Digital Research Centre (DIREC)

Abstract:

Executive SummaryDigital technologies are among the strongest drivers for growth and welfare in society and industry.It is therefore critical for Danish industry and the public sector to get access to highly qualified ITspecialists and knowledge. The demand for increased digital research and education cannot beaccomplished without huge societal investments. Therefore, the main objectives of DIREC are to:1. solve the capacity issue within Computer Science (CS) research and education for digitaltechnologies across the Danish Universities;2. support the government’s vision of Denmark as a digital front runner;3. target research and education activitiestowards societal challenges and value creation for bothbusiness and the public sector;4. base DIREC on current core CS research themes and international strongholds and tostimulate emerging research themes for digital technologies;5. expand the research and education capacity in Denmark by means of education andrecruitment of excellent researchers at the highest international level;6. transform research into digital solutions and long-term digital transformations in cooperationwith businesses and the public sector.The vision of DIREC is to be an international flagship centre for computer science. The excellenceof DIREC will be on par with the most renowned CS departments in Europe and US. DIREC aims toaccelerate the production of CS graduates and a substantial increase of tenured CS staff in Denmark.The principles of DIREC are to:1. be open-ended in its formation of projects, research and educational activities, hence, onlypart of funds will be distributed up front;2. be national with respect to the geographic distribution of excellent research and education incomputer science;3. create a close alliance between the strongest CS departments at the universities in Denmarkand maximise the use of the sparse resources;4. gear the IFD funding with substantial funding from the participating universities;5. be based on existing research, education and innovation infrastructure to guarantee maxbusiness and societal impact of the research;6. increase societal im