Cross-disciplinary collaboration between research environments within different subject areas is a prerequisite for complex public sector consultancy that cuts across traditional research areas. For example, it may be collaboration between agricultural sciences, biology, environmental science, engineering science, possibly with contributions from chemistry and the social sciences.

Another crucial prerequisite is a close coupling between the researchers' competencies and their access to relevant research facilities.

On the other hand, collaboration between different research disciplines helps forge a coherent knowledge base for agricultural production, environmental impacts and food quality. Such a knowledge base benefits all of society, including agriculture, organisations, businesses and consumers and citizens.

It is not possible to conduct such interdisciplinary and cohesive research in very many places in the world, and Aarhus University is therefore very keen to maintain and build on the relationship between competencies and facilities to benefit research, public sector consultancy and business collaboration.

The Danish pages contain a number of examples of how research and public sector consultancy benefit all of society.