Aarhus University: a new faculty's first strategy, from kick-off to rollout
- Client
- Aarhus University, Faculty of Natural Sciences
- Sector
- Higher education, Denmark
- Offer
- Strategy implementation
- Year
- 2020–2021
- Selection
- Chosen through a competitive tender
The challenge
On 1 January 2020, Aarhus University split its Faculty of Science and Technology in two. The new Faculty of Natural Sciences brought together seven departments and an interdisciplinary nanoscience centre, and a new dean started in April. The faculty needed to define what made it distinctive, set goals for the next ten years and turn them into concrete action plans that researchers, teachers and staff would recognise as their own.
What we did
After a tender with several suppliers, the faculty chose Napica to run the strategy process.
- Kick-off seminar: two days with the faculty's leadership to explore its identity and ambitions.
- Involvement: focus groups across the faculty and a dedicated workshop for professors.
- Core narrative: one story that connects the faculty's identity, its strategy and everyday work.
- Implementation plan: a simple structure in which the core narrative is the handle, the strategy the canopy and the initiatives the ribs, plus a dean's tour, a short film and quarterly follow-up.
The result
The faculty launched "Strategy 2020–2030", built around five themes: collaboration and clear leadership, internationalisation, teaching, research and prioritisation, and careers and recruitment. Initiatives are planned in three waves over ten years, so the strategy keeps moving long after the launch.
Strategy implementation
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