Professor portrait: Morten Hjelholt wants to understand the digital welfare state
On 5 September 2025 at 15:00, Professor and Head of Research Morten Hjelholt will give his inaugural lecture in Auditorium 02 at the IT University in Copenhagen. The lecture is entitled: “Everywhere and Nowhere: The Digital State and Its Citizens”.
Morten HjelholtProfessor portraitEvents
Written 21 August, 2025 07:16
Professor Morten Hjelholt has worked with the digitalisation of the Danish public sector and the digital citizen for nearly three decades. He began his career at ATP, where he handled citizen inquiries, and later became part of what eventually evolved into the Danish Agency for Digital Government. Initially, he didn’t find IT particularly interesting. It was a technical matter, after all, but he quickly realized that IT and digitalization are just as much about the people who use the technology.
“I became aware that digitalisation is a societal and social project. That’s why it became interesting for me to explore how to demonstrate that everything digital is never just about technology, it’s a blend of society, culture, and social interaction, especially when talking about the major changes that took place in this area during the 1990s. The reflections I had back then led me to begin a PhD and become a researcher,” says Morten Hjelholt, “I began by studying the transformation, the policies, and what it meant for the relationship between the state and the citizen that a large number of people were replaced by digital entry points. But over time, I realized that the most interesting aspect wasn’t all the cases where things worked. It was the proportion of cases that were expected to work but faced challenges. These challenges didn’t just point to the individual; they revealed societal and structural issues.”
Morten Hjelholt’s research largely focuses on the digitalization of the Danish public sector—and on those who are overlooked in the process. He originally earned a degree in Information Science, completed a PhD in Political Science, and worked as a postdoc at CBS, where he taught and conducted research on globalisation and digital payments until he became an assistant professor at ITU in 2013. In that way, he has covered all corners of ITU’s research landscape.
“I’ve always seen ITU’s interdisciplinary approach of combining technical expertise with knowledge of business, society, and people as very similar to my own academic journey through Information Science, Political Science, and Business. At ITU, I’ve had the opportunity to bring together the different parts of my background.”
On 5 September 2025 at 15:00, Morten Hjelholt will give his inaugural lecture at Auditorium 02 the IT University of Copenhagen. The lecture will focus on the digitalisation of the Danish public sector over the past two decades, and what we can learn from it. It is entitled: “Everywhere and Nowhere: The Digital State and Its Citizens”.
Committed to societal engagement
As part of his academic work, Morten Hjelholt has made it a point to speak for and about those who are left behind in the digitalisation process. He has engaged in various initiatives and is currently a member of the Danish Disability Counsil, and he has previously served on the EU’s Digital Inclusion Council.
“As a researcher, I’ve also made a point of participating in public debate. I believe it’s important that research has a place in a society like ours – especially IT research. Research is a dialogue, where the researcher’s task is to construct their arguments in the most solid and well-founded way,” says Morten Hjelholt, “I have written both academic articles, popular science books, and opinion pieces. I find it meaningful to share my knowledge and engage with the society around me.”
When Morten Hjelholt gives his inaugural lecture, he will do so alone, but one of the things he values most in research is actually the sense of community.
“An inaugural lecture is an individual project, but in reality, research is very much a collective endeavour. One of the key reasons I stayed in academia is how social it is. As a researcher, you can do very little without others. We rely on each other to build ideas, thoughts, and perspectives, so even though this professorship is mine, it’s the result of countless conversations with many people.”
Theis Duelund Jensen, Press Officer, phone +45 2555 0447, email thej@itu.dk