27 February 2023
In DIREC, we have accelerated with new projects and activities in 2022 to ensure that Denmark is at the forefront of digital research and innovation.
Read the report (in Danish)
22 DECEMBER 2022
Christmas is coming after an extraordinary and eventful year. The digital agenda is busy and, in DIREC we have been fully engaged with placing Denmark at the forefront of digital research and innovation. We would like to thank you for a great year with many fruitful collaborations and projects.
15 DECEMBER 2022
Denmark has formed a new coalition government and an ambitious government framework listing a large number of proposals for reforms that must meet the major societal challenges we are facing.
We wish the 23 new ministers all the best in their new jobs and we are delighted to have a minister for digitalisation, as there will plenty to deal with during the first 100 days – and the next four years with a world in great change.
Pboto: Steen Brogaard
24 november 2022
Universities will upskill Danish high school teachers with the latest IT knowledge and inspiration for teaching. Dedicated teachers are important inspiration for young people when choosing their course of study.
27 OCTOBER 2022
In Denmark we have a shortage of medical specialists and nurses. In 2025, according to the Danish Nurses’ Organization, there will be a shortage of at least 6,000 nurses, and the lack of medical specialists is also a huge problem for a hospital sector under a historically high pressure.
1 NOVEMBER 2022
This autumn’s last big tech event has completed with great success. Thank you for two exciting days at the Digital Tech Summit 2022 in Bella Center Copenhagen.
Photo: Mikal Schlosser
This year’s theme was Building European Tech Resilience. In a time of war, geopolitical uncertainty, pandemics and vulnerable supply chains, it is important to focus on how the technological development is dealt with. Digital Tech Summit is an obvious occasion to discuss the foundation of the digital technologies that must contribute to solve the challenges.
We thank you for the many exciting presentations that focused on different perspectives of this year’s theme, and for meetings with researchers, students, startups, companies, NGOs, who believe that digital development is a prerequisite for solving some of society’s most urgent issues – from climate change to democratic challenges.
Together with the Pioneer Centre for AI, CBS, DTU and Danish Life Cycle Cluster, we focused on the development of digital technologies for the healthcare sector, which is dominated by a record high labour shortage. On the main stage, we assembled a strong panel for a discussion of how to navigate the challenges of implementing groundbreaking AI in the healthcare sector.
At our stand right in the middle of our eight university partners, we had visits from researchers, students, startups and established companies who wanted to know more about DIREC’s work in strengthening digital research across the universities and the business community – the private and the public sectors.
Finally, we focused on exciting DIREC projects within hybrid work, digital technologies for urban water management, Greentech and smart cities and the role of robotics, drones and AI in sustainable farming.
Special thanks to our contributing business partners and researchers involved in the DIREC projects.
We look forward to spreading much more exciting news about all the exciting research that is contributing to change the world for the better.
World-class research with a solid Danish footprint – with the aim of making a crucial difference for companies and society.
27 OCTOBER 2022
Denmark’s talented researchers must become better at collaborating across universities and industry. Only then do we stand a chance against the big foreign knowledge institutions.
17 OCTOBER 2022
There is an increasing demand in Denmark for new and more advanced healthcare services. In the coming years, there will be more elderly people with treatment needs and a decreasing youth population to take care of the elderly. The challenges call for us to think differently, so that we can jointly develop a well-functioning healthcare system that can provide the best treatment methods.
The use of artificial intelligence is an important part of the solution when resources need to be optimized and we need to think differently. But is our healthcare system ready to implement the new solutions, and what challenges will arise in the meeting between digital research and everyday life in a busy hospital?
“Artificial intelligence and machine learning can improve the ways we prevent and diagnose diseases, optimize treatments, increase quality and reduce errors. A huge number of technological innovations are emerging right now, many of which are promising research-based AI solutions, and yet it is a challenge to get them tested and implemented in the healthcare sector, says Thomas Riisgaard Hansen, director of Digital Research Centre Denmark (DIREC).
What is holding the development back and what are the actual challenges? Is it that technology is getting closer, but still too limited and full of errors to create actual value in the healthcare sector? Is it that data and legislation complicate the development of algorithms? Is it that the healthcare system has problems incorporating new technology and changing work processes? Is it a lack of resources and money? Or does the problem lie elsewhere? This hot topic was discussed in the session ‘How to navigate the challenges of implementing groundbreaking AI in the healthcare sector’ at this year’s Digital Tech Summit.
“It is a major task to use the technological opportunities in the healthcare system and it also requires us not to be deceived by dazzling promises about what the technology can do but, instead, we must work purposefully to exploit the actual opportunities and to remove or reduce the barriers that interfere,” says Thomas Riisgaard Hansen, who has worked with health innovation for 20 years and moderated the panel discussion.
He was accompanied by technology companies, researchers, innovators, and health professionals, who gave their own take on how we can jointly support the development and implementation of new solutions that will benefit patients and staff.
The session presented three concrete cases about implementation of AI in the Danish healthcare system:
Getting Access to Health Data and Ways to Leverage it in the Health Sector
Henrik Løvig, Enversion & Gitte Kjeldsen, Danish Life Science Cluster
Getting AI innovations implemented internationally
Mads Jarner Brevadt, Co-founder & CEO, Radiobotics & Janus Uhd Nybing, Ledende Forskningsradiograf, Bispebjerg og Frederiksberg Hospital samt Medstifter, Radiologisk AI Testcenter RAIT
Getting Research Implemented in the Daily Practices in a Hospital Setting
Mads Nielsen, Professor, KU andIlse Vejborg, Head of Department, Rigshospitalet
Each case is based on experiences with the implementation of artificial intelligence in the healthcare system and highlighted the challenges and best practices that have been identified from the perspective of the technology developers and not least of the healthcare professionals.
The session was organized by DIREC, Pioneer Centre for AI, CBS, DTU, and Danish Life Science Cluster.
4 OCTOBER 2022
A huge thanks to all those who participated and helped make the DIREC Seminar 2022 a success.
The DIREC team had aimed to put together a programme that we hope accommodated everyone’s interests.
From keynote speeches by Robert Wille on Quantum Computing, by Marieke Huisman on the importance of software research and by Volker Markl on big data database system and information management, a one-minute madness session where young researchers had one minute each to present their projects, and an insight into the collaboration between The Concordium Blockchain Research Center Aarhus (COBRA) and Concordium to the workshops focusing on all the DIREC projects and important digital technologies, challenges and professional dilemmas of the time.
The photos show some of the seminar highlights:
This year’s seminar was opened by keynote speakers professor Marieke Huisman from the University of Twente and Dr. Volker Markl from TU Berlin.
The atmosphere was good at Hotel Helnan Marselis where this year’s DIREC seminar took place.
Workshops on current technology topics and Monday’s ‘one-minute madness’ session where young researchers had one minute each to present their DIREC research projects.
Tech superstars shared career advice
The seminar ended in style as the three Danish tech superstars Lars Bak, Steffen Grarup and Kresten Krab Thorup went on stage for a live interview moderated by Ole Lehrmann Madsen.
What does it take to create global mega successes like Uber and Humio, was one of the questions they were asked. They were happy to share career advice and tips and tricks on how to succeed in transforming a small start-up into a successful business with divisions all over the world.
Thank you Bak, Grarup, Thorup and the rest of the keynotes.
We hope you got a lot of inspiration from this year’s seminar.
We are always working on creating new projects. If you are a researcher working within cyber security, the green transition or quantum technology, please reach out to us.
Next year, we will return even stronger when we join forces with DDSA – The Danish Data Science Academy and Pioneer Centre for AI to strengthen knowledge-sharing and collaboration across sectors and sub-fields when we host a joint national conference.
Hotel Marselis was the beautiful backdrop of this year’s DIREC seminar. Many used the breaks to go for ‘netwalking’ in the Marselisborg Forests or along the coast to discuss the themes of the seminar.
13 JULY 2022
The aim of DIREC is to expand the capacity within research, innovation and education in digital technologies in Denmark. In addition, DIREC shall contribute to the competitiveness of Denmark through collaboration with Danish businesses and the public sector on developing new innovative products and services based on the newest digital technologies.
DIREC is partially funded by Innovation Fund Denmark.
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