Department of Dentistry and Oral Health - Staff Portal

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Newsletter 71 from the Head of Department

Dear All, Here is the last newsletter of the Spring semester 2025, but before we all go on a well-deserved summer vacation I hope to see as many of you as possible at our IOOS Joint Day on Wednesday, June 25.

INTERNAL NEWS

Remember IOOS Joint Day Wednesday 25 June 9-15
Tuesday 10th June, you received an invitation with a program and registration link for our annual IOOS Joint Day at Radisson Blu Scandinavia.

Our keynote speakers are Signe Ørom (consultant at Connecting Cultures) and Claus Holm (Head of Department, The Danish Institute of Paedagogics and Education), who will each talk from their perspective about our core tasks and the way we work together and understand each other.

It is important that you register for the IOOS Joint Day via the link you received in the invitation, so that the conference venue knows how much good food and drink to provide.

The deadline for registration is tomorrow, Wednesday, June 18th.

I look forward to spending the day with you!

Workplace assessment (APV): We continue to work with these four common themes
Based on the spring APV dialogues and joint meeting of the local liaison committee and the local occupational health and safety committee (LSU and LAMU), the APV follow-up group has now selected four themes that we will continue to work on together at the department:

  • Less annoying noise during the working day: A focused effort in the clinic, simulation clinic and laboratory
  • Movement during the working day: Break the habit and create movement every day
  • Healthy and result-creating communities and relationships: Focus on good teamwork, appreciative conversation and frameworks for communities
  • Dialogue about tasks: Strengthening leaders' insight and understanding of opportunities for good dialogue about tasks.

The themes have been chosen both based on what we want to protect and preserve, and what we want to improve. They also support the department's values: respect, trust, recognition and professionalism.

The APV follow-up group now invites the department's meeting forums and units to provide input for concrete actions that will strengthen our common understanding of the areas of focus, so that we can better comply with them in everyday life and thus achieve an even better working environment.

The APV follow-up group has been elected by LSU and LAMU and consists of: Siri Beier Jensen, David Kraft, Linda Fischer and Birgitte Reggelsen.

Follow-up on the external assessment report of our clinical study and working environment
On Monday, June 2 and Tuesday, June 3, we held joint meetings about the external assessment of the clinical study and working environment and the framework for action plans and follow-up for employees and students (the latter with modest attendance at the meeting).

At the meetings, I emphasized that the vast majority of both students and employees are happy with and comfortable with the clinical teaching. This is important, and we must maintain this – also when we look into how we solve the problems with a harsh tone that some of our students and employees have experienced in the clinical teaching setting.

The intention of the joint meetings were also to give you the opportunity to provide your immediate thoughts, questions and input based on the results and the recommendations of the external assessment report and the report reading.

Thank you for the good and constructive contributions to those of you who had the opportunity to attend. If you have any questions, thoughts or ideas in relation to the external assessment report, you can always contact:

Finally, I would like to emphasise that the work on changing the harsh tone concerns us all and must be solved together. We are starting the efforts now.

Information security: Nearly 10% of us at IOOS were tricked by fake phishing email
Aarhus University continuously focuses on information security – and with good reason. Hackers and others with malicious intent regularly attempt to gain access to our systems, for instance by sending so-called phishing emails. We need to learn to recognize these and avoid clicking on them.

In week 19, AU IT sent an email to us (362 recipients at IOOS) disguised as a phishing attempt. The email contained a link asking us to enter our username and password.

  • 46 employees clicked on the link in the email.
  • 34 of these employees went on to enter their username and password.
  • 30 employees correctly reported the phishing email using the button in Outlook.

No harm was done this time, but it’s important that we remain critical of emails from unknown senders or messages asking us to enter sensitive information.

Never share your password.

If you receive such phishing emails, delete them – and preferably report them first using the button in Outlook.

 

RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND TEACHING

Proposal for a new, third dental education and dental hygienist education at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU)
There are political plans to establish a new type of dental education at SDU, where parts of the theoretical education will be combined with the medical education, and the clinical teaching is planned to take place in private practice, as well as under municipal and regional auspices. The dental hygienist education is planned to be structured according to the same model as the two current educations.

The three dental organisations – the Danish Dental Association, the Danish Organisation for Private Practice Owners (PTO) and the Danish Organisation for Employed Dentists (ATO) – have sent an open letter of concern to the government, in which they express their criticism and concern for professionalism and patient safety if the proposal is implemented.

You can read, among other things, the letter of concern and the subsequent debate contributions at the newspaper ‘Altinget’:

Invitation: Workshop on research integrity with a focus on authorship

This autumn, the faculty is hosting a workshop on research integrity with a focus on authorship. The workshop is open to all academic staff at the faculty, regardless of career stage.

During the workshop, Dean Anne-Mette Hvas will present the new national code of conduct for research integrity. We will then discuss the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT) system. Input from the workshop will be forwarded to the faculty leadership team, as a decision will be made later this year on whether to implement the system at Health.

There are two dates/locations to choose from. The program is the same for both, and registration is required:

  • Workshop at Aarhus University (AIAS): Tuesday, 30 September, 15:00–17:15 (conducted in English)

https://events.au.dk/workshoponresearchintegrity

  • Workshop at Aarhus University Hospital (G206-145): Monday, 3 November, 15:00–17:15 (conducted in Danish)

https://events.au.dk/workshopomforskningsintegritet

 

The topic is highly relevant, and it is important that we, at IOOS, are represented by researchers at various career stages. I hope many of you will be able to attend.

 

NEWS ABOUT NAMES

Major EU grant for Associate Professor Kasia Gurzawska-Comis
A major interdisciplinary research project – GreenNanoBone – with the participation of 18 partners from 12 European countries has just received a Horizon Europe grant of 8.6 million euros, equivalent to almost 63.5 million DKK. Of this, 7.8 million DKK will go to Aarhus University and our research here at IOOS.

Associate Professor and Section Head Kasia Gurzawska-Comis from the Section for Maxillofacial Surgery and Oral Pathology is leading the entire project, which will develop sustainable and tissue-mild 4D materials – including components extracted from potato waste – to stimulate the regeneration of bones and tissues in the jaw after illness, especially caused by cancer.

Congratulations – it will be exciting to follow!

 

With information secure summer greetings,

Siri

Revised 11.06.2025
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Web team at IOOS