A word from the dean
Dear staff
This week, the Danish Science Festival is on, and our faculty contributes with quite a few presentations. Among other things, researchers from the Marine Biological Research Center in Kerteminde are participating together with Fjord&Bælt with a presentation on research into marine mammals.
Both institutions have been under a lot of media pressure in connection with obtaining new porpoises for research. There was a lot of criticism, primarily from various animal welfare associations in Denmark and abroad, and it was difficult to reach these critics. We finally managed to get a good dialogue mediated by, among others, TV 2. Here, the researchers were told about the purposes of the research, which is first and foremost to investigate how the animals can be protected from human activities in nature.
This "shitstorm" has made us even more aware of the importance of being open and transparent about research at the Faculty of Science. We must always be ready to answer even the most critical questions. That is why the researchers - now under the auspices of the Danish Science Festival - continue to debate about their research, helped by Sebastian Klein as chair of a panel debate entitled: Do we have any use for porpoise research?
Recently, the faculty also has had a lot of positive media coverage, and as an employee, it has been hard not to note the handful of new researchers who have joined us in the previous six months.
Both the private and public foundations have a strong focus on attracting international researchers to Denmark, and several foundations have established various types of recruitment packages. At our faculty, we have focused on these opportunities in recent recruitments. First, of course, it's about attracting great applicants for the positions, and it's nice to see that the number of applicants for positions has been increasing in general at our faculty.
SDU Science has become an attractive place to apply to for international researchers. Interviews reveal that there are a number of factors that influence applicants' choices, but an exciting and reputable research environment is of course at the top of the priority list.
Once the contract has been signed, the faculty has entered into a dialogue with the researcher and has applied for recruitment funds either with or on behalf of the researcher, and we have had a high success rate in attracting recruitment funds.
It is great to feel this support from the funds for our recruitments. It says not only something about strong graduates, but also that they come to very skilled research environments at our faculty, which both the researchers and the foundations are interested in.
For the newly arrived researcher, everything else being equal, it is easier to start with a good grant in the back, which can kickstart the research in a new research group. I can therefore only urge that we continue to consider recruitment funds when new positions are advertised at our faculty.
I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome new researchers. It has been incredibly exciting to meet you all in the recruitment process, and I look forward to visiting you at the departments when you are well underway.
Marianne Holmer, dean