Introduction

Research activities at the Faculty of Social Sciences are conducted by the four departments and schools, i.e. School of Economics and Management, School of Law, Department of Political Science and Department of Psychology, and the four externally funded research centres, i.e. Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research, National Centre for Register-based Research, Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy, Centre for Learning and Education.

During 2006, the Institute of Business and Technology  in Herning merged with the University of Aarhus to become a centre at the Faculty of Social Sciences. The Institute of Business and Technology is primarily engaged in trade promotion and applied R&D.

High international standard

The research at the faculty is characterized by a very high international level in several areas, and the researchers at the faculty participate in a number of dissemination activities, such as: 

• Members of high-profile councils and committees;
• Members of boards in the private sector;
• Participation in conferences, congresses and workshops;
• Dissemination of research results to the general public through books, journals, newspapers or lectures;
• Dissemination of knowledge through education of a large number of highly qualified graduates.

Most of the research activities at the faculty are carried out in cooperation with national and international colleagues, e.g. in the form of research networks.

General research principles and practices

• The head of department, or head of school, allocates the resources in cooperation with the departmental executive committees. The head of department, or head of school, ensures that assignments among the academic staff are distributed in such a way that about 40 per cent of their working hours are assigned to research activities;
• The linkage between research and teaching is maintained, or strengthened if needed;
• A considerable degree of individual freedom of research should be secured in order to foster motivation and creativity. The head of department, or head of school, should consequently only to a limited extent impose specific research obligations onto individual researchers. In some situations, however, employees might need encouragement and support to pursue certain research directions.

The scientific efforts of the academic staff are evaluated annually by the head of department, or head of school, and the individual teaching burden and other academic or administrative duties are considered.

Top researchers at the Faculty of Social Sciences

Four young researchers, who have all completed their PhD degree programme at The Faculty of Social Sciences, received the top researcher award in 2006:
 

• Assistant professor Mimi Yung Mehlsen,
  Department of Psychology.
• Professor Christoffer Green-Pedersen,
  Department of Political Science.
• Associate professor Helena Skyt Nielsen,
  School of Economics and Management.
• Visiting researcher at The School of Economics and Management, assistant professor Morten Ørregaard Nielsen, Queen'sl University.

The award is given to very talented young researchers below the age of 35 and is given by The Danish Councils for Independent Research. With the honour, the researchers received DKK 100,000 and support for specific research projects.

Internationalisation

The Faculty of Social Sciences hosts a number of foreign researchers, and many of the employees at the faculty stay abroad for longer or shorter periods of time:
 

• Many of the researchers at the faculty cooperate closely with researchers at foreign research institutions;
• Twenty-five percent of the assistant professors at the faculty have obtained their PhD degree at a foreign university;
• Most of the PhD students at the faculty have studied abroad for a least one semester during their PhD degree programme.

Niels Bohr visiting professor

In 2006, The School of Economics and Management at The Faculty of Social Sciences received a Niels Bohr Visiting Professorship. The visiting professorship was granted by The Danish National Research Foundation  and was earmarked for inviting Dale T. Mortensen , professor of economics at Northwestern University, USA, to stay at the University of Aarhus. Niels Bohr Visiting Professors belong to the absolute top of their field; hosting Dale T. Mortensen verifies the importance of Danish research, also in international research environments.

Interdisciplinary research projects

Globalization is a topic of current interest and has been appointed to be the focus area for research at the Faculty of Social Sciences. In cooperation with the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Social Sciences has initiated a globalization project, including more than 100 Danish and international researchers, in an attempt to establish an innovative, interdisciplinary platform to study the complex processes that create the global world and to discuss the possibilities offered by the global society and the related consequences for society, organizations and citizens. Another aim of the globalization project is to encourage cooperation across departments and schools at the faculty. Central themes are: the global market, European integration and globalization, global management, globalization and the welfare state, the role of the state and international relations.

Furthermore, the faculty hosts an interdisciplinary research project on the economics, organization and legal basis of the Danish healthcare sector”, headed by centre director Preben Bo Mortensen, The National Centre for Register-based Research.

External funding

The share of external funding for research activities increases continuously. In certain areas, such as economics and management, external funding sources accounted for approximately 35 percent of the total funding in 2005. The faculty aims to increase the share of external research funding to account for 45 percent in 2008.