13 Oct 2019

During the past two years, ground-breaking research has been converted into promising start-ups by inviting experienced entrepreneurs to be mentors at the labs at the universities.

Open Entrepreneurship – a collaborative initiative established in 2017 by four universities has proven a huge success.

During the past two years, ground-breaking research has been converted into promising start-ups by inviting experienced entrepreneurs to be mentors at the labs at the universities. So far, the project has created 26 new research-based start-ups in Denmark.

A recent evaluation of the project shows that a new prototype for a stronger eco system for entrepreneurship at Danish universities is emerging.

The model has a real potential to lift Denmark from its current medium-position internationally to a country in front within commercialization of research.

Jes Broeng, Program Director, Open Entrepreneurship, says:

“Open Entrepreneurship has shown success in the pilot phase; Demonstrating an efficient way to get research results into start-up opportunities. It’s been a pleasure to see how this has benefited both the individual researchers and the industry in Denmark. We are excited to expand the collaboration across Danish universities together with entrepreneurs from industry”.

The Open Entrepreneurship programme is widely backed-up by researchers and entrepreneurs and is powered by Industriens Fond – recently with DKK 20 mill.

Thomas Hofman-Bang, CEO Industriens Fond, says:

“The Open Entrepreneurship approach has proven to step change the tech trans, thus enabling Danish universities to accelerate the commercialization of their research. This leads to a stronger Denmark: growth, jobs and larger return from the investment put into public research by creating new companies with high growth potential based on new technologies and unique knowledge.”

Read full evaluation report (in Danish) by Iris Group 

Read LinkedIn article (written by Jens Nyholm (IRIS Group), Carolina Velasco (IT University of Copenhagen) & Jes Broeng (Technical University of Denmark)