and ensures that consultancy activity at Tech is of high quality to benefit both the university and its clients.

Professor Ole Hertel is switching career path from being one of Denmark's leading researchers in air quality to taking up a position as the head of department at the Department of Bioscience. He will start on 1 November 2020.

A new research project is aiming to develop a camera-based separation system that can separate plastic waste according to type. The machine will be implemented at plastic recyclers, enabling the manufacturing industry to significantly increase the use of recycled plastics.

Intelligent marine robots open up a wide range of possibilities in the vast unknown areas below sea level, covering more than 70 per cent of the surface of the Earth. However, we need reliable artificial intelligence if robots are to operate on their own. A new EU-funded project will address this problem.

A large-scale industrial and academic collaboration project between Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality and Aarhus University is 'a huge opportunity', says the mayor of the municipality, who welcomes the new initiative.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation has granted DKK 15 million from its interdisciplinary synergy programme to project DRAMA. With researchers from both Nat and Tech, the project will decipher the role of atmospheric microbial aerosols for cloud formation.

It is possible to produce healthier alternatives to the processed meat products, which are in high demand in Denmark as well as in the rest of Europe, but how do consumers respond to the different options, and which ones do they prefer? In a new project funded by the European Innovation and Technology (EIT) Food, researchers from the MAPP Centre at Aarhus University are investigating this with colleagues from Spain and the UK.

Single-celled algae generate approximately 50% of the world's oxygen production. Despite the huge prevalence of these algae and in the world's oceans, knowledge about their life cycle is often rather sparse. However, researchers have now shown that the reproductive capacity of single-celled algae depends on their growth conditions, and that the microscopic algae are perhaps far more complex than previously assumed.

An international research team has looked at life on the surfaces of glaciers. Their work may turn out to challenge our previous understanding about the evolutionary arms race between viruses and their host organisms. The study has just been published in Nature Communications.

This year, Technical Sciences welcomes 1,131 new students on the engineering degree programmes and agrobiology. Due to corona, orientation days are a little different than usual, and yet still the same.

A new project, supported by Independent Research Fund Denmark, will make it possible to read data directly from compressed IoT data. The project is being headed by researchers from Aarhus University and it is a collaboration with, among others, MIT and Boston University.

A citizen's council is to be set up with 99 randomly selected Danish citizens as part of the government's new climate legislation. Professor Jørgen E. Olesen from AU is to join the expert panel that will validate the topics that the citizens' council is to address.

Today, drones can autonomously carry out various tasks with zero or minimum involvement by human operators. However, they need to fly as slow as possible to sense their environment and plan future actions. But what if drones need to fly fast like in a manual drone race where speed, agility, and performance are paramount? A team of researchers from Aarhus University have just taken a step forward.

20 per cent more students will be offered a place at Technical Sciences this year. There are also still vacant places, because the university has increased its capacity in the wake of corona.

A large count of the porpoise population in the Kattegat, Bælthavet (the belt seas) and the western part of the Baltic Sea is well underway. The survey is known as MiniSCANS II. The objective of the survey is to estimate the abundance and distribution of porpoise in this area.

A Danish research team has invented a natural additive for livestock manure to reduce emissions of various gases from the manure, for example the greenhouse gas methane.

As expected, applications to Denmark’s higher education degree programmes have increased this year – this also applies to Aarhus University, which has received 5% more first-choice applications compared to last year. Preliminary figures show that engineering and IT degree programmes have seen the greatest increase.

A number of synthetic dyes in foods are suspected of having unwanted side effects especially for children. For this reason, over the past ten years, the EU has required products containing selected synthetic dyes to have clear warning labels on the packaging. This has resulted in a great demand for natural dyes worldwide. Now researchers from Aarhus University have found a method that can turn ordinary orange carrots black from which it is possible to extract dyes for food. It creates new opportunities in the production of natural dyes for the food industry as a substitute for the synthetic ones.

Professor Brian Vinter will be the new vice-dean for research from 1. August. He comes from a position at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. The new vice-dean comes from a solid background in the intersection between knowledge and industry, and has a good sense of where technological developments are going.

One of Denmark’s most northern research stations is in danger. The permafrost in the surrounding landscape is thawing, leaving the cliffs bare and at risk of being swept away by the river that has moved closer to the research facilities. The Zackenberg research station has become very real and sad proof of what it was designed to investigate: the speed of global warming and its impacts on nature.

The Department of Food Science at Aarhus University strengthens its strategic focus on research on innovative, sustainable packaging solutions with the appointment of two new tenure tracks, who are highly specialized in this area.

Danish upper-secondary school students can now try their hand at scientific research and perhaps even help in a discovery that could have a major impact on millions of people all over the world. A grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation has given Aarhus University the opportunity to let school students take part in important research to find new antibiotics.

Muscle, kidney and liver samples have been taken for analysis from Greenlandic sled dogs. Researchers have compared the DNA from the dogs with DNA from the 9,500-year-old Siberian Zhokhov dog, and a 33,000-year-old Siberian wolf. The analysis shows that humans were able to use the tough sled dog to conquer the brutal Arctic almost 10,000 years ago.

Climate change leads to longer growing seasons in the Arctic. A new study, which has just been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, show that predators like wolf spiders respond to the changing conditions and have been able to produce two clutches of offspring during the short Arctic summer.

More students are to have the opportunity to study a technical-scientific degree programme at Aarhus University, and after the summer holidays, 231 more applicants will be able to take one of the new student places at the Faculty of Technical Sciences.

How does organic plant production differ from conventional in relation to nitrous oxide emissions and nitrogen leaching? Researchers from Aarhus University, among others, have looked at the literature to create an overview and a better understanding of what constitutes differences between organic and conventional plant production.

A new Danish-led research project will allow swarms of advanced, autonomous drones to keep a watchful eye on bridges and railways and report if something needs to be repaired.

The Food eHub at the Department of Food Science, Aarhus University, has helped a local start-up company to secure funding from Future Food & Bioresource Innovation. The funding will support the development of the product Olden Kombucha, a fermented drink made with tea, in cooperation with the Aarhus University School of Engineering and the company ISI Food Protection.

Aarhus University focuses on developing sustainable packaging solutions for food. In a new research project, the MAPP Centre will be involved in investigating how consumers respond to sustainable packaging.

New study uses museum collections and citizen-science observations to document how climate change affects the phenology of Danish hoverflies.

We need to consume less sugar, but how can the industry create sugar-reduced food products without compromising on the sweet taste? Researchers from the Department of Food Science at Aarhus University have looked into the matter on the background of an extensive literature review.

Researchers from Aarhus University and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology have quantified and described the environmental consequences of the lockdown in Italy. The study has also estimated greenhouse gas emissions in relation to possible economic recovery scenarios in connection with the Italian reopening.

Department of Environmental Science is now one soil biologist richer. Flemming Ekelund, an associate professor at the Department of Biology at the University of Copenhagen, has been appointed an honorary professor at Aarhus University.

The dean of the Faculty of Technical Sciences is proposing a new organisation, with four new departments, to consolidate and strengthen the engineering area at AU around core disciplines and to raise engineering to the highest international level. The consultation process for the new organisation will commence before the summer holidays.

Cecilie Hermansen from the Department of Agroecology has been awarded Aarhus University Research Foundation's PhD Award 2020. The prize will be awarded 4 June.

Independent Research Fund Denmark grants DKK 23.8 million to six research projects at Technical Sciences

From 1 June, the appointment of Professor Peter Langen will reinforce climate research at the Department of Environmental Science and iClimate. Peter Langen comes from a management position at DMI - Danish Meteorological Institute, and he will be involved in building up and developing research into climate modelling at the department. The appointment is a bit of a scoop, explains Head of Department Carsten Suhr Jacobsen, who believes that Peter Langen can put AU on the world map.

Tired of that little swirl in your hair you can never get straight? You might as well get used to it, for nature has a very good reason for putting it there.

Sustainability is much more complex than you might think, and therefore teaching the topic is very important, says an AU researcher from the Department of Engineering.

With membership of the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE), Aarhus University will play an important role in European efforts to promote the green transition. Membership will also enhance university research into new storage technologies.

Doctors and engineers have together developed an electric stocking to prevent loss of muscle mass in bed-ridden patients. During the coming months, the stocking will be tested on Danish Covid-19 patients at intensive care units in Denmark.

The world has been hit hard by coronavirus, and health services and authorities everywhere are struggling to reduce the spread, combat the disease and protect the population. Nevertheless, the pandemic will cost lives throughout the world. An environmental researcher from Aarhus University has studied whether there could be a link between the high mortality rate seen in northern Italy, and the level of air pollution in the same region. The short answer is “yes possibly”. The long answer is in the article below.

Working and studying has been different in just as many ways as there are employees and students, and together, each in their own way, they are keeping the wheels of Tech running. Separately. Meet some of them here.

The EU Research and Innovation Programme, Horizon 2020, has granted more than DKK 70 million (EUR 9.4 million) to a new research project to make it easy for small and medium-sized European production companies to benefit from digital twins.

With more than a quarter of a billion DKK, and in close collaboration with more than 50 industrial partners, Danish researchers and experts are now joining forces in the MADE FAST development project, aiming to make Danish production more efficient, flexible and sustainable.

A new research project at Aarhus University will exploit millions of years of evolution to develop sustainable biofuels. Among other things, the solution lies in the digestive system of pandas.

Twenty-four European research organisations from 16 European countries have joined forces in a new research alliance to forge the foundation for reducing dependence on chemical pesticides in EU agriculture. The initiative is called 'Towards a Chemical Pesticide-free Agriculture', and the collaboration will rethink the way in which research is carried out within agroecology and plant protection.

Aarhus University and several international pharmaceutical companies are joining forces in the Open Discovery Innovation Network (ODIN), a ground-breaking open research collaboration for which the Novo Nordisk Foundation has awarded a grant of DKK 54.5 million.

Lars Ditlev Mørck Ottosen will take over as Acting Head of Department as of 1 May 2020 when Thomas Toftegaard stops

Drone pilots may become superfluous in the future. New research from Aarhus University has allowed artificial intelligence to take over control of drones scanning and measuring terrain.

A new research project at the Department of Engineering, Aarhus University, will develop highly efficient, but inexpensive, components in flow batteries. The aim is to disrupt the field of stationary batteries, which are necessary for the transition to a green energy system.

According to the Ministry of Environment and Food, Denmark should reduce the nitrogen load on coastal areas by 13,000 tonnes per year. Targeted measures will according to researchers from Aarhus University be able to reduce the required amount of Danish agricultural land from 35% of Danish agricultural land to just 23%.

From 1 March 2020, Jørgen E. Olesen will officially take over as department head at the Department of Agroecology. He has been the acting head of department since September 2019.

The Faculties of Natural Sciences and Technical Sciences account for no fewer than 16 of the 23 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships reaped by Aarhus University in the 2019 round.

The interdisciplinary Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics (QGG) is to be expanded, and in future it will have the status of a department-like centre under the new Faculty of Technical Sciences. The centre director, Professor Mogens Sandø Lund, will be joining the faculty management team. The change came into force on 1 January 2020.

Over the past year, Professor Lars Henrik Andersen has been acting dean at Science and Technology, not only as the head of the largest faculty at AU, but also overseeing one of the largest organisational changes ever at the university. With the appointment of the new NAT dean, Lars H. Andersen will soon be stepping down and again focusing on his research

The case of the beef report has challenged Aarhus University's credibility. Therefore, the university's independence must always be based on transparency and arm's length. Kurt Nielsen, vice-dean at Technical Sciences, has published a contribution to the debate in the journal Ingeniøren.

Researchers at the Department of Engineering are world leaders in brain measurement via a special device fitted in the ear like a hearing aid. The technology is called ear-EEG, and now the university has received a new grant to ensure further development of this Danish-designed method.

A new research project at the Department of Engineering, Aarhus University aims to recycle plastic waste into a standardised filament product for the 3D printing industry.

1 January 2020 marks the start of two new faculties at Aarhus University. From this date, Aarhus University will consist of five faculties in total, when the faculty of Science and Technology is divided into the Faculty of Technical Sciences and the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

Replacing meat with vegetables on our plates entails more than just changing habits. The transition also requires new knowledge about sustainable cultivation methods on fields. The Department of Food Science is researching how vegetable growers can keep up with increasing demand, with the least possible impact on the environment. Find out more in the podcast below (in Danish).

A group of Danish universities and companies are working together to set up a joint high-tech laboratory centre, FOODHAY, which aims to develop healthier, more sustainable foods and reduce food waste. FOODHAY is an important step towards greener food, says the Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science, Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen, whose ministry is contributing a total of DKK 51.5 million (EUR 6.9 mill.).

A total of 134 outstanding researchers have received grants from the Carlsberg Foundation, of whom 12 are from Science and Technology. The grants are for basic research based on the researchers' own visionary, creative ideas.

This week, the Independent Research Fund Denmark awarded a total of DKK 208 million to 35 excellent Sapere Aude research leaders. And six of these extraordinarily talented young researchers are from Science and Technology.

A review of reports from the DCA over the past five years shows among other things that the role and contribution of external parties in collaboration have been inadequately declared in a number of the reports. Three reports have serious omissions. The researchers stand firm on their research. Full transparency for collaboration with industry is crucial so that the integrity of researchers cannot be questioned. The study also shows a need for clear practice for comments and quality assurance. A new manual will make the guidelines more manageable for researchers.

Researchers from Europe and China are gathering in Aarhus this week to kick-off a major joint research project focusing on sustainable urban development and the transition to a climate-friendly future at a time when urban areas are facing unprecedented challenges. The project is being coordinated by researchers from the Department of Environmental Science at Aarhus University.

Purple algae are making the western Greenland Ice Sheet melt faster, as the algae darken the ice surface and make it absorb more sunlight. With an ERC Synergy Grant of €11 million, researchers from Aarhus University and two other European universities will examine the role of glacier algae in a warming climate.

There is a huge number of different plastic types. This means it is no easy matter to get the rate of plastics recycling to rise. At the Department of Engineering, daily tests on plastics will make it easier for industry to identify the specific type of plastic and produce recycled plastic products in the right quality. Learn more about the research in the podcast below (in Danish).

The VILLUM FOUNDATION has granted approx. DKK 16 million to eight research projects at Aarhus University. The eight researchers behind the projects are all from Science and Technology, and the projects have been selected anonymously based on how innovative and daring they are.

The DCA - the Danish Centre for Food and Agriculture and the authors of a report on the climate impact of beef have decided to recall the report, as it does not live up to the university's standards for arm's length and independent research. The academic content of the report is to undergo an independent international assessment by peer review.

Admissions of women to IT degree programmes at Aarhus University have increased by 31 per cent since 2016. This is more than the general national level for Denmark.

114 young people have chosen Aarhus University's three new degree programmes as their first priority.

Independent Research Fund Denmark has granted a total of DKK 133.4 mill. to 39 research projects at ST, almost half of which are within technology and production.

The admission requirements will be introduced from summer 2019. This means that young people dreaming of a career within these fields, but who are unsure whether they meet the requirements, should remember to apply via quota 2, which has a deadline for applications on 15 March.

Lars Henrik Andersen, professor and former department head, will become acting dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology when Niels Christian Nielsen steps down on 15 February. He will be responsible for managing the faculty throughout the process leading up to its possible split-up.

Research and education at Science and Technology point directly towards the themes in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This enables the faculty to play a key role in developing solutions to major global challenges. How the university supports the SDGs and sustainability is therefore a very important focal point.

For the first time ever, an international research team has shown that fish otoliths record information on fish metabolism. Analyses of old and new otoliths can therefore provide new knowledge about how different species of fish adapt to new conditions, including climate change.

Over the next three years, a project run from Denmark will investigate how to create value based on a foul-smelling nuisance on beaches: rotting seaweed. It turns out that seaweed is home to a small worm which may be of great value for fish farming if the optimal living conditions for the worm can be identified. The project recently received a DKK 2.3 million (EUR 0.3 million) grant from the Danish Council for Independent Research - Technology and Production Sciences.

There is not much knowledge about the effects of environmental and social impacts on health, quality of life and causes of death. A newly established research centre is now working to find out, by applying big data and an interdisciplinary approach to the area.

More than forty years after the first initiatives were taken to ban the use of PCBs, the chemical pollutants remain a deadly threat to animals at the top of the food chain. A new study, just published in the journal Science, shows that the current concentrations of PCBs can lead to the disappearance of half of the world’s populations of killer whales from the most heavily contaminated areas within a period of just 30-50 years.

Europe’s future climate will be characterised by more frequent heat waves and more widespread drought. Heat and drought will both challenge crop production, but drought in particular will be a problem – especially for spring sown crops such as maize.

Toke Thomas Høye, a senior researcher at the Department of Bioscience, becomes the first recipient of a new award from the Independent Research Fund Denmark for this year's original research idea.

The Villum Foundation is supporting bold technical and scientific research ideas for the second time. Researchers from Aarhus University are again on the list of recipients, with eight daring ideas totalling DKK 15.3 million.

A large group of international researchers have just published a scientific article in which they encourage environmental authorities across the globe to rethink the idea of removing oil rigs, wind turbines and other installations in the sea when they are worn out.

Science and Technology at Aarhus University and Viborg municipality have signed a cooperation agreement with the Chinese region, Wuhan East Lake National High-Tech Development Zone (WEHDZ). The aim is to establish a partnership based on the activities at Foulum.

The entrepreneurship education game, ESHIP: Navigating Uncertainty, has received a silver medal at the International Serious Play Awards for its innovative approach to education through gaming – also called Gamification. The board game was developed by Rajiv Vaid Basaiawmoit, the head of SciTech Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and this is the second time the game has won an international award.

Bacteria play a major role in cleaning up oil spills and mitigating its environmental impacts. In a review published in ‘Science of the Total Environment’, researchers from Aarhus University, Denmark, examine the major limiting factors for microbial degradation in Arctic environments.

More and more geese remain in Denmark for the winter. They forage in the growing number of maize fields all over the country. Researchers warn that, in the long term, the many geese may cause problems for agriculture.

Combined nutrients and warming massively increase methane emissions from lakes.

Two researchers from Science and Technology have each received DKK 60 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Challenge Programme to establish two new interdisciplinary research centres: one for biomolecular medicine and the other for environment and health.

Researchers from Aarhus University have measured a new world record: Small ice algae on the underside of the Arctic sea ice live and grow at a light level corresponding to only 0.02% of the light at the surface of the ice. Algae are the primary component of the Arctic food web and produce food far earlier in the year than previously thought.

Scientists at iNANO, Aarhus University, are collaborating with Carlsberg, Microsoft and DTU on a research study with the purpose of measuring and sensing flavours and aromas in beer. The project aims at establishing a sensor platform that reduces time and cost to develop new beers with diverse flavours based on the most advanced services and software within arti?cial intelligence. The development of a sensor platform can hold enormous potential for broader research and facilitate new start-ups, as a sensor platform to distinguish flavours and aromas does not exist today. Innovation Fund Denmark is investing DKK 18 million in the project.

Better magnets can help store renewable energy from solar cells and wind turbines in magnetic flywheels. The new technology for energy storage could help remove one of the really big obstacles to further distribution of renewable energy. Innovation Fund Denmark is investing DKK 12 million in the project.