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Organisation, addresses and access to buildings, committees, and safety
Organisation, committees, addresses, and access
You can get an overview of the department's management and organisation under the section Organisation, where you can also find information about the department's addresses.
The department has a number of committees and councils. For information on these, see the section Committees, councils and boards.
Practical information about the individual locations, including facility management at the individual addresses, can be found under Locations.
Access cards for employees are issued by the secretariat. Information about this can be found in the welcome email from the secretariat.
Parking
AU employees can register their car and park for free in the university's car parks. See guidelines and information on how to register your car at AU Employee Parking.
You can also create a temporary parking permit for guests. The link above contains information on how to do this.
Safety
At BCE, a large part of the departments's research and teaching takes place in laboratories. Safety is a high priority at the department. New employees and students who will be working in laboratories are thoroughly instructed in work procedures and safety rules.
If you will be working in laboratories, you should read the department's safety regulations, which you can find here.
You can also read about the department's local working environment committee (LAMU) and working environment rules under the section Work environment. If you have questions about the working environment in general, you can contact the chairman of LAMU at BCE: Morten Dam Rasmussen: mdr@bce.au.dk / 25512755.
Holidays, absence, and working time registration
Holiday and absence
As an employee at Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering, you must follow the department procedure when you want to take holidays, or have other types of absence. You can read the procedure on the employee portal under the section Holiday and absence.
Working time registration
Under the act on working time registration that came into force on 1 July 2024, all workers in Denmark are now required to register their working time.
Aarhus University, along with the country's other universities, follows the recommendations of the Danish Agency for Public Employees and Competence Development on how the law should be interpreted and implemented in the university sector. This means that some employees, based on a specific assessment, can be exempted from the working time registration requirement.
Employees who are required to register working time will be notified of this, while employees who are exempt from the requirement will have this written into their certificate of employment.
You can read more about working time registration under the section Working time registration at BCE.
Strategy, culture, social traditions, and competency development
Strategy
BCE's management has developed a plan for the department's strategic development towards 2030. The 2030 plan is primarily an AU internal document. You can read the 2030 plan on the department's Sharepoint.
Culture
With its formation in 2021, BCE is a young department, characterised by different cultures and traditions and with many nationalities among its employees. We see this diversity as a strength.
Together with BCE's local liaison committee (LSU), the department management has developed a "BCE Culture Paper", which describes a number of focus areas and ambitions for the department's culture.
Department seminar
Once a year, in August, we organise a seminar for the department's employees. The purpose of the seminar is partly to work with the department's development, knowledge sharing and collaboration, and partly to socialise among the employees.
Social traditions
The department's sections and groups are spread across a number of different locations. There are different social traditions among the different sections, groups and teams. New colleagues' buddy helps with social integration.
Summer parties and Christmas parties are organised for all department employees. The task of organising these parties rotates between sections and teams.
Competence development and madatory courses
BCE follows AU's personnel policy and goal that all employees have the opportunity to continuously develop their own competences in order to fulfil their tasks at the university. Competence development can take place in many ways and with very different content and perspectives. You can read more about the framework for competence development at BCE here.
At AU's employee portal, you can read more about competence development. Here you will also find an overview of courses and programmes for AU employees.
Mandatory courses
Foundational course in PhD supervision
All permanent academic staff from assistant professor level upwards must participate in the mandatory course "Foundational course in PhD supervision" within the first year of their employment. You can read more about the course under the item PhD. As a new VIP, you are responsible for enrolling in the course.
Research Integrity at Aarhus University
All members of academic staff at Aarhus University must take the two mandatory modules of the online course "Research Integrity at Aarhus University" (PhDs are exempt as they take a similar course during their PhD programme). Employees receive a separate invitation to the course, which is available online.
The course has been introduced to ensure that academic staff at Aarhus University are familiar with the relevant rules and guidelines regarding responsible conduct of research and freedom of research. In addition the organisational setup is introduced.
Practicalities regarding IT, purchasing, tea kitchens, and furniture
IT equipment
Purchases of IT equipment must always be approved by your supervisor. As a new employee, you must read about the department's rules for purchasing IT equipment, including reuse, standard IT equipment package and financing, which can be found under the item Purchases, where you will also find a link to AU's IT webshop.
Purchasing tea, coffee and office supplies
The secretariat takes care of purchasing tea, coffee, and office supplies for BCE's locations. Student assistants take care of refilling. If you realise that something is missing, you are welcome to write to the secretariat on bce@au.dk.
Kitchenettes
It is a shared responsibility for users of kitchenettes to keep them tidy. This means cleaning up after yourself, putting used crockery in the dishwasher and emptying it if you see that it is ready to be emptied. It is also everyone's responsibility to return used mugs, crockery and thermos jugs to the kitchenettes. If you have put food in the fridge, you are responsible for removing it again and making sure that food is not left to go stale.
Furniture
Standard office layouts are:
- Desk
- Office chair
- Bookcase or shelf space in shared bookcase
- Desk lamp
- Coat hook
- Whiteboard (if needed)
Department heads and research group leaders who have their own office also have a conference table and chairs.
Furniture is reused as much as possible. This means that existing furniture is reused when new employees begin, unless it is defective.
The secretariat coordinates the use and purchase of furniture and the organisation of common areas and offices, including shared offices. If chairs or tables are broken or if you need equipment, please contact the secretariat on bce@au.dk.
Meeting and teaching rooms, catering, and department cars
Meeting rooms and teaching rooms
If you need to book a meeting room, you can find information on how to do so under Room reservation.
Here you will also find an overview of and information about the rooms at AU that are teaching rooms, including how they are managed. Teaching rooms are blocked for reservations during the months when the Study Administration is planning exams and the coming semester's courses. During these periods, you should therefore try to find space in a meeting room instead.
Catering for meetings
If you are hosting a meeting or event, you can order catering (food and drink) from one of the AU canteens. Under Catering and canteens you will find information on how to order and what the rules are.
Department cars
BCE has a number of official cars that can be booked by BCE employees for business-related driving. Under the Official cars section you will find information on how to book the cars and what rules apply to their use. You can also find information about the rules for lending cars to students.
Credit card and settlement and reimbursement of travel and purchases
Credit card at BCE
As an employee at BCE, you have the opportunity to obtain a credit card if you need it to order goods or in connection with business trips. For formalities and practical information on how to order a credit card, see the item Credit cards at BCE, where you will also find a link to AU's credit card policy.
Settlement and reimbursement of travel and purchases
All purchases on behalf of AU must be settled either via RejsUd, REEX or IndFak. In RejsUd and REEX, you must upload documentation when settling, e.g. receipts, invoices or the like.
Read more about settlement of expenses and travels here.
Research information: Finance, application process, and journalization
Journalising in WorkZone
BCE follows AU's guidelines for journalling research cases. You can read about what this entails, what you need to do, and how to get help from BCE's secretariat under Journalising in Workzone.
Personal homepage and PURE
All employees at AU have a personal employee homepage, which is created administratively in connection with your employment. You are responsible for editing it yourself. You can find information on how to do this under AU employee homepage and PURE.
PURE
PURE is the IT system where all researchers at AU must register their research publications. As a researcher, you are responsible for keeping your PURE profile updated. Find more information on the link above.
Please note that your registration is important and may have financial implications for the department.
Information for international colleagues
AU's International Staff Office (ISO) is the unit at the university that specialises in providing advice and assistance to international staff and their families. ISO offers a wide range of services from counselling on work and residence permits, housing, tax rules, culture in Denmark and much more. In addition, ISO organises a number of social events throughout the year.
We encourage all international colleagues to take a closer look at ISO's website. You are also welcome to contact the BCE secretariat with questions at bce@au.dk. We will do our best to answer your question or help you further.
We also strongly encourage all new international colleagues to sign up for AU HR's intro webinar for international employees. Find out more and sign up here.
