The faculty's annual PhD Day, which was scheduled to be held on 21 January, has been postponed. Head of Graduate School Helene Nørrelund promises that work is being done to find a new date before the summer holidays.

2022.01.13 | Lise Wendel Eriksen

PhD Day in 2019, where the event without problems could take place in January and where the participants could still stand closely together. The graduate school, the PhD association and the organizing committee are now working on moving the PhD Day 2022 to June instead. Photo: Lars Kruse, AU Foto

One of Health’s traditions is for the faculty's PhD students, research year students and many of their supervisors to gather once a year at the PhD day at the end of January. However, the Omicron variant and the resulting increase in infections has thrown a spanner in the works for the event.

"The authorities assess that the epidemic will peak at the end of January. They also believe that while avoiding infection will be difficult, we should attempt to spread the infection out, so that we don’t all become ill at the same time. So bringing together five hundred people on 21 January would be inappropriate and we must therefore unfortunately cancel the PhD Day in January," explains Helene Nørrelund, who is head of the graduate school at Health.

Not a complete cancellation, rather a postponement

Last year, with the coronavirus epidemic also in the picture, the PhD Day 2021 was held online, but according to the head of graduate school, converting the 2022 event to an online format has not been an option:

"We had a good day last year, but we also learned that the PhD Day is an event that works best with in-person participation. It’s just not the same online.”

Helene Nørrelund hoped right up until the last minute for a miracle, so that the PhD event with its academic focus could be held. But there was no miracle. The graduate school, the PhD association and the organizing committee are therefore currently working on finding a new date before the summer holidays.

"We still very much hope to hold the PhD Day this year, so the plan is to postpone the day rather than completely cancel it. But as it’s not exactly a small event, so finding a new date requires a lot of reorganisation and everything must fall into place. We’re working on finding a day in June where we can hold both the academic part of the event and the subsequent celebration dinner," says Helene Nørrelund. She expects clarity over whether it will be possible to move the PhD Day to June within a few weeks.

Stay tuned

The PhD Day usually features a deluge of awards, including the competition to win the Fogh-Nielsen scholarships as well as the presentation of the 3R animal welfare prize and the JCD Award, which goes to the supervisor of the year. Helene Nørrelund says that even though some of the prize winners have been found, the announcement of the winners will be delayed so they can be celebrated on the day as usual.

And those researchers who have prepared presentations or poster presentations on their research should stand by and await further announcements.

"As we’re so close to the original date, many people will have finished their posters and presentations, so I’d recommend putting them aside for now until we get closer to what we hope will be a sunny and warm PhD Day 2022," says Helene Nørrelund, who promises to provide a further update as soon as there is a final clarification on the PhD Day 2022.

Stay updated on the Graduate School’s website

Contact

Head of Graduate School Helene Nørrelund
Aarhus University, Health
Mobile: (+45) 9350 8486
Email: hwn@au.dk