By Nelly Sander, AAU Communication and Public Affairs
Photo: Svend Hansen, Mission Secretariat, AAU

Terrific enthusiasm and great dynamics. This best describes the first meeting between representatives from the energy mission management and the new Mission Partner Board. The partner board, composed of a number of first-rate people from the Danish business community, public and private partners and NGOs, will help develop strategic goals and action plans for the energy mission.

Mission seen from many angles

Jakob Stoustrup, Mission Manager has no doubt that the partner board can lead to very good results. The broad composition of a strong team ensures that things are seen from many angles, which is crucial for succeeding with a mission that requires the involvement of a wide range of parties.

"The members of the partner board come from very different backgrounds, and this makes for incredibly good dynamics. The meeting was marked by great enthusiasm and willingness on the part of the members to actively contribute to the mission," he says.

There was broad support for the formulation of the mission's goal: "A sustainable Danish energy system by 2045" and the three sub-goals that, in developing the energy system, there must be a focus on citizen involvement as well as resilience and sustainability. The mission management came away from the meeting with many good suggestions including that global scaling should already be considered in the work at this stage.

Thumbs up on four key challenges

There was also broad support for the selection and formulation of the four key challenges that resulted from the large workshop held in May with around 80 active participants from AAU. The headlines of the key challenges are:

• Electrification
• Circular energy systems
• Digitalization
• Green fuels

 A proposal that the latter (green fuels) should be lifted to a higher level of abstraction is currently being discussed in the Mission Management.

Next steps: mission projects

During the autumn of 2024, university staff members will be invited to four workshops that will follow up on the workshop in May. The four workshops are each titled with a key challenge, and the goal is that for each of the four key challenges, one to two project groups are set up in order to formulate a mission project and prepare a funding plan. Subsequently, in collaboration with the Mission Secretariat, specific applications will be prepared for submission as of the beginning of 2025.