Mikkel Sørensen Head of DTU Skylab

New head of DTU Skylab

Entrepreneurship Innovation and product development
Mikkel Sørensen has been appointed head of DTU’s new centre, DTU Skylab, where the University brings together activities and support functions for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Mikkel Sørensen becomes the first head of DTU Skylab—an innovation hub he has led for a number of years. DTU Skylab moved into new, expanded premises in 2020, and gained centre status in February 2021. Now DTU is bringing together all support functions for innovation and entrepreneurship in the new centre. 

“We’re pleased that Mikkel Sørensen will continue to lead DTU’s innovation hub—now in the role of head. It’s essential for DTU as an elite technical university that all our students and researchers contribute to developing new solutions and technologies that can contribute to the sustainable development of society. Denmark urgently needs new businesses. And we’re proud that many of them start as spin-outs from DTU’s departments or as innovative and creative solutions in DTU Skylab,” says DTU President Anders Bjarklev.

With its new status as a centre, DTU Skylab will create a team of innovation partners with direct contact with DTU’s departments, and the support functions, such as mentoring, start-up support and enablement programmes, will continue to be based in DTU Skylab.

Innovation hub is the users’ place

Mikkel Sørensen has been involved with DTU Skylab since 2013, when the innovation hub was established in a converted workshop hall at DTU as the first of its kind in Denmark. From day one, the students moved into the rooms and workshops and met in large numbers for courses and hackathons. And throughout the years, Mikkel Sørensen has maintained that DTU’s innovation hub is the users’ place and that they should help define the content and push the boundaries of what an innovation hub should contain.

Mikkel Sørensen holds an executive MBA from DTU and a master’s degree in Modern Culture from the University of Copenhagen. He was originally trained as a guitarist at the Danish Rhythmic Music Academy.  Prior to joining DTU in 2013, Mikkel Sørensen was the regional and then national head of Venture Cup, the Danish universities’ joint platform for entrepreneurship. 

International partners

One of his tasks at the new centre will be to continue the development of DTU Skylab as a leading environment for technology-based innovation with a strong representation of international partners. Among other things, DTU Skylab focuses on the Eurotech alliance and Scale-up Champions with a number of European players. In addition, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are key elements in all projects undertaken at the centre.