About DIREC

DIREC – Digital Research Centre Denmark is an independent, non-profit organization owned by the eight Danish universities and the Alexandra Institute.

It aims to accelerate digital research and innovation in Denmark, addressing the demand for digital skills and knowledge required by Danish industry, organizations, and society.

As a national research and innovation center for digital technologies, since its establishment in 2020, DIREC has worked to strengthen Denmark’s digital competitiveness. The center’s unique collaboration between all eight Danish universities and the Alexandra Institute promotes world-class Danish research and translates it into value-creating applications of digital technologies for business and the public sector.

DIREC brings digital research environments and Danish companies together in research and innovation projects with great commercial potential and high societal value. Since 2020, DIREC has initiated more than 40 projects with Danish companies, public organizations and the digital research environments.

The latest annual report

Our Objectives

solve the capacity issue within digital research and education across the Danish universities.
support the government’s vision of Denmark as a digital front-runner.
target research and education activities towards societal challenges and value creation for the business and public sectors.
base DIREC on core CS research themes and international strongholds and stimulate emerging research themes for digital technologies.
expand the research and education capacity in Denmark via education and recruitment of researchers at the highest international level.
in cooperation with businesses and the public sector transform research into digital solutions and long-term digital transformation.

Thomas Riisgaard Hansen
Direktør i DIREC

Close integration of digital technology research and societal challenges

Digital solutions are part of the answer to some of today’s most critical societal challenges. The DIREC projects broadly address four societal impact areas and connect the latest research with expert knowledge:

Facts

DIREC was etablished in 2020 with a total budget of 275 mio. DKK for a 5-year period.
The centre is supported by the Innovation Fund Denmark with 100 mio. DKK.
Research in DIREC spans ten research areas in advanced digital technology.
40+ research and innovation projects have been initiated.
55+ private companies and public organizations are involved in the projects.
DIREC Annual Report 2021 (in Danish)
DIREC Annual Report 2022 (in Danish)

Organization

DIREC is a unique collaboration between eight Danish universities: DTU, Roskilde University, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Business School, IT University of Copenhagen, University of Southern Denmark, Aarhus University, Aalborg University, and the Alexandra Institute supported by the Innovation Fund Denmark.