David Pattison moved to Denmark with his wife after living in Sydney for 20 years. His wife was offered a Professorship at the University of Copenhagen. It was a position she could not refuse and led to the relocation of the family in the beginning of 2017. After a few months helping the family find their feet in Denmark, David got a job at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Copenhagen as the Facility Manager of the Core Metabolomics Platform.
David, when did you and your family decide to move to Denmark for you and your wife to pursue your careers? Both my wife and I have worked in academia for many years. In 2016, she was offered a job as a Professor at the University of Copenhagen (KU), which she could not refuse. She started working at the university last February, and I helped the family settle into our new lives while looking for a job in Denmark. After a few months, I got a job at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at KU as well.
How was relocating to Denmark? The physical relocation was okay, packing up our belongings and shipping them to Denmark went quite smoothly, but was very tiring and stressful. We got a lot of support and advice from International Staff Mobility at KU, such as how to get a social security (CPR) number, finding somewhere to live and a school for our girls, and advice on finances and banking – all important things to know when moving a family to a new country. We felt supported and well informed. In contrast, it has been quite a culture shock moving to Denmark after we’ve been living and working in Sydney, Australia for 20 years. The language is very different and quite hard to learn, and of course we find it hard to adjust to the Danish weather. We’re both from the UK originally, but it’s been a long time since we’ve had regular weather like this.
Now that you’ve lived and worked in Sydney for 20 years, what’s it like to work in Denmark? I like Denmark. I like Copenhagen in particular. I grew up and studied in smaller towns and cities and after working in Sydney for the past 20 years, it’s nice to be back in a slightly more manageable sized city. That’s a real benefit as Copenhagen feels a bit more homely and welcoming. In terms of my work, I think it’s very similar to other places. My colleagues are welcoming and friendly and the fact that I don’t speak Danish yet isn’t an issue for the type of role that I have. Everyone speaks English and meetings are held in English. Is your work-life different from before? In a lot of ways, not really no. I feel like it’s the same as going between different jobs in any country. I guess some of the cultural expectations are slightly different. I haven’t offended anyone yet as far as I know, but the expectation of punctuality is quite different. Everyone is generally on time for meetings, which isn’t difficult to get used to just a different way of doing things; if you have a 3-4 o’clock meeting scheduled, the meeting starts at 3 o’clock and ends a bit before 4 o’ clock, so people can arrive on time at their next appointments. In Australia meetings were much more likely to go over time, so everyone was running late for their next meeting; it kind of extended throughout the day, I guess.
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Having an international mindset is definitely going to help Denmark stay in the top countries for research and will help Danish students in their future research careers
What do you like most about Denmark and Danish work-life culture? It’s a very flexible position I have here. There’s no fixed time I have to be at work in the morning and I can work until I’ve finished in the evening. I have children at home, so the flexibility is really valuable. My wife works fewer hours than before, and never has meetings scheduled outside normal working hours anymore. There is much more awareness and acceptance that family life is important in Denmark. At work, there is a certain amount of trust, which means I have the freedom to get my work done as I see fit. This hasn’t always been the case in my previous positions. Whether this is the overall case for Denmark or only in my job here at the university, I’m not sure. Generally, I’m very happy about my work-life at the moment, and how I can balance this with home-life. How would you assess Denmark’s overall level of competence in terms of research and science? That’s a good question. I have changed my research focus during my career. I was working on research into heart disease back in Australia, but at KU my work is
more focused on plant science. Both of these positions have a very chemical perspective, but they are in very different fields so it is hard to directly compare.
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It is important to be aware that the research environment is international and not just in Denmark, in my opinion
In terms of general research and science competences, I would say Denmark is doing very well. The infrastructure that we have available where I work here at KU is great compared to where I worked before. The building where I work is brand new and we have state-of-the-art equipment. More widely, the international reputation of Copenhagen University is very good, which was definitely an important factor in our decision to relocate in the first place. Knowing that you are going to be working at one of the leading universities in Europe in terms of research is obviously appealing. In your opinion, how can Denmark improve it’s competences and capabilities within science and research? I think Denmark is in a pretty good position, to be honest. One of the big attractions, compared to Australia, and particularly for my wife coming here, was the diversity of funding possibilities that are available. In Australia, there are two main funding bodies, and a few charities which are very targeted. In Denmark, we
have the Danish government funding, the EU funding, charity funding and on top of that, all the research and company foundations. So, I feel there’s a lot more diversity of funding available in Denmark. I’m not saying it is any easier to get hold of, but there are certainly more opportunities to get funding for your research. I think that’s a real positive. Where I am working, it’s very international and a lot the staff are recruited from across Europe and the rest of the world. I think that approach is only going to help Denmark stay near the top of research countries. Having an international mindset is definitely going to help Denmark stay in the top countries for research and will help Danish students in their future research careers. It is important to be aware that the research environment is international and not just in Denmark, in my opinion.
Thank you for sharing, David!