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University of Copenhagen
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Opinion

Please vote, and preferably for 'Involve the researchers!'

On a roll — For four years, we have represented the faculty on the board, and we have just begun. In the coming election period, we will fight for the well-being of the scientific faculty, closeness in the administration and better career paths for PhD students and postdocs.

See all signatories at the bottom of the post.

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Dear PhD students, postdocs, and professors, Danish or international. As you may know, there is an election going on at the University of Copenhagen, with electronic voting ending on Friday Nov 24 at 2:00 pm.

Vote, vote, vote!

All scientific faculty, such as PhD students, postdocs, or visiting scientists and scholars employed at UCPH are eligible to vote. We strongly urge you to do so.

We are running for re-election on the list called ‘Involve the researchers!’, which consists of 18 professors from across all of UCPH. The lead candidates are Jesper Grodal and Pia Quist, who have been the two faculty representatives on the board since 2020. We also have a group of PhDs and postdocs to help us with the work. The board is the highest governing body of the university, and the faculty has two seats, out of 11 seats total on the board.

The two faculty seats on the board are close to the only democratic influence left on the university, so we urge you to vote!

We ask you to consider voting for us, for the reasons we will explain below.

Four years of protest and influence

‘Involve the researchers!’ believes that the main focus of the university should always be independent research and education. While this may sound obvious, the university is constantly met with expectations and demands from the outside world, and various stakeholders try to pull it in different directions.

Some say that we should focus on turning our research and education into profit, others that we should focus all our efforts on producing measurable progress on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Such ambitions may not be problematic in themselves as part of a bigger landscape, but if they are adopted as the main principles for how the university should develop, the university will lose sight of its fundamental role in society. In this light it is vital to stay true to our core values.

“Involve the Researchers!” emerged in 2019 in protest against a growing distance between researchers and university management. During the last four years we have fought hard to ensure substantial researcher influence on leadership decisions. Today, we are able to look back on our four years on the board and celebrate some, at least partial, successes, that we detail on our website. Here you will also find our full election program.

Three main focus areas

For the next 4 years we have a 12-point program where, in particular, the following issues will be addressed:

1)    Involve the Researchers! will fight for better, and clearer, career paths for all researchers, including PhD students and postdocs, regardless of their background. We need more predictability so that hires are done according to quality, and not random factors e.g., sudden appearance or disappearance of a money pot.

2)    Involve the Researchers! will fight for leadership by researchers, and better integration of PhD students and postdocs in the university. We will also fight for better avenues for resolving conflicts and reporting transgressions.

3)    Involve the Researchers! will fight for an accessible administration that meets the needs of all researchers and takes responsibility for solving issues at hand.

Again, we refer to our website for full details. If you read Danish, we also urge you to read our longer opinion piece in Danish in Uniavisen, explaining our program.

Please vote for the election, and please consider voting for us.

Involve the Researchers! consists of:

Claus Thustrup Kreiner, professor, Economics
Eline Lorenzen, professor, Molecular ecology
Gemma Solomon, professor, Chemistry
Hans Wandall, professor, Medicine
Henrik Vigh, professor, Anthropology
Janus Mortensen, professor, Multilingualism and language policy
Jesper Grodal, professor, Mathematics (board member)
Michael Broberg Palmgren, professor, Plant Science
Michael Kjaer, professor, Aging Research
Morten Heiberg, professor, Spanish
Nanna MacAulay, professor, Neuromedicine
Petrine Wellendorph, professor, Pharmacology
Pia Quist, professor, Institut for Nordiske Studier og Sprogvidenskab (bestyrelsesmedlem)
Randi Starrfelt, professor, Neuropsychology
Rebecca Adler-Nissen, professor, Political Science
Stine F. Pedersen, professor, Biology
Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, professor, Migration Law
Timo Minssen, professor, Biomedicine Law

Plus the group ’Involve PhDs and Postdocs!’ coordinated by::
Albert Sneppen, PhD Student, Physics
Boris Bolvig Kjær, PhD Student, Mathematics
Frederik Ravn Klausen, Postdoc, Mathematics
Nena Batenburg, PhD Student, Mathematics

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