Marc Lemaître, Director-General in the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, visited Copenhagen for high-level discussions on the main research and innovation issues and opportunities in Denmark, in the context of the Enhanced Dialogue with Member States.
The discussions, which took place on 30 and 31 January, covered a wide range of issues including Denmark’s good R&I performance, future EU support for R&I as well as developments in support for competitiveness, the European Research Area, the Danish Life Sciences Strategy in an EU context and collaboration on R&I between the public and private sectors, including the Danish research foundations. The participants agreed to continue the dialogue and to deepen the discussions at operational level.
The visit was hosted by Nils Agerhus, Director-General in the Ministry for Higher Education and Science and Annemarie Falktoft, Deputy Director-General in the Agency for Higher Education and Science. Anders Thusgaard, Director-General in the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs and Dorthe Bech Vizard, Director-General in the Ministry of the Interior and Health, also participated.
Marc Lemaître was accompanied by Montserrat Badia Serrano, Magda De Carli, Sophie de Vinck, Ciaran Dearle, Mariano Menna, Jekaterina Novikova, Beñat Bilbao Osorio, and Joachim Wiemann from the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation.
To reflect the cross-cutting nature of the Enhanced Dialogue, many Danish government agencies were present including the Ministry for Higher Education and Science, the Agency for Higher Education and Science, the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior and Health. The Danish universities were also involved.
During his visit, Marc Lemaître met with Christina Egelund, Minister for Higher Education and Science, accompanied by Nils Agerhus, and with the Danish research foundations, represented by Mikkel Skovborg, Senior Vice President for Innovation in the Novo Nordisk Foundation and Lars Bo Nielsen, Executive Director, accompanied by Thomas Bjørnholm, Chief Scientific Officer, in the Villum Foundation.
Marc Lemaître attended a dinner hosted by Nils Agerhus, where he interacted with stakeholders from the Danish universities at rector and vice-rector level. He also visited Copenhagen University.
Background
Enhanced dialogues with EU countries are a new, bottom-up channel of cooperation with the European Commission. These dialogues aim at creating a country-tailored approach to foster Research and Innovation in the participating EU country. They are organised on a voluntary basis and built around topics matching the interests of the country.
Denmark is the 14th country having an enhanced dialogue with DG research & Innovation.
More information
Details
- Publication date
- 5 February 2025
- Author
- Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
- Location
- Copenhagen