One of the University’s core tasks is to conduct research. In the future, it will also be a core task for all universities to bring research to life as commercial solutions in new start-ups or in collaboration with established businesses.
This is according to the recommendations released today by the Danish government’s task force for strengthened knowledge and technology transfer.
“It’s both positive and necessary to have a national framework for innovation that future-proofs the task for all universities. At DTU, we take pride in having prioritized innovation over the past many years, so that we now have an internationally recognized innovation ecosystem. We look forward to continuing this work within the new framework,” says DTU President Anders Bjarklev.
He highlights three main pillars in the task force’s recommendations that will contribute to more university-generated start-ups:
- Strengthening legislation to commit Danish universities to promote and reward research-based innovation.
- Developing transparent and uniform contractual frameworks with favourable commercial terms for start-ups that want to commercialize their inventions.
- Clear frameworks for support and rental of premises for start-ups at universities.
“Clear frameworks and conditions make it attractive to think of new knowledge in a commercial context. This is an important step in creating an innovative culture at all universities in Denmark,” says Anders Bjarklev.
Scaling is the next step
Over the past 13 years, DTU has built up an internationally recognized innovation ecosystem. As a result, in 2024 DTU was in the top three for patent applications in Denmark, DTU-based start-ups attracted 21 per cent of total venture capital invested in Denmark that year, and 120 start-ups emerged from DTU.
Anders Bjarklev sees DTU’s many years of work reflected in the task force recommendations.
“We’re realizing what DTU has been a frontrunner in for years; that we can support entrepreneurial students and researchers on the long development journey of getting technology from the lab to the market,” he says.
He also thinks it’s important that we in Denmark think big from the outset. According to Anders Bjarklev, start-ups with great potential should also be helped to grow in a European context.
“Universities must contribute to strengthening Europe’s competitiveness, and this requires that they handle the growth-related part of the innovation value chain. That’s why focusing on scaling will be an important next step,” he says.
At DTU, this next step has already been taken with the DTU Skyfactory scaling hub, where DTU-based start-ups will be part of a 3-5-year growth programme. The goal is to go from start-up to scale-up with international impact.
