University of Southern Denmark will be heading a large-scale national research venture into welfare technology; with a budget of almost 190 million Danish kroner.
University of Southern Denmark (SDU) will head a large-scale venture into welfare technology. The research activities, which are targeted at hospitals and elder care, involve several international partners, other Danish research institutions and twenty-nine companies.
The university has just learned that the Board of the Danish Council for Strategic Research and the Danish Council for Technology and Innovation have decided to support this initiative with 70 million Danish kroner. Thus, with a budget of almost 190 million Danish kroner the consortium has become a reality.
- This is one of the largest research appropriations in the history of SDU, so naturally we are very proud. For several years we have strengthened research and education in welfare technology and we are ready to solve this new national task together with partners at home and abroad, says Vice-Chancellor Jens Oddershede.
- Several countries face great challenges because their populations become older and more care-dependent. The demand for innovative solutions in the care sector is ever increasing and since Denmark already has a reputation of being innovative in elder care this new research consortium can help pave the way for new export opportunities for Danish companies, he says.
Better welfare services and high-tech profit
As many as six SDU institutes are part of this new six-year project called ‘Patient@home’.
- This is an opportunity to join our research environments in a project with a common goal and create solutions across traditional research areas. We will consider how to optimise courses of treatment and connect treatment with monitoring, care and rehabilitation. This is an obvious approach in connection with the new ‘super hospitals’, which will be built in the near future, but hopefully we can also help create a new success story like the ‘wind turbine adventure’ , which will generate high-tech profit for Denmark, says Professor Uffe Kock Wiil from the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute.
He will be head of the new national consortium with members such as Nilfisk-Advance A/S, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of industrial cleaning machines; the IT concern Logica; and a number of small and medium size companies. A total of twenty-nine companies are part of ‘Patient@home’, which is called a strategic research and innovation platform.
The companies contribute with 78 million Danish kroner; the Region of Southern Denmark with 18.7 million; and other innovation and research partners, incl. SDU, contribute with a total of 22 million Danish kroner.
Twenty-two researchers (PhD students and postdoctoral employees) will be employed on the project and almost half of them will be employed at SDU. The rest will be employed at other research institutions such as Osaka University, which is renowned for its robotic technology, and the University of Arizona, renowned for its knowledge of advanced data processing.
For further comments and information:
Vice-Chancellor Jens Oddershede, +45 6550 1030 or +45 4040 1097
Professor Uffe Kock Wiil, +45 6011 3565
02.12.2011
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