Innovation Award
The University of Copenhagen’s Innovation Award is given to a researcher or a group of researchers at UCPH who has made an outstanding effort to create new knowledge and bring it to use for the benefit of society.
Associate professor Thue W. Schwartz, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, won the Innovation Award 2023 (see video to the right).
Who can be nominated?
The Innovation Award is presented to a researcher or a group of researchers who has made an outstanding effort to create new knowledge and bring it to use for the benefit of society. The award supports the University’s strategic efforts to promote innovation, societal impact and knowledge-based collaboration with the surrounding society.
In addition to the honour, the winner will receive a work of art and DKK 25,000.
Submit your nomination no later than 4 April 2024
The deadline has passed, it is no longer possible to nominate for the award.
What criteria are emphasised?
The UCPH innovation strategy, “Ideas and Solutions for Impact”, defines innovation as “research-based knowledge that is transformed into solutions, methods and processes and creating value for people, society and the environment”. Innovation is understood in a broad sense as value creation that can take place within all subject areas.
In the selection process, emphasis is placed on the researcher’s or research team’s ability to transform their research into specific value creation, e.g. by:
- Creating new research results and working actively to ensure that these results are converted into research-based solutions or technologies and used in collaboration with external partners or by establishing a new company
- Working actively to promote an innovative mindset among lecturers, PhD students and students and thereby being a good ambassador for innovation at UCPH
- Building new, solid relations with external partners, especially within areas of research with no or little tradition for research and development collaboration with industry, public authorities and other organisations.
In the selection process, the evaluation committee place emphasis on the specific impact of the researcher’s or research team’s current or future research activities.
Who nominates candidates and how many can be nominated?
The faculties nominate candidates for the award via the nomination form. The dean officially nominates candidates.
Each faculty can nominate up to five candidates, and the individual faculty decides how to select the candidates.
Who appoints the winner?
The winner is appointed by an assessment committee based on the submitted nominations from the faculties. The assessment committee consists of three internal and four external members:
- David Dreyer Lassen, Prorector for Research and chair of the Innovation Award Committee
- Karen Laigaard, Head of IPR & Legal, Innovation & External Partnerships
- Marius Sylvestersen, Chief Innovation Officer, UCPH Lighthouse
- Jan S. Hesthaven, Professor and Dean at the School of Basic Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, and external member of the UCPH Board
- Paul Van Dun, General Manager, Leuven R&D, KU Leuven, Belgium
- Amanda Zeffmann, Head of Consultancy Services, Cambridge Enterprise, University of Cambridge
- Jes Broeng, Professor and Director of DTU Entrepreneurship
Do you have any questions?
For further information, please contact Karen Laigaard at kala@adm.ku.dk or tel. +45 35 32 70 54.
Previous winners of the Innovation Award
2023: Professor Thue W. Schwartz, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
2022: Associate Professor Brian Lystgaard Due, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities
2021: Professor Kristian Strømgaard, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
2020: Professor Andreas Kjær, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
2019: Gert Martin Hald, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
2018: Ida Theilade, Department of Food and Resource Economics, Faculty of Science
2017: Mette Marie Rosenkilde, Lærke Smidt Gasbjerg, Alexander Hovard Sparre-Ulrich and Jens Juul Holst (JJ Holst group), Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
2016: Bo Wegge Laursen and Thomas Just Sørensen, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science
2015: Ingolf Thuesen, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Faculty of Humanities
2014: Matthew Stanley Johnson, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science
2013: Barbara Ann Halkier, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science
2012: Keld E. Andersen, Jens Christian Sørensen, Hilmer Sørensen, Department of Food Science, Faculty of Science
2011: Kristian Helin, Jesper Christensen, Paul A. C. Closs, BRIC.