Innovation corps will bridge the gap between research and industry

The IT University of Copenhagen is among four Danish universities to receive funding from The Danish Industry Foundation for transferring research-based knowledge, inventions and patents to the industry. ITU receives DKK 5 million to establish an innovation corps focusing on big data, fintech and artificial intelligence, among other areas.

About ITUCollaborationsgrantsGeorg Dam ChristensenJens Christian GodskesenEntrepreneurship

Written April 6, 2017 9:16 AM by Vibeke Arildsen

Danish research is among the best in the world, and this could benefit Danish enterprises to a much higher degree than it does today. To boost the transfer of knowledge, the Danish Industry Foundation is investing DKK 35 million in the new national initiative ‘Open Entrepreneurship’ with participation from Danish universities, including ITU.

Like the other participating universities, ITU will establish a new unit staffed by people with both market knowledge and a professional understanding of the university’s research areas. The unit will complement ITU Business Development, which supports entrepreneurship among ITU researchers and students.

University Director Georg Dam Steffensen welcomes the new initiative.

"We are pleased and proud to be one of the four universities selected for this collaboration. At ITU, we are already very good at entrepreneurship. Many researchers and students start their own businesses and many are already working with the industry, so we have a good foundation that we can now develop even further with support from the Danish Industry Foundation," he says.

Focus on big data and fintech
The ITU innovation corps will begin work after the summer break with its two employees serving as a link between companies and researchers working within areas with high market potential.

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Big data is interesting in this context because it embraces both computer science and a social science approach. Companies must learn to understand how they can improve their business by taking advantage of big data.

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According to Pro-Rector Jens Christian Godskesen, ITU is currently leading within areas like big data, fintech, artificial intelligence, databases and software.

"Big data is interesting in this context because it embraces both computer science and a social science approach. Companies must learn to understand how they can improve their business by taking advantage of big data," he says.

Other research areas may also prove to be relevant once the project is underway, Jens Christan Godskesen emphasizes.

Universities can learn from each other
In addition to ITU, the Technical University of Denmark, Aalborg University and Aarhus University are partaking in the project, and the four universities will stay in close cooperation throughout its four-year run. By working together and learning from each other, universities are likely to achieve better results, says Mads Lebech, CEO of the Danish Industry Foundation.

"Today, the exchange of experiences taking place across research institutions is very limited. We want to change that in order to make best practices available in several places and help to increase the number of new businesses and products that come out of the research produced at the universities,” he says.

In total, the Danish Industry Foundation is supporting ‘Open Entrepreneurship’ with DKK 35 million, out of which ITU receives around DKK 5 million.

Further information

Georg Dam Steffensen, University Director, phone +45 7218 5193, email georgds@itu.dk

Vibeke Arildsen, Press Officer, phone 2555 0447, email viar@itu.dk