Aarhus, Denmark
July 14, 2011
The National Centre for Food and Agriculture at Aarhus University has now become a reality. The aim of the new centre is to act as the port of entry for research-based advice and communication of knowledge regarding food and agriculture.
The Faculty of Science and Technology at Aarhus University has established The National Centre for Food and Agriculture with effect from 1 July 2011. The new centre supplies advice and knowledge to authorities, businesses, trade organisations, non-governmental organisations and the general public.
An important duty for The National Centre for Food and Agriculture is to coordinate and quality-ensure research-based tasks for the authorities according to an agreement with the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries.
The centre also works to raise the profile of research in food and agriculture and demonstrate how it can help to deliver the knowledge that society and the industry demand in the present and future.
When the national centre supplies research-based advice and knowledge it draws on food and agriculture research carried out at the university as a whole, but particularly on research carried out in the following five Science and Technology departments:
- Department of Food Science
- Department of Animal Science
- Department of Agroecology
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
- Department of Engineering
Jørgen B. Jespersen is the director of The National Centre for Food and Agriculture. He was formerly the research director of the Department of Integrated Pest Management as well as the vice dean for education at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aarhus University.
The centre’s secretariat will be located at Research Centre Foulum, but the departments associated with the centre also have facilities at the research centres in Flakkebjerg and Aarslev, the research stations in Jyndevad and Askov, and at Aarhus University’s address in Aarhus.
Aarhus University has also established The National Centre for Environment and Energy (NERI), which is the port of entry to research-based activities at Aarhus University regarding energy, nature, and the environment. The director of the centre is Kurt Nielsen, who is also the vice dean for knowledge exchange at Science and Technology, Aarhus University.
Big changes at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences
July 1, 2011 is an important date for what used to be the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. Its seven departments have been merged with others or will continue under new names and new department heads have been appointed.
On the surface things look the same at what used to be the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. Scratch the surface, though, and you will find that huge changes have taken place. In January, as part of an extensive academic development process taking place at Aarhus University, the faculty merged with others to become a faculty called Science and Technology. The process aims to reorganise the university in fewer but larger and stronger faculties, so now there are four faculties.
The departments at the former Faculty of Agricultural Sciences have undergone the following changes with effect from 1 July, 2011:
The Department of Integrated Pest Management, which was located at Research Centre Flakkebjerg, has merged with the Department of Agroecology and Environment located at Research Centre Foulum. The new Department of Agroecology, as the result of the merger is called, also includes the research group Crop Ecology and Product Quality from the former Department of Genetics and Biotechnology.
In the course of the next four to five years the staff will be gathered in Foulum and Aarhus, but Research Centre Flakkebjerg will continue as a research and test station with the necessary staff. The former head of the Department of Agroecology and Environment, Erik Steen Kristensen, has been appointed head of the new department.
The Department of Animal Health and Bioscience, located at Research Centre Foulum, has become part of the new Department of Animal Science, which also includes the research group Reproductive Biology from the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology and the fur animal farm from the same department. The new department will continue to be located at Research Centre Foulum. The former head of the Department of Animal Health and Bioscience, Klaus Lønne Ingvartsen, has been appointed head of the new department.
The Department of Biosystems Engineering, which has activities at Research Centre Foulum and test facilities in Bygholm near to Horsens, has become part of the newly-established Department of Engineering, which also includes Aarhus School of Engineering. In the course of three to four years the department will move to Aarhus, while the large research facilities, such as the world’s largest research biogas plant, will remain at Research Centre Foulum. The new department head is Thomas Skjødeberg Toftegaard. He was previously director of the Centre for Applied Science and Engineering (CASE) at Aarhus University and R&D director for Electrical Engineering and ICT at Aarhus School of Engineering.
The Department of Food Science is the name of the new department that includes the present Department of Food Science located at the research centres in Foulum and Aarslev, and the Department of Horticulture located at Research Centre Aarslev. The new department will be gathered in Aarhus in the course of three to four years. For the time being, Research Centre Aarslev will continue as a research station. Michelle H. Williams, who was head of research unit in the Department of Horticulture, has been appointed head of the new department.
The major part of the staff from the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, located at Research Centre Flakkebjerg and Research Centre Foulum, has become part of the newly established Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics together with large portions of the former Department of Molecular Biology from the old Faculty of Science. All activities in the new department will be gathered in Aarhus in the course of three to five years. Erik Østergaard Jensen, who was the head of the Department of Molecular Biology, has been appointed head of the new department.
Besides new departments, there is now also a new National Centre for Food and Agriculture, which was also established 1 July 2011. The duties of the centre include cooperation and knowledge exchange with the authorities and the industry. The centre will be the port of entry to food and agricultural research at Aarhus University. Director of the new centre is Jørgen B. Jespersen who was previously head of the Department of Integrated Pest Management.
Topics
Species
