In his opening speech, Dean Lars Hvilsted Rasmussen emphasised that EXOTIC has the potential of becoming a strong example of research impact. He also extended the Executive Management’s greeting who expect EXOTIC to become state-of-the-art within mission-oriented science over the next three years.
Lars Hvilsted Rasmussen went on to explain what he means by the expression ‘mission-oriented science’.
- The broad objectives, such as UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, work well as guiding principles, but they can be difficult to relate to. On the other hand, research projects often have a narrow focus, which means that they have limited impact. That is why we work with this concept of a ‘mission’ which is placed in between these levels of abstraction.
EU FOCUSES ON RESEARCH MISSIONS
The Dean emphasised that EU has called for a mission-oriented research focus. The post-Horizon 2020 EU research funding will require that research projects:
- are bold and inspirational, with wide societal relevance
- are ambitious, but with realistic research & innovation actions
- foster cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral and cross-actor innovation
- set a clear direction: targeted, measureable and time-bound
- have multiple, bottom-up solutions
- We must get used to this way of thinking. That we need to think of research as missions and consider society’s need for scientific findings. This will enable us to attract research funding - and ensure that Aalborg University can continue contributing to research, Lars Hvilsted Rasmussen said.
The programme of the opening seminar focused on
current research on the development of exoskeletons and robots for rehabilitation of people with functional disabilities. Speakers included AAU researchers and industry leaders.
ABOUT EXOTIC
The EXOTIC project is an initiative under Aalborg University’s interdisciplinary strategy in Knowledge for the World. The project aims to find new uses for exoskeletons and robots to assist both caregivers and individuals with functional disabilities. An important focus is making the technologies user-friendly and thereby ensuring that the users find the solutions acceptable to use in their everyday life.
More specifically, this project concerns a user-based, tongue-controlled exo arm/hand with similar functionality as a human arm: the EXOTIC. The EXOTIC team comprises a cross-disciplinary group of researchers and external collaboration partners. Associate Professor Lotte N. S. Andreasen Struijk is the group coordinator.
Further information on the interdisciplinary research project is available at: www.strategi.aau.dk/EXOTIC/
Further information on AAU’s strategy and interdisciplinary research projects is available at: www.strategy.aau.dk