Blue Entrepreneurship with Open Entrepreneurship

As one of the world’s leading maritime nations, Denmark has the potential to make a difference in the maritime sector by developing and implementing new technology. This potential is recognized in the Climate Partnership for the Blue Denmark, where Danish maritime stakeholders propose, among other things, a global research fund financed by shipping, aiming to generate $5 billion over a 10-year period for research and development to address these challenges.

This project builds on approaches and tools from Open Entrepreneurship – a collaboration across all Danish universities that creates startups based on research and new technology. These tools can contribute to addressing challenges in the maritime sector by establishing more knowledge-intensive startups and increasing innovation in the sector based on existing research and technology that is not currently utilized in the maritime domain.

Specifically, Open Entrepreneurship works by forming teams that include representatives from the business sector, such as serial entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, investors (e-corps), and researchers from universities. These teams are facilitated by a Business Unit Manager from Open Entrepreneurship, who assists the team in maturing research with the common goal of developing viable startups, including navigating the many opportunities within the innovation system.

While Open Entrepreneurship has primarily worked across all universities, this project’s focus will be to delve into the maritime domain with the possibility of optimal adaptation of approach, tools, etc. The project will, however, be part of knowledge-sharing and collaboration across universities and existing efforts to leverage research.

The project consists of three phases, with the first phase focusing on establishing a baseline, the second phase on conducting a pilot at DTU, and the third phase on scaling the project. Additionally, a learning evaluation is prioritized, along with creating synergy and collaboration with relevant initiatives such as DTU Skylab, X-Tech, Digital Tech Summit, etc.

The first two phases are scheduled for 2024, where the expected results include the identification of 10 active research-based cases, onboarding 30 new members with maritime profiles to the project’s mentor corps (e-corps) and hosting a series of workshops. The plan is then to scale the project for further benefit to the maritime sector’s innovation and the position of Danish maritime companies.