29 April 2011
Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen
International panel:
• Professor Steve Davies, Head of Department, Chemistry, Oxford, UK (chairman)
• Professor Gary Schuster, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, U.S.
• Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Astra Zeneca Dr. Paul Leeson
Background
To evaluate the chemistry enterprise at the University of Copenhagen and advise the University
management regarding the organization of a chemistry research environment of high international
standing, an international panel has been established.
The panel visited the University of Copenhagen 11-13 April and was asked to answer three key
questions:
1) How can we strengthen the fundamental and applied research in chemistry including its identity,
excellence and international standing while maintaining - both in research and education – a
strong involvement in adjacent disciplines such as medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences,
toxicology/ecotoxicology, natural products chemistry and environmental chemistry (incl.
atmosphere, water & soil)?
2) In which research areas would we benefit from 2 - 3 new strategic positions at the full professor
level?
3) How do we optimize our plans and ambitions taking into consideration that we are currently
planning investments in buildings for around 2,6 billion DKK (app. £ 300 million)?
Below are the answers to the questions as well as arguments for the panel’s final conclusion.
Headline answers to the three key questions
1) To strengthen the chemistry enterprise at the University of Copenhagen, the University
should create a new institute within the Niels Bohr Science Park as described below. The
University should appoint a Head of Institute with control of resources reporting to the Dean
at the Faculty of Science.
2) The University should recruit professors with international reputations for research,
leadership and scholarship in emerging areas of chemical sciences.
3) To support 1 and 2, the University should establish the new chemistry institute with state of
the art equipment and core facilities to enable the institute to participate in setting the
international chemistry agenda.
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Recommendations
The panel recommends that the University of Copenhagen (KU) creates a new institute, named for
example the Brønsted Chemistry Institute that incorporates the whole of the University’s chemistry
enterprise and is the exclusive and unique chemistry entity at KU.
The institute will be comprised of all core chemistry disciplines;
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All staff from the Department of Chemistry, SCIENCE
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All staff from the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, FARMA (and possibly chemists
from other departments at FARMA)
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All staff related to chemistry from the Department of Basic Science and Environment, LIFE
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New appointments
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Associate members: researchers in related fields such as Biology, Biochemistry, Biophysics,
Plant biotechnology, Nano-science, Health Sciences etc.
The mission of the institute is to continuously raise the international research profile of the KU
chemistry enterprise embodied in the institute while maintaining commitment to teaching. The
Head of Institute will achieve this mission through new high profile appointments and strategic
deployment of resources and space over time.
Location:
The building of the new Niels Bohr Science Park presents an extraordinary opportunity for a new
approach to achieve excellence in research at KU.
The institute should be located in the new Niels Bohr Science Park (NBSP) – in the sections closest
to the Department of Biology ideally of app. 20,000 m2 nett space (current nett space1 18,000 m2) –
and in the building that currently houses Medicinal Chemistry at FARMA.
Not all staff members currently affiliated with the existing chemistry enterprise will necessarily
move to the NBSP (due to space limitations). It will be the responsibility of the Head of Institute to
allocate the space and membership of the institute. Space allocation will be reviewed annually and
membership at appropriate intervals by the Head of Institute.
All core equipment facilities necessary to support the institute faculty will be located at the institute
in NBSP along with the necessary technical staff required to operate and maintain the core facilities.
Timeframe:
The process of reorganization of the chemistry enterprise at KU into the new institute should begin
immediately.
Actual relocation will be planned by the Head of Institute in accordance with the plans for NBSP –
estimated timeframe: 3-4 years.
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See Appendices for source.
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Management structure:
The institute will be led by a single Head, who reports to the Dean at the Faculty of Science. The
Head will have direct responsibility for key areas, including:
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strategy
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budget
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appointments
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space
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core facilities
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maximizing impact of the institute’s IP
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outreach
To support the Head’s work, three Deputy Heads should be appointed with responsibility for the
following areas:
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Deputy Head of Institute for Teaching (full-time academic administrator responsible for
development of education profile and coordination of teaching activities across chemistry)
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Deputy Head of Institute for Research (research facilitator, a full-time academic
administrator responsible for facilitation of developing university-wide research profiles,
new research proposals and outreach for the Institute)
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Head of Administration
In addition, two advisory boards will support the Head of Institute.
a) An internal elected advisory board consisting of no more than six senior representatives
encompassing the interests of the institute.
b) A scientific advisory board consisting of international peers as well as top managers from
industry, a representative from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation advises
on scientific strategy, including faculty appointments.
Finances:
The current staff (both employed on overhead money, external grant and faculty money) will follow
the relevant researcher or core facility in the new structure. The future overhead from research
grants will go to the Head of Institute, who will be in charge of allocation of all resource.
Commentary
The panel members had meetings and site visits with all three faculties and enjoyed the interesting
and in-depth presentations that showed visionary perspectives on the development of the chemistry
enterprise at KU. The panel was impressed by the progress in various areas of chemistry at KU and
the vast cooperation with Danish industry such as the medical and food industries.
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It was clear that the faculties had contemplated the issues at hand thoroughly, and the panel enjoyed
the very open and frank discussions. The presentations showed that there is great potential for
development of the chemistry enterprise at KU.
Rationale for the new institute
In order to achieve KU’s vision for its chemistry enterprise to become an environment of
international standing, the chemistry enterprise at KU needs to be reorganized for success.
The future of science generally is emergent, interdisciplinary and cooperative, requiring the
formulation of cohesive teams of critical mass.
Currently at KU, the responsibility for chemistry teaching and research is divided and lacks
coordination leading to inefficiencies and unnecessary duplications.
To sharpen the focus of the chemistry enterprise at KU and facilitate continuous advancement, the
panel unanimously recommends consolidation of the chemistry enterprise at KU into a single
institute branded appropriately.
The institute has authority to articulate and participate in all chemistry functions of KU.
Large coordinated departments such as the institute can take on strategic initiatives at the cutting
edge of science which smaller ones cannot, thus ensuring the future international success in
research, teaching and service to industry and society.
Rationale for moving Medicinal Chemistry to the new institute
The stated primary goal of the medicinal chemistry department is to provide tools for probing
biological function, to help understand mode of action at the molecular level and to establish
therapeutic validation of novel targets.
While novel small molecules identified in the institute may also generate intellectual property and
act as starting points for further optimization, it is recognized that the subsequent generation and
optimization of small molecule leads for targets of therapeutic value should be done in collaboration
with the institute’s industrial partners. Probes for biological function include not just small
molecules, but also modified peptides and proteins, natural products and complex macrocyclic
structures. This current change in the entire drug development community, encompassing many
other disciplines then small molecule chemistry, will benefit from a co-localising of medicinal
chemistry in the new institute, because it will help realize provision of these synthetically
challenging probe molecules by facilitating and exploiting e.g. novel organic synthetic
methodology, synthetic biology, and natural products synthesis in the new institute.
Localisation in NBSP will also allow favourable interactions with Biophysics, nanoscience and
other adjacent disciplines.
Building collaborations on new drug targets with molecular pharmacology and bioscience, within or
external to the institute, is also essential. One of the potential benefits to the wider drug discovery
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community of working in these areas should be better understanding of the scope of identifying
potential drugs in chemical space.
Future of the Department of Pharmaceutics and Analytical Chemistry at FARMA
The department should be renamed the Department of Pharmacy.
The department will play a major role in supplying scientists to industry, working with external
regulators and pursuing basic and applied research in pharmaceutics and toxicology. Much of this
pharmaceutical science activity is unique to the department, allowing it to stand alone and develop
further in future.
Close collaboration with the chemistry institute will however be essential in establishing the vision
of advanced drug analysis, by sharing analytical capabilities, and establishing joint research
activities.
Similar considerations can be made for the remaining disciplines at the Department of Basic
Sciences and Environment at LIFE.
Education
By concentrating all the chemistry teaching within the institute, the teaching of chemistry as support
to other educations at LIFE, FARMA, SCIENCE and SUND (Faculty of Health Sciences) will
become more efficient and improve. It will be possible to develop common courses where
appropriate, thus giving students a better overview of the relevance of chemistry across the
Sciences. Common courses in chemistry will foster the enthusiasm and nurture the interest of the
students to fertilise cross-discipline ideas and projects. Furthermore, focussing chemistry teaching
around central common themes will facilitate discipline hopping by the brightest students as their
interests develop and expand.
The academic facilitator (Deputy Head) will coordinate this process and ensure the highest quality
in chemistry teaching for all educations.
New appointments
The University should recruit professors with international reputations for research, leadership and
scholarship in emerging areas of chemical sciences. Examples of such areas are synthetic biology,
simulation and modelling, new materials, energy and sustainability, molecular imaging,
measurement and catalysis.
Chemistry is the central science. To facilitate and encourage development of expertise throughout
KU, faculty in related fields can become associate members of the institute appointed by the Head
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of Institute. The Head of Institute can allocate resources of the center as appropriate to associate
members.
The panel believes the opportunities for consolidation provides for the coordination and
advancement of the KU chemistry enterprise to the highest international levels of recognition.
Historically, chemistry research at universities has been reductionist; professors worked with a
group of students generally in an area focused on a specific question which was investigated at
increasing depth. The future of science and chemistry is emergent. Teams of researchers with
different expertise will take up questions of expanding rather than diminishing scope. Such teams
may form spontaneously around questions of common interest or they may be formed by provision
of incentivizing resources or through targeted recruitment. Regardless of their manner of creation,
such teams require coordination across the relevant disciplines to assure that the proper resources
and administrative structure are present to support their function and growth. Consolidation of the
KU chemistry enterprise in the Institute is necessary to enable the emergence of such teams and to
support their efforts. In this way, the chemistry enterprise at KU can become competitive with the
leading international programs.
Leadership responsibilities
Head of Institute
The panel recommends the appointment of an interim Head of Institute as soon as possible and an
immediate initiation of an international search for the “permanent” Head of Institute.
The interim Head of Institute should immediately draft a plan for optimal allocation of teaching
activities, research space and core facilities and provide input for the NBSP plans that are currently
being prepared.
The “permanent” Head of Institute’s position should be reviewed every 5 years by Rector, Prorector
and the Dean of Science with the advice of the scientific advisory board.
The Head of Institute should be a scholar of international reputation for vision, achievement and
proven leadership ability.
The Head of the Institute
1) has overall responsibility for science, scholarship and managing the activities of the institute
2) formulates the budget of the institute and allocates the resources to execute the mission of
the institute
3) recruits new members and supports and reviews existing members to continuously advance
the excellence of the institute
4) assures the facilities, environment and equipment of the institute are sufficient to maintain
excellence
5) promotes the interests of the institute to internal and external constituencies including
alumni
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6) assures that the intellectual property of the institute is appropriately managed to assure
maximum benefit to the faculty, the institute and the University of Copenhagen through
spinouts and technology licensing
Deputy Head of Institute for Teaching (academic facilitator)
All teaching of chemistry at KU should be the responsibility of the institute.
The academic facilitator
1) reports to the Head of the Institute
2) coordinates with the study leaders at KU, including supporting chemistry teaching at LIFE,
FARMA and SUND (Faculty of Health Sciences), the course offerings of the institute and
teaching assignments of the faculty
3) assesses and advises the teaching of the faculty at the institute
4) coordinates with the study leaders of the institute to advise students on course selection and
careers
5) works with the faculty and administration to identify and formulate the chemistry
component of degrees at KU
6) works with the faculty and administration to coordinate the examination process for the
chemistry component of degrees at KU
7) has responsibility for developing a high-quality broadly based international student body at
the graduate level for the institute
Deputy Head of Institute for Research (research facilitator):
1) reports to the Head of the Institute
2) is responsible for coordinating new research initiatives within the institute increasing
awareness and gathering and distributing information about new research opportunities and
calls for new centers and programs
3) maintains an overview of all research underway at the institute, and KU in general, related
to chemistry and identifies and follow up on opportunities for collaborative research
4) assists researchers with preparation of grant proposals by facilitating the administrative and
financial components of grant applications
5) coordinates the reporting requirements of awarded grants
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Appendices
•
Commission for Evaluation Panel
•
Net space for all 4 Departments – numbers provided by Campus Planning and Building (450
m2 are deducted from the Department of Chemistry, SCIENCE due to planned condensation
before 2012).
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