29 June 2020

DIKU strengthens focus on business collaboration

BUSINESS COLLABORATION

DIKU’s research and study programs have already been highly targeted at the business community for several years. The Department is now strengthening its efforts by establishing a new unit for Business and Innovation. The new unit has already introduced its first initiatives.

Scientist and business representative

With the appointment of Anders Pall Skött, the Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen is strengthening its focus on effective matchmaking between the Department's research and the digital solutions that society is looking for.

Anders Pall Skött will be leading the newly established unit Business and Innovation, which houses the Science AI Center and DIKU Business Club.

- At DIKU, we build things that can make a difference for people and create benefits for society. To ensure that our research does the benefit it was created to do, we are now increasing our efforts to create even better collaboration with business, industry, and public institutions, says Mads Nielsen, head of the Department of DIKU.

The increased focus has already led to more business-oriented initiatives. For example, a brand new webinar series has been launched. The virtual presentations are called ' Computer Science Impact for Industry ', and the first webinar was aimed at the healthcare sector (read more about the webinars here). The next event is the 20th of August 2020.

Cooperates broadly in a new cluster 

At the same time, the new Business and Innovation Unit has also been part of the founding forces behind a brand-new cluster community called DigitalLead. The new cluster will be one of several that Anders Pall Skött and his team will be involved in.

Anders Pall Skött
Anders Pall Skött

- It's important for us to create coherence between the university and the business community. That's why we've helped establish this ecosystem that will help bring our research into play in the business community, says Anders Pall Skött.

DigitalLead is the first nationwide cluster organization for digital technologies and is to bring research efforts from all Danish universities together with practitioners from the Danish business community.

-The synergy that arises between the companies and our research, when we work together, is worth a lot of gold both for our research results and for the company's bottom line. That's why we've worked hard to get this new nationwide collaboration up and running. And we are therefore also active in a wide range of other cluster organizations, such as fintech, game technology, and energy.

One of the next steps towards the new unit will be to establish a European Digital Innovation Hub in the capital together with CBS, DTU, and ITU, and several other stakeholders.

- With a European Digital Innovation Hub in the nation's capital, we want to help secure access for researchers and companies to the Eu's billion-kroner Digital Europe program, which is to develop a strong, European digital industry, says Anders Pall Skött.