Entrepreneurial hub in Aarhus receives the DSEB Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award

This year’s DSEB Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award of DKK 100,000 goes to The Kitchen, an entrepreneurial hub for students and researchers under Aarhus University. Every month, The Kitchen admits around 10 new start-ups with 170 business cases in the incubator.

‘The Kitchen helps students and researchers turn knowledge into entrepreneurship, from business plans to access to investors. I am confident that we can help many budding entrepreneurs, who might otherwise have floundered, to flourish and make a difference in society. This can serve as great inspiration to other educational institutions,’ said Torben Möger Pedersen, chair of the DSEB and CEO of PensionDanmark.

The idea of The Kitchen emerged from the need for a coupling between students, researchers, and the surrounding business community.

Lone Ryg Olsen, director of Business at Aarhus University, considers the DSEB award to be a boost for the entire university sector, which currently emphasizes innovation and collaboration with the business community.

‘Previously, the university’s social contribution mainly consisted of new knowledge and highly qualified labour. Now, engagement with the business community and entrepreneurship plays a central role. Not least because new enterprises are a very effective channel for translating academic knowledge into value for society. The focus area aligns beautifully with the DSEB’s aim of increasing the value in the education and research sectors for Danish enterprises,’ said the director of business.

The funding from the DSEB Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award will be used to spread the message about the value of innovation and entrepreneurship at a university.

The DSEB Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award was awarded on 5 December at the annual dinner of ICC Denmark and the DSEB at the Old Stock Exchange in Copenhagen, where Alan Leventhal, Unites States Ambassador to Denmark, was the evening’s main speaker. The award was presented by Torben Möger Pedersen, chair of the DSEB and CEO of PensionDanmark.