InnoCollab takes on innovation projects after Open Entrepreneurship
Since 2017, Peter Ibsen and Nikolaj Oppermann have built a bridge between ITU's researchers and the business world via the Open Entrepreneurship programme. The project, which was completed at the turn of the year, has been such a success that the IT University has launched an innovation unit, InnoCollab, to continue the work.
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Written 5 March, 2024 09:33 by Theis Duelund Jensen
When the Open Entrepreneurship programme, which was to build a bridge between the world of research and the business world with DKK 35 million from the Swedish Industry Foundation, was set up in 2017, the project was scheduled to run for four years. It was then extended to 2023, and now the project's success has spawned a brand-new innovation initiative at IT University, which will further develop the bridge-building efforts that Open Entrepreneurship started.
"The innovation projects create value for the private sector as well as the research environments, and therefore we are happy that the work can be continued under ITU auspices. The new InnoCollab unit at ITU will continue to bridge the gap between researchers and business, and I have no doubt that we will see more exciting innovation projects in the future," says ITU rector, Per Bruun Brockhoff.
Peter Ibsen and Nikolaj Oppermann, who are formally associated with ITU's Management Secretariat, will continue to lead the work of spreading knowledge of the opportunities that private sector actors can offer researchers at ITU, and the innovation that researchers can help drive in companies.
"We are happy to continue the work we started with Open Entrepreneurship," says Peter Ibsen. "Over the years, we have supported several different types of collaboration at ITU, and we have built on what was at the core of the Open Entrepreneurship idea. We have, among other things, worked with research entrepreneurship, student entrepreneurship, innovation projects with the national clusters and helped researchers at ITU find funding for innovation and connect with external partners. We will continue these efforts InnoCollab. The only difference is that we are now an established ITU unit.”
READ MORE: Innovation projects apply knowledge in practice – and presents new perspectives on research
Over the past seven years, Peter Ibsen and Nikolaj Oppermann have facilitated a good handful of innovation projects between ITU researchers and companies. Both emphasise that the idea behind Open Entrepreneurship (and now InnoCollab) has never been to hitch research to the wagon of business. On the contrary, innovation projects are a way to explore parts of a research project together with a business partner, where the goal is mutual benefit.
"We find that the bridge building we have helped with is greatly appreciated. The researchers know who we are and what we can help with," says Nikolaj Oppermann. "Younger researchers and foreign researchers may also have very limited networks in Denmark. There we can help them bond and create contacts. It is becoming more and more important in relation to e.g. research applications, because there are more requirements for external partners to participate in the projects, and because many foundations require perspectives for practical application in research.”
In addition to education and research, the universities' political remit also consists of a third mission: The insight generated in research environments must go on to create value in society, and there are many good reasons to start an innovation collaboration with a company.
"For the researcher, an innovation project is, among other things, an opportunity to, through collaboration, map issues that research can contribute knowledge to solve. They typically come with funding for further research, where the innovation project becomes a kind of preliminary project that can be taken up in a larger framework in the long term. At the same time, as a researcher, you get unique access to new databases and new knowledge based on practice. And it is our experience that the projects we have facilitated so far have created value, both for the companies and for the researchers," says Peter Ibsen.
You can find more information about InnoCollab by contacting Peter Ibsen (peib@itu.dk) and Nikolaj Oppermann (nopp@itu.dk)