Aarhus Universitet (AU) was founded in 1928, has 7,500 employees and 34,000 students, incl. app. 15.000 master students, app. 1,900 PhD students and 550 postdoctoral scholars (2011). AU is ranked no. 79 out of the 17,000 international universities in the influential QS World University Ranking (2011). The Department of Environmental Science (ENVS), part of AU, has a staff of 144, incl. 26 PhD students. ENVS carries out basic, applied and trans-disciplinary research within a range of environmental areas, including energy, urban studies, and climate change mitigation/adaptation. Expertise covers environmental economy, policy analysis, sociology and spatial analysis, air pollution, arctic studies, environmental chemistry and microbiology. Activities comprise research, teaching, and science-based policy advice (Danish government, the EU, municipalities). ENVS was established as a department at AU in 2011 on basis of the former National Environmental Research Institute (NERI).