Danish Researchers Get their Chance at the World's Best Universities
This golden opportunity is a result of the Science Ministry's strategic partnerships with the centres H-STAR at Stanford University and CITRIS at UC Berkeley in California, USA.
H-STAR is an interdisciplinary research centre focusing on subjects such as IT, design and user-driven innovation, while CITRIS is focusing on IT in society and energy/climate research. CITRIS also includes a number of Silicon Valley's largest IT companies, e.g. Hewlett Packard, IBM, SUN and Intel.
Science Minister Charlotte Sahl-Madsen (Conservative) hopes that the many guest researcher visits can open up new collaborations between Denmark and top researchers in California:
– The newest knowledge and best ideas know no national borders. So I hope that many talented Danish researchers will use this springboard for building networks and collaborating with some of the world's best researchers, says the Minister.
Boost to research career
Over the past few years, more than 30 researchers from Danish universities have been on guest researcher visits in California through the Science Ministry's partnerships with Stanford and UC Berkeley.
A recent evaluation of the guest researchers' visits shows that 90 per cent of the researchers indicate that the visit has been of "critical importance to their research careers". One of them, post.doc. Mette Høybye from the University of Copenhagen, says about hear guest visit at Stanford:
– To be able to join in the game at one of the world's best fields has been an unprecedented experience and enrichment to me – it has developed me as a researcher and sharpened my focus. The openness and creativity I have met has challenged and renewed my understanding of networks and the value of thinking in interdisciplinary terms in research.
The deadline for applications is 15 November 2010. Announcements can be found on the website of the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation, www.fi.dk.
Science Minister Charlotte Sahl-Madsen can be contacted via the Ministry's press officer, Charlotte Holst Hansen, on +45 22 11 02 00 or chhh@vtu.dk .
Lars Beer Nielsen, Research and Technology Attaché, Innovation Center Denmark, Silicon Valley, +1 650 353 8879, lbn@innovationcenterdenmark.com .
Post.doc. Mette Terp Høybye, +1 650 492 0057, hoybye@stanford.edu
Are Straume, Head of Department, +45 35 44 63 10, ars@fi.dk .