A mission is a portfolio of excellence-based activities that cut across sectors and scientific disciplines and must achieve, within a given timeframe, measurable results that could not have been achieved by individual activities. These activities must have an impact on society and political processes through the science and technology being developed and also be relevant to a broad segment of the population.

In other words: It is a method being used to group various activities, that collectively should be able to tackle difficult societal challenges, which by nature require an interdisciplinary approach.

The mission approach also involves communicating more effectively about the initiatives to the individual citizen and public in order to involve them in the process.

Objectives, organisational form and work method

Here is how a mission-oriented approach can be illustrated:

The illustration is based on an interpretation of a mission, based on descriptions by Professor David Budtz Pedersen (Department of Communication and Psychology, AAU) and Mariana Mazzucato, Economist and Adviser for the European Commission.

The goal is to solve the global societal problems with concrete initiatives – and to do this by organising in cross-cutting collaborations, where actors from government, businesses, foundations, universities and civil society are brought together with a clear intention to both involve and co-create.

The missions are driven by these collaborations, which are a different way of developing and implementing research than universities are generally used to.

At AAU, we have extensive experience with interdisciplinary research and utilisation of our research. This helps by providing AAU good conditions for working mission-driven in relation to our research.

Thematic framework and orientation

The missions are carried out within a defined thematic framework that gives researchers, businesses and decision-makers a clear focus and enables them to orient themselves towards clear goals.

Approach

The mission-oriented approach is to mix and unite disciplines across disciplines – therefore it draws clear threads to the interdisciplinary way of thinking. The missions will be solved with competencies from both STEM (natural science disciplines) and SSH (humanities and social sciences). The missions require multiple disciplines and societal actors to work together and unite knowledge.

Scale and output

Last but not least, the mission-driven university involves itself in the research initiatives from start to finish – from idea to solution – and ensures concrete output in the form of solutions, innovations and knowledge sharing.

The term mission is also used by the EU-based research programme Horizon Europe, which has set up missions for adaptation to climate change, cancer survival, clean oceans and regenerated ecosystems, climate neutral cities and healthy soil.

Read more about EU Missions on the European Commission's website