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Denmark's great ambitions for drone technology

Minister for Higher Education and Science Søren Pind to provide DKK 27.5 million for new drone technology research. The investment will advance Denmark even further in the field of strong drone nations and is aimed at the development of drone technology within a number of branches.

Danish businesses, public authorities and researchers are already enjoying the benefits of drone technology. Drones can efficiently handle more and more tasks that could be complicated, dangerous or monotonous the carry out manually. For example, the inspection of power lines and roads, searching for missing persons, or helping to quickly gain an overview of large fires or flooding. However, there is still a way to go before drone technology's greatest potential can be unlocked.

Therefore, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science is allocating DKK 27.5 million to the development of new drone technology. The investment will benefit Danish sectors such as agriculture, building and energy among others.

Minister for Higher Education and Science Søren Pind sees great potential in drones and hopes that Danish researchers and businesses can boost drone technology to a new level with this new investment.

- Drones are the future. It is a technology that we are already seeing the benefit of, but it has so much more potential. Drones help us to better solve challenges and do so more safely, but they can also be a breeding ground for increased productivity and new jobs. I believe therefore, that this is an area we should prioritise politically. We began with our drone strategy last year and now again with new funding for the area, says Minister for Higher Education and Science Søren Pind.

The investment is one of 23 initiatives from Denmark's first drone strategy, which was launched by the Government in September 2016.

The new drone investment will be used for a number of projects in 2017 and 2018.

Allocation of funding

  • DKK 11.5 million to the GTS (Advanced Technology Group) institutes – FORCE Technology and the Alexandra Institute. Project title: Drones on new mission. Particularly applicable to the shipping and energy sectors.
  • DKK 7 million to the GTS institute Danish Technological Institute. Project title: Drones from development to implementation. Particularly applicable to the agriculture and building/infrastructure sectors.
  • DKK 3 million to the GTS institute Danish Institute of Fundamental Metrology. Project title: Drone metrology. Particularly applicable to operators in on- and off-short surveying and inspections.
  • DKK 6 million to Robocluster and InnoPro from Innovation Network Denmark for a joint project to disseminate drone technology knowledge to Danish businesses.

About the GTS institutes and Innovation Network Denmark

The GTS institutes are independent non-profit institutions aimed at building technological competences and services and making them commercially available to the Danish business community. The GTS institutes are approved by the Minister for Higher Education and Science.

Innovation Network Denmark gather researchers, businesses, and public authorities to create innovation and growth. The Ministry of Higher Education and Science supports 22 national innovation networks within areas where Denmark has particular positions of strength, such as production, IT, energy, environment, transport, lifestyle, health, and food.

For further information please contact:

Press secretary Jakob Sejr Teichert: tel.: +45 7231 9503 or email jte@ufm.dk