SDUx goes live

SDU now presents new opportunities for lifelong learning in SDUx, which brings together the business community and the University in a strengthened collaboration on skills development, innovation and new forms of collaboration.

SDUx is a collaboration between the University of Southern Denmark and DANDY Business Park in Vejle.

The goal is to create flexible learning and skills development for working professionals in binding partnerships with the business community – initially in the Triangle Region, but eventually throughout the Region of Southern Denmark.

- I am incredibly pleased that we’re now going live with SDUx. The great and dedicated effort of many people from SDU and DANDY Business Park is now bearing fruit. It is particularly rewarding that we’re seeing so much interest in the first SDUx courses from the business community, says SDU’s Pro-Rector Helle Waagepetersen and elaborates:

- Ninety people have registered for the first course, which has been developed by a very efficient team of four researchers from across three departments.

Raising the curtain on AI and digitalisation courses

The first steps will be taken when SDUx hosts a fully-booked, one-day interdisciplinary course on AI and digitalisation on 28 February 2024.

The course will provide participants with the latest insights from researchers and concrete tools for seizing the opportunities for digital transformation that artificial intelligence offers.

During the spring of 2024, the popular intro course on AI and digitalisation will return and will be accompanied by five more specialised courses on AI and digitalisation, aimed at the managerial strategic level as well as the more technical operational level.

All of the courses represent multiple disciplines across faculties within the same course. Find out more about SDUx (in danish)

In addition, collaborations are happening across SDU, SDUx and the initiative’s new advisory board to develop formats for the next theme on sustainability and the green transition, so that the topic is designed to both create value for and with the business community and ensure that SDU’s research is disseminated and applied in practice.

- It doesn’t have to end up being a series of courses – it can take many different forms. The same applies to the healthcare sector, where we are also in the process of identifying possible collaborations on skills development, says Helle Waagepetersen.

Strong commitment in SDUx

She also praises SDU’s strong commitment to lifelong learning:

- Developing SDUx activities is a lot of work and demands something special from our researchers, and I know that those involved in the first courses have already spent many hours creating these interdisciplinary programmes, just as many people have been involved in the initial meetings in the other disciplines.

- We are in the process of sketching out a completely new and unique opportunity to communicate research from SDU to society. It makes a lot of sense to think about communicating research and lifelong learning together, and it’s wonderful that so many people have already thrown themselves into the work and want to help create something new in our SDUx exploratorium. A huge thank you to our scientific and administrative colleagues.

Focus on interdisciplinary co-creation

Co-creation and interdisciplinarity are among the core values of SDUx, as it is through dialogue with companies and different academic perspectives at the University that SDUx can truly differentiate itself in the market for skills development and lifelong learning.

- SDUx is not a continuing education bookcase where we passively display our offerings. On the contrary, the new initiative is based on SDU’s researchers activating their knowledge in close collaboration with companies and other disciplines, so that the University and the business community can jointly develop exactly the skills development that is needed in the companies, explains Helle Waagepetersen about the ideas behind SDUx and goes on:

- It is of course a balancing act. As a university, we must respond to the needs of the outside world while maintaining that as a university we are obliged to plant the latest knowledge in the world around us. We expect a lot from bringing researchers and companies together in the same room, so we can help and develop each other on many different levels.

This perspective also means that SDUx activities will take place in different formats, such as courses, talks and customised courses that are developed for and adapted to individual companies.

Organisation of SDUx

SDUx is organised broadly at SDU. Pro-Rector Helle Waagepetersen heads the initiative, and in DANDY Business Park, Henrik Brændstrup and Pia Ellen Kjær from SDU RIO are busy building bridges between companies and other collaboration partners in the Triangle Region and the relevant academic environments at SDU.

Each faculty also has an SDUx contact person. They are:

HUM: Caroline Zoffmann, Project Manager
NAT: Luís Cruz-Filipe, Associate Professor
TEK: Susanne Kjelstrup, Head of Section
SUND: Per Æbelø, Head of Division
SAMF: Britta Worm, Head of Section

In addition, SDUx constituted its advisory board in November 2023. See more about the members below.