Three institutes at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) participate in the future ”Centre for Ocean Life”, which is financed by the Villum Foundation and directed by DTU Aqua.
On January 1, 2012, the Villum Kann Rasmussen Centre of Excellence for the study of life in a changing ocean will open. The centre is directed by the National Institute of Aquatic Resources (DTU Aqua), and the opening of the centre is made possible by a grant of 30 million Danish kroner (around 4.03 million euro) from the Villum Foundation.
The goal of the centre is to bring together Danish marine research across disciplines and universities in order to explore fundamental bio-physical processes in the ocean and develop models that can be used to understand and predict how marine life is affected by environmental change and fishery.
Researchers from DTU Aqua, DTU Physics, DTU Mathematics, University of Copenhagen and Roskilde University are part of the centre, which is directed by Professor Thomas Kiørboe, DTU Aqua, and Professor Ken Haste Andersen, DTU Aqua.
20 new PhD and postdoc positions will be created in connection with the opening of Centre for Ocean Life.
Institute director Fritz Köster, DTU Aqua, says about the future centre and the grant from the Villum Foundation:
”This grant gives us the opportunity to develop a novel and important research area across several DTU institutes and other Danish universities. This will contribute to the necessary coordination of Danish marine research”.
The Centre for Ocean Life will open on January 1, 2012 and is officially launched with a mini-symposium on February 2, 2012.
