Department of Computer Science

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 Department of Computer Science About Us Strategy World-class research

World-class research at Computer Science

The department is strong in both theoretical and experimental Computer Science. In recent years, we have seen a closer cooperation between different research groups – even those that have traditionally been perceived as being far from each other (with respect to scientific goals/methods). Partly, as a result of this, many projects at the department have targeted research themes and application areas that are interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in nature.

Flagships

The department has several high-profile research groups and high-profile individual researchers, as evidenced by the impact of the research, awards, and the fact that we have been able to attract elite funding, such as individual ERC grants (at all levels: advanced, consolidator, and starting); DFF Sapere Aude grants (at all levels: advanced, starting, research talent); and Centers of Excellence from the Danish National Research Foundation. In the coming period we will continue to strengthen and support the development of our core research areas. In addition, we have also identified two “flagship areas”, which combine research competences from several research groups and whose development will be prioritized in the coming period. In particular, the flagship areas will be used to identify new research areas to be built up in the future. The flagship areas are “Big Data and Data Analytics” and “Cyber-Security”. Download the complete 2016-2020 strategy to learn more about the two flagship areas and resources for these.

Goals for research

Continue to conduct and publish research at highest international level.

Indicators

  • Number of publications in top-level conferences and journals.
  • Number of software artefacts made available to the research community.
  • Total number of peer-reviewed publications.
  • Citations and H-indexes.
  • Number of international research visitors.
  • Research Awards.

Actions

  • Recruit the most qualified people for our positions. We will continue our policy of advertising positions using open calls covering most of computer science. Positions will be announced internationally, of course.

Maintain impact and leadership in national and international research.

Indicators

  • Serving as editors of journals.
  • Serving as program committee members and program chairs of conferences.
  • Serve on national and international research related committees (Danish Research Council, ERC evaluation boards, H2020 boards, etc.)
  • Participation and leadership of joint national and international research projects.

Actions

  • Support (e.g., through Staff Development Dialogues) faculty involvement in research related committees.

Maintain a high volume of research per FTE permanent faculty member.

Indicators

  • Number of publications in top-level conferences and journals per FTE faculty member.
  • Number of software artefacts made available to the research community per FTE faculty member.
  • Total number of publications per FTE faculty member.

Actions

  • Secure external funding for postdocs and PhD students.
  • Encourage academic leadership training for faculty members, who have not already participated in such.
  • Maintain a high administrative service level, so that the academic staff can concentrate on core business.

Maintain and further strengthen the research environments in all research groups.

Indicators

  • International research visitors.
  • The quality and quantity of international applicants for new faculty positions. The extent to which we can attract exceptional research stars.
  • The ability to attract high-quality PhD students.
  • The job satisfaction of the members of the department.
  • Organization of conferences, workshops, etc. by the members of the department.

Actions

  • Strengthen international research collaborations with research visits and visitors.
  • Support organization of conferences and summer schools in Aarhus.
  • Organize research talks, seminars, mini-courses.
  • Increase the number of collaborative interdisciplinary projects with researchers from other departments at AU.

Maintain the high number of collaborative interdisciplinary projects with researchers from other departments at AU.

Indicators

  • Number of interdisciplinary research projects with researchers from other departments.
  • Number of publications with researchers from other departments.
  • Amount of external funding spent on research projects with researchers from other departments.

Actions

  • Secure funding for an increase in permanent faculty members.
  • Secure external funding for postdocs and PhD students.
  • Experiment with different models for facilitating such collaborative projects.
Revised 17.04.2023
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Sofia Hedegaard Rasmussen