These are the broad plans for Tech, sketched out in the new ten-year plan for physical development of the AU campus (Campus 3.0) adopted by the university board.

Read the AU news story about Campus 3.0 here

The ambition behind the new plan is to tie the activities in Aarhus closer together around the University City, the University Park and Katrinebjerg, while at the same time developing the university's locations outside the city.

Dean Eskild Holm Nielsen has high expectations for Campus 3.0 and the Tech of the future. He points out that the new 2034 plan will help ensure better conditions for a collaborative faculty:

"We’ve seen rapid growth in recent years and we are now facing a need for new physical frameworks for research and education, as well as better opportunities for collaboration and entrepreneurship. Campus 3.0 will be an excellent outset for establishing exceptional study and research environments, strengthening the faculty's academic cohesion and taking us closer to the business community."

A consolidated engineering area in Aarhus

The major changes to Tech's physical framework will take place at Katrinebjerg and Gustav Wieds Vej. Up until 2030, the faculty will construct a coherent campus area around a main street to bring the four engineering departments closer to each other and to the university's other IT and tech environments.

The area, which today stretches from Åbogade in Katrinebjerg through Gustav Wieds Vej to Kasernen near the University Park, will be transformed into a vibrant urban and knowledge environment with apartments, research laboratories, modern classrooms, green breathing spaces and technology companies.

More than 4,000 engineering students, researchers and teaching staff will work and live in the area.

"Engineering has got too big for the existing buildings, and the joint campus we’re setting up will help future-proof our research and our study programmes. It will also give us an opportunity to open up even more towards the surrounding society, enabling is to meet the innovation challenges of the business community across disciplines," says Eskild Holm Nielsen.

The new campus street will link the university's existing buildings in Katrinebjerg with new buildings, and the physical and architectural design will be based on green technologies, modern building design and regenerative building methods.

Over the next few years, the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and the Admission Course (AK) will move from Navitas to the new area.

Read the article: Aarhus University has sold its share of Navitas

The university is building a new high-rise building on the corner where Jens Baggesens Vej meets Helsingforsgade. It will be a kind of portal to the campus and will contain classrooms, laboratories, workshops and a cafeteria.

The Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering (BCE) will move into a new building on Gustav Wieds Vej and will take over the iconic buildings at Kasernen.

Better framework for mission-driven research

The refurbishment of the Aarhus campus will not only provide Tech with one of Denmark's largest educational environments for engineering students, it will also provide an entirely new infrastructure for experimental research and development.

The new campus will contain research workshops and laboratories for water technology, production technology, sustainable construction, biosolutions, carbon capture, and energy technology, where researchers and students from across the faculty and the rest of the university will be able to collaborate with companies on multidisciplinary projects.

"We’re investing significantly in new equipment and experimental facilities, and we’re making sure that the surroundings and buildings fit in with our mission-oriented approach to research and education. We want the physical surroundings to help forge a collaborative organisation and culture and contribute to more synergy between academic fields. This is the fundamental philosophy behind Tech's work on Campus 3.0," says Eskild Holm Nielsen.

The dream of Denmark's green campus is coming true

The other major initiative in the faculty's campus-development work is already underway in AU Viborg.

The government's relocation agreement allows Aarhus University to establish a new educational campus, and construction is well underway. The first group of students started in August, and the plan is to have space for approximately 800-900 students by 2030, when the new programmes are fully phased in.

"We’ve only just begun a fantastic journey to develop AU Viborg from a research centre into an integrated campus for research, innovation and education," says Eskild Holm Nielsen.

On the scientific side, Tech is developing its unique experimental facilities at AU Viborg, making it possible to carry out demonstration projects at a higher technological level (TRL).

AU Viborg will also be the hub for several of the university's new Living Labs, where researchers, students, government agencies and institutions will be able to work together to test new technologies before they are launched in society.

High ambitions. Aarhus University aims to establish one of the world's largest and most advanced experimental ecosystems for the agriculture of the future on the 120,000-square-metre site near Foulum.

"We have great visions for AU Viborg and a unique opportunity to lead the way in the green transformation of agriculture. We want to forge the best conditions for our research so that we can contribute to a carbon-neutral society based on new food production and green energy from biomass," says Eskild Holm Nielsen.

He stresses that Tech now faces the crucial task of implementing the campus plans in Aarhus, AU Viborg and at the faculty's other locations:

"This is a massive investment that points far into the future, and it will not only be a huge benefit for employees at the faculty, but also for Danish society as a whole," he says.