Grand Opening of DTU Entrepreneurship

“I’m going to say something that I don’t normally say when I wish someone well with a new venture,” said the Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science, Tommy Ahlers, in his speech.

“I hope you make mistakes. I hope you make lots of mistakes every day. But I hope you don’t make the same mistake twice—or more often. I hope you have the courage to test a lot of new ideas, and learn from your mistakes. If you do, the centre will be a success.”

Innovative food was served when around 150 guests from the business sector, the research community, and the University gathered at DTU Skylab to celebrate the opening of the new DTU Entrepreneurship centre on 6 December. 



“DTU Entrepreneurship marks a major expansion of our ecosystem for entrepreneurship and innovation at DTU,” said President Anders Bjaklev in his speech.

“Above all, people will experience world-class research in entrepreneurship. We will work with practice, not theory. Our researchers, postdocs, and PhD students will gain new insights into what works—and why. There will also be many students and lots of teaching, and we will develop the teaching ourselves.”



In his speech, Jes Broeng, Head of DTU Entrepreneurship, said:

“We essentially need to engage the outside world in order to make progress. And that is my main point today. Come and join with us—we have some great technologies and the world’s leading researchers. DTU has an extremely strong brand, and fantastic students with great drive and dedication.”

Tommy Ahlers, Minister for Higher Education and Science, asked about technology, money, and competitors when he briefly played ‘Dragon’s den’ with two DTU entrepreneurs.

Anne Sofie Larsen, who pitched her idea ‘live’ to the Minister, is in the final year of her MSc in Design and Innovation at DTU. She and a student from Copenhagen Business School have jointly founded the NoBriner student start-up, which flowed out of the DTU Hardtech Entrepreneurship course.

The two students are seeking to find a solution that makes desalination an eco-friendly and sustainable process, by converting a waste product into a resource. The aim is to help provide clean drinking water in remote regions and create local jobs.

Jesper Bevensee Jensen, who has a PhD in Optical Communication from DTU Fotonik and is CTO of Bifrost Communications, also pitched his idea to the Minister. The research-based Danish start-up won the Danish Tech Challenge in 2016 for a fibre system that can create faster Internet connections.

The method aims to help increase transmission distance and capacity for fibre optic signals and networks, potentially saving Internet service providers billions around the world.

About DTU Entrepreneurship

DTU Entrepreneurship will strengthen the entrepreneurship culture and the ecosystem for start-ups. The hope is that increased research and educational efforts within entrepreneurship will lead to even more staff and student start-ups in the future.