A consortium formed by Research Park Aarhus, Alexandra Institute, Innovation Lab Katrinegbjerg and Copenhagen-based Symbion Science Park will administrate the new incubator, which is backed up by the IT University of Copenhagen and has the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Greater Copenhagen Authority as main sponsors. Microsoft’s Danish director, Jørgen Bardenfleth, will chair the centre’s supervisory board.

The consortium expects that the hothouse will create a dynamic environment able to strengthen entrepreneurship and stimulate the formation of start-ups in Greater Copenhagen and also in the Øresund Region. It is expected that the innovation house will become a vibrant milieu where creative companies, students and researchers can get together, collaborate with each other and test new ideas.

“The IT vækshuset (as it is called in Danish, red) shall become an exciting place to be and develop things in”, says Christina Hvid, appointed to manage the centre. Hvid says that it is imperative to integrate the Swedish dimension in the project. The centre is backed up by Lund’s science park, Ideon, Øresund IT Academy (one of the organisations behind Øresund IT), and Kista Innovation, an innovation support system based in Stockholm.

Besides being an incubator for new IT start-ups, the new institution will embrace a so-called Innovatorium, a kind of lab for entrepreneurs where students and researchers will have an opportunity to test their business concepts and get guidance and sparring partners for a certain period. Start-up companies will also be able to rent office facilities in the centre, which will, in addition, have an area for exhibition of prototypes and new technologies.

The centre’s location, in the Ørestad district and in the same complex building of the recently inaugurated facilities of the IT University of Copenhagen, is decisive for its success. ”I’m convinced that the IT hothouse will reinforce the IT University and also the IT competences in the Ørestad and in the Greater Copenhagen area,” said Helge Sander, Danish Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation.

The Ørestad Nord is a new quarter of Copenhagen, on the island of Amager. The area is emerging as one of the Øresund Region's hotspots for technology and innovation where, besides the IT University, other IT and communication-related organisations like the Danish Broadcast Corporation (DR) are relocating to.

The new centre starts operation in February 2005 already with two occupants: the newly founded Microsoft Development Centre and the organisation Crossroads Copenhagen.

Crossroads Copenhagen is a network of public and private enterprises working to develop Ørestad Nord into an international centre of research and development of culture, media and communications technology. Microsoft Development Centre is a consequence of a collaboration agreement between the IT University of Copenhagen and Microsoft Business Solutions.

Jan 2005