Nielsen will bring solid research and leadership experience to the new technical sciences faculty. In recent years, Nielsen has served as head of innovation at Aalborg University Hospital, where as head of the Idea Clinic he has played a key role in developing the Health Hub, a unit which supports entrepreneurship close to clinical practice. He has an MSc in engineering, and has over ten years of leadership experience from Aalborg University, most recently as dean of the Technical Faculty of IT and Design.

In collaboration with managers and employees, the new dean’s task will be to realise the university’s and faculty’s ambition of continuing to deliver research breakthroughs, offering degree programmes and public sector consultancy at the highest international level and making a significant contribution to solving major societal challenges, for example sustainability.

“Eskild Holm Nielsen is a respected researcher who has also distinguished himself as a leader with a strategic and analytical approach to cultivating new opportunities. I am convinced that he will make vital contribution to the new faculty’s development thanks to his strong national and international network, his insight into the university sector and extensive experience in working with innovation. I’m very pleased to welcome Eskild Holm Nielsen, and I am looking forward to a fruitful collaboration in coming years,” says Rector Brian Bech Nielsen. 

The new faculty
The Faculty of Technical Sciences is based on excellence in the fields of agroscience, environmental science and engineering. In coming years, the faculty’s disciplines will be brought into play in close collaboration with the university’s other faculties, subjects and external stakeholders. The faculty’s aim is to contribute to solving major societal challenges and to communicate advances in science to decisionmakers and the general public. Eskild Holm Nielsen is looking forward to assuming leadership of the faculty:

“I’m humble and proud to have this opportunity. Aarhus University has an enormous depth and breadth of talent in a variety of disciplines that will play a key role for our global society in the future. In this regard, AU and the technical science have both a responsibility and an opportunity to lay the foundation, and I am very much looking forward to participating in the development of the faculty. Few have the privilege of creating something new in this way, and I’m looking forward to participating in the process together with the employees, students and the many stakeholders a faculty like this is surrounded by,” Nielsen says.

The Faculty of Technical Sciences will be inaugurated on 1 January 2020 when the current faculty, the Faculty of Science and Technology, is split in two. The faculty’s primary activities will take place in the fields of engineering, agroecology, food, animal science, biology and environmental science. The faculty will conduct both research and education, and as part of a major strategic initiative to strengthen engineering, will be accepting applications to several new BSc programmes in engineering and the technical sciences. In addition, the faculty’s contracts with the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark also represent a significant public sector consultancy mission.

The faculty will have about 1,400 employees, 2,500 students and total annual revenue of approx. 1.4 billion kroner.