In conjunction with the annual celebration on 11 September 2009, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Helge Sander presented Aarhus University with the award for Entrepreneur University of the Year.Among the grounds for making this award, the minister said:

“Entrepreneurs help to create change via new knowledge, new products and new technology, and by way of encouragement, we elect the Entrepreneur University of the Year.

The universities are a very important part of the solution to the many major financial challenges faced by society.It’s therefore important that we also get the best out of the universities, and that the research results are commercialised.And I’d like to emphasise that it’s the research results, and not the research itself, that must be commercialised.

Since 2003, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has assessed entrepreneurship at the universities, and this year, we looked at both the strategic and the specific initiatives.I’m pleased that all the universities take entrepreneurship seriously and that students nowadays have even better opportunities for taking courses in this subject.

The fact that I’m standing here is because Aarhus University is the one that has been most successful – at both the strategic and the specific levels.By setting up the Aarhus Entrepreneurship Centre, you have drawn attention to opportunities for entrepreneurs. At the same time, Aarhus University offers entrepreneurship courses for more students than any other university in Denmark – in fact, the numbers doubled from 2007 to 2008. It therefore gives me great pleasure to be able to present Aarhus University with the entrepreneurship award for 2009.”

Read also media release from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (in Danish only)

More information

Anders Correll, Head of Press Affairs for the Vice-Chancellor’s Office, +45 2899 2235

17 September 2009

Rasmus Stensgaard
Communication Office
rst@adm.au.dk