Our ever-changing world
Much has changed over the past year. At this time last year, we had just re-surfaced after being hit with the first corona wave, and everything looked reasonably manageable. Little did we know that the virus would find new ways and that the Danish mink industry would be over before the year had passed. Nor did we know that by the end of the year, there would be an effective and safe vaccine available.
The development of the mRNA-based vaccine, which many of us have received as the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, is an amazing story. Here, a female researcher from Hungary, Katalin Kariko, plays a heroic role. I highly recommend that you take a closer look at her story. She definitely deserves a Nobel Prize. Katalin grew up in poor conditions in Hungary, but she was adamant that she wanted to be a scientist, although she had never met one. She went to the United States in the 1980s, but here she was largely rejected by the existing research world who did not understand her ideas. In fact, she only succeeded when she met an accommodating researcher at a photocopier. Now he may end up sharing a Nobel Prize with her. It shows the importance of networking - and that it can happen anywhere.
Two years ago, we were struggling with a deficit in the department, but we have rectified this. Unfortunately, we are now hit by the declining funding for research-based policy support. This has led to very harsh and extensive cuts, which we unfortunately have to deal with for the rest of the year. In the management, we are doing what we can to eliminate the cuts and restore a situation where we will be able to meet the legitimate expectations for us to provide knowledge for the green transition in the field of agriculture. I am incredibly pleased that AGRO employees have also contributed in the public debate to the necessary communication regarding this issue.
Recently, the government announced that approximately five university educations will be moved out of the large university cities. To Foulum, this presents an opportunity to establish a veterinary education. It is, of course, a very large task, which requires significant investment and presents many challenges, but it also offers new opportunities. This may, for example, allow us to move all or part of the agrobiology education to Foulum. In the big picture, we need to rethink our educations, partly because the situation in the TECH faculty is now different, and partly because we simply have too few students to meet the need for scientists within agrobiology. I look forward to a clarification on which direction we should pursue here.
The world is now slowly reopening after the corona epidemic, but we must expect that it will take time before things return to normal, especially when it comes to travelling. We therefore need to continue to take advantage of the digital opportunities for meetings. I am sure that online meetings will continue on a large scale in the future, but I must admit that even I miss the presence of good colleagues in Europe, the USA, China, Africa, and other parts of the world.
Summer is fast approaching, and Denmark is a great place to spend your summer. I will spend a large part of my holiday in our summerhouse in Løkken. Our children and grandchildren will visit us there, but I will also spend some time to mentally prepare for another round in the ring this autumn. There is a lot we need to tackle, but first we all need to enjoy the summer.