Our finances are now under better control

Head of Department Erik Steen Kristensen gave an update on some of AGRO’s important challenges at department meetings in Foulum on September 11 and Flakkebjerg on September 12, 2018. All staff had the opportunity to get the most out of the meetings because they were held in both Danish and English. All told, approximately 155 people participated.  

At the meetings Erik Steen Kristensen gave a status of the policy support tasks, AGRO’s finances, project and finance management, and the upcoming meetings for juniorVIP and seniorVIP.  

The first item on the agenda was our research-based advice to the authorities.   

- The Agricultural Package has been good for AGRO because it has increased the need for research in environmental measures outside of agricultural fields in connection with the targeted regulation. This aligns very well with our research areas and has led to a range of new policy support tasks, said Erik Steen Kristensen. 

However, there is still a small dark cloud over our heads with regard to our advice to the authorities: the projected competitive tendering of the policy support tasks. 

- This situation has affected not only AGRO but all of ST, said Erik Steen Kristensen. 

AGRO has many new policy support tasks – and the Ministry is satisfied 

In the performance agreement with the Ministry of Environment and Food regarding policy support in the area Crop Production, there are eight focus areas that Aarhus University is responsible for. AGRO plays a role in the great majority of these areas. Erik Steen Kristensen showed a selection of important research areas in which AU is obliged to provide qualified services, and he mentioned that the list includes good topics for all of the sections in AGRO. 

As a result of the Agricultural Package, AGRO has been ordered to spend six million DKK per year over the next two to three years in two important areas: 

1. Drain measurements with the aim of gathering knowledge for efficient and effective location of environmental measures, e.g. mini-wetland
2. Research in nitrogen cycling in the types of land in which knowledge is lacking, including lowlands.  

These are the so-called addendum 1-2 projects that run from 2016 to 2019. At a status meeting the Ministry expressed great satisfaction with the progress of the six sub-projects that were presented and with the expectation that we will have reached the goals by 2019. 

Along almost the same lines are the addendum 3 projects that run from 2017 to 2020. These concern gathering more knowledge about mini-wetlands with filters. In this case, the Ministry also expressed great satisfaction because all the facilities are ready to use in the upcoming runoff season and the research in the negative side effects and long-term studies are proceeding as planned.   

An internal workshop will be held on October 11-12, 2018 at the Mols Laboratory in order to, among other things, discuss how we can achieve synergy between the department’s activities in this area.  

Improved financial management

As mentioned previously, the many policy support tasks and other activities have affected AGRO’s finances so that we will have a deficit on the 2018 budget. Erik Steen Kristensen went through the actions that have been taken to limit the deficit and, not least, to avoid ending in a similar situation in the future. 

The department management decided in March 2018 that there was an acute need to prioritise the policy support tasks and to improve use of current staff. This has led to a temporary qualified freeze on hiring of new staff, a temporary qualified freeze on transferring monies from 2018 to 2019 and in the future on externally funded projects, and an examination of all policy support tasks with the aim of prioritising them in collaboration with DCA and the Ministry of Environment and Food. 

It has been a problem that the financial management system has had a built-in lag time. In April, the department management thus prepared a budget with a 2018 deficit of one million DKK without knowing that there was already a nine million DKK deficit as a result of increased costs – among others as a result of investment in 10 new PhD and TAP man years as well as facilities and operation to support our advice to the authorities.  

- The conclusion is that we need a better and earlier management of our budgets and staffing, said Erik Steen Kristensen. With effect from 2018 it is a requirement that applications for internal funding are written. On the form for this purpose you must write which focus area the project concerns and if the funds are for advice or supporting research. This means that we already now have an improved overview of the extent of tasks in the three areas.  

We have several possibilities for creating more flexibility. Obtaining more external projects can contribute to funding current activities, PhD students can contribute more to policy support tasks and externally funded projects, and we can find savings in current internal projects.  

As the last item on the agenda, Erik Steen Kristensen mentioned that there will be juniorVIP and seniorVIP meetings this autumn. The juniorVIP meeting will be held on October 5 in Foulum and the seniorVIP meeting will be held on November 13-14 in Flakkebjerg. Both meetings will be based on the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals, which will be integrated into the process of preparing AGRO’s next strategy.

You can view the slides from Erik Steen Kristensen’s presentation here.