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Climate change: We need to act now, and we need help from digital technology

28 March 2023

Climate change: We need to act now, and we need help from digital technology  

A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is full of distressing reading. Digital development must speed up, and researchers can play a leading role in the development of digital solutions to counteract climate change.

Of course, digitisation alone cannot eliminate CO2 emissions, but several reports have concluded that digital technology can make a difference when it comes to climate change. A report from the Royal Society estimates that digital technology can contribute to 1/3 of England’s CO2 reduction target in 2030, and the Boston Consulting Group estimates that digital solutions can reduce companies’ CO2 emissions by 5-10%, which corresponds to a reduction of 2.6 – 5.3 gigatons of CO2 emissions if the solutions are implemented globally.

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DIREC Annual Report 2022

27 February 2023

DIREC Annual Report 2022

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)

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Merry Christmas from DIREC

22 DECEMBER 2022

Merry Christmas from DIREC

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.

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Welcome to the new minister for digitalisation, Marie Bjerre

15 DECEMBER 2022

Welcome to the new minister for digitalisation, Marie Bjerre

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

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High school teachers with a passion for information technology must scale up young people’s digital skills

24 november 2022

High school teachers with a passion for technology must help scale up young people’s digital skills

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.

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Can AI help a health system under pressure?

27 OCTOBER 2022

Can AI help a health system under pressure?

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.

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Digital Tech Summit: An important meeting place for universities and industry

1 NOVEMBER 2022

Digital Tech Summit: An important meeting place for universities and industry

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.

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DIREC only supports researchers who collaborate across universities

27 OCTOBER 2022

DIREC only supports researchers who collaborate across universities

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.

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How do we become better at using artificial intelligence in healthcare?

17 OCTOBER 2022

How do we become better at using artificial intelligence in healthcare?

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. 

 

 

 

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Digital superstars, inspiring workshops and ‘netwalking’ in the Marselisborg Forests

4 OCTOBER 2022

Digital superstars, inspiring workshops and ‘netwalking’ in the Marselisborg Forests

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.