Consultation on the Proposed Restructuring of Nanoscience Activities at Natural Sciences

In the late 1990s, nanoscience emerged as a new research field within the natural sciences, driven at the time by groundbreaking experimental methods that enabled the study of molecules and materials at the nanoscale. Based on this development, Aarhus University founded an interdisciplinary nanoscience centre, iNANO, with the aim of establishing this new research field and associated methods at AU. 

Now, nearly three decades later, nanoscience has become a well-established international discipline at the intersection of chemistry, physics, and molecular biology. Correspondingly, the field and its methods have been integrated into the research conducted across many of AU’s departments. Over recent years, iNANO’s focus and organisation have repeatedly been discussed among the faculty leadership team, department heads, and the leadership of iNANO. The faculty leadership team now assesses that continued special support for nanoscience through iNANO’s status as a department-like centre is no longer necessary. 

The faculty management team has conducted a thorough and extensive analysis of how iNANO might be organised going forward. Many options have been considered and evaluated, including the possibility of iNANO becoming an independent department. However, the faculty management team has ultimately decided to work toward the phase-out of iNANO as a department-like centre. All staff and all activities – both research and education – will continue but will, in the future, be carried out within the framework of the seven departments. 

The current plan is therefore to organisationally transfer staff, research projects, and infrastructure to the departments with best academic fit. This will take place in dialogue with the staff involved. 

“iNANO has been a great success and has demonstrated the tremendous impact of interdisciplinary collaborations. We owe a huge thanks to the many passionate individuals who created and sustained iNANO as a department-like centre. Although iNANO will no longer persist in this form, nanoscience activities will continue. We will continue to conduct research and provide education in nanoscience. All our talented staff – researchers, administrative and technical personnel – will remain part of the faculty,” emphasises dean Birgit Schiøtt and adds: 

“The change in iNANO’s organisational status does not mean that the faculty will cease to work with interdisciplinarity and innovation – quite the opposite. Society has great expectations of universities, and we want to contribute by expanding interdisciplinary efforts and innovation-promoting activities across the entire faculty. Research at Nat must help prepare society for sustainability, crisis management, and strengthening European autonomy. We aim to contribute to development and increased innovation. These are expectations we are happy to take on!” 

“We must play an important role in society and clearly demonstrate that our insights from our basic research are central to development and innovation. That is why we are now initiating the creation of a unit that can actively support researchers in working across disciplines and in developing projects with external partners, drawing on basic scientific insights and methods from across the faculty,” says dean Birgit Schiøtt. 

The consultation on the proposed process to phase-out iNANO as a department-like centre begins on Wednesday, 14 May and will run until 11 June. 

Birgit Schiøtt and Ole Bækgaard Nielsen, Vice-Dean for career development and innovation, will inform all directly affected staff on Wednesday, 14 May. In addition, the dean’s office will visit all departments throughout May and June. 

At these visits, the dean’s office will outline priorities for the coming year, an amongst others,  elaborate further on the ambitions for the upcoming unit for interdisciplinarity and innovation. 

The consultation document can be read here (download PDF).