Innovation becomes core task at Aarhus University: “We must create more companies based on the latest knowledge”

Innovation and entrepreneurship are now moving into the engine room at Aarhus University. This week, the university inaugurates a new innovation house in the University City, bringing almost 70 employees together under one roof. The move marks that innovation is no longer a separate focus area, but a core task for the university.

The new building will be called Kitchen, Aarhus University and will embrace all academic environments across the university. It will bring more knowledge into play, stronger collaborations and a leading position in Europe within entrepreneurship and knowledge-based innovation.

From scattered initiatives to shared powerhouse

The new space is established in the building that previously housed the boiler house and laundry at the old municipal hospital. As the university moves further into 2026, innovation will become more visible and unified, both physically and organizationally.

The set-up means that researchers and students can now receive more coherent and comprehensive support to turn ideas into businesses, patents and solutions to society’s major challenges.

“Kitchen will be a beacon for innovation and entrepreneurship at Aarhus University. But the most important thing is not actually the activities that will take place in the new building. The most important thing is to contribute to the positive development of all the academic environments at the university, because only by using our full size and breadth can we succeed in our ambition: To become one of the leading cross-disciplinary universities in Europe within collaboration and entrepreneurship,” says Lone Ryg Olsen, Business Director at Aarhus University.

The Kitchen innovation hub was established in 2020 in the former central kitchen of the municipal hospital that inspired the name. Since then, the hub has helped more than 1,200 researchers and students develop companies or patents, and the entrepreneurs have raised over DKK 350 million in external funding.

To be measured by growth and jobs

For the past six years, Lone Ryg Olsen has led the university’s innovation efforts, which initially focused on highlighting the university’s commercial and societal potential both internally and externally.

According to her, the timing is no coincidence. Europe’s competitiveness is under pressure and there is an increased political focus on investing more in companies based on new knowledge. In Denmark, this has led to a new research agreement with more funds earmarked for innovation and the establishment of a national task force, which has just submitted 13 recommendations to the government for a better framework for universities. Lone Ryg Olsen has been part of the work herself.

“Of course, the whole exercise must result in us creating more businesses based on the latest knowledge at the university. So we must be measured on whether we deliver growth, jobs and solutions for the benefit of the welfare society and the business community. This requires us to bring more breadth into play at the university,” she says.

At the same time, she emphasizes that the university is part of a broader ecosystem of investors, companies and partners. This is also reflected physically when the newly established Partnerhuset becomes the closest neighbor to Kitchen and allows external players to locate close to the entrepreneurial university environment.