Minister for Higher Education and Science Christina Egelund's speech at Bio Inspire & Green Leap Challenge Awards 2025, December 10, 2025.
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Thank you to Dansk Erhverv for inviting me today. And for bringing so many entrepreneurs, researchers and businesses committed to the green transition together.
I spend a lot of my time talking about change. That comes with the territory of being in politics. And I go to a lot of events and meetings where we discuss change and work on how we can facilitate different types of change.
So, it is a true pleasure to be at an event today with so many people who actively work every day to create change – through innovation, through entrepreneurship and through start-ups.
When it comes down to it innovation is about pushing boundaries. Not accepting the world as it is, but imagine what it could be. Entrepreneurs take risks that established actors often cannot or will not. They ask questions that challenge us. And they turn new knowledge into real-world impact faster than any other part of the innovation system.
In the green and bio-based sectors, this matters enormously.
The challenges we face – climate change, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity, food insecurity – cannot be solved with the tools we have now.
We need new technologies, new business models, new ways of producing food, materials, enzymes, ingredients and energy.
And again and again, we see that breakthroughs in this area begin in labs, in basements and in early-stage ventures driven by passion rather than structure.
That is why Denmark needs entrepreneurs.
They make space for the bold, the uncomfortable, the untested. The ideas that might just change everything.
Today, Europe is in a global race for technology, for talent, for green markets, for intellectual property, for investment and for industrial leadership.
The United States, China and other major economies are moving with speed and confidence. They are scaling technologies aggressively, mobilising capital and attracting entrepreneurs.
Europe and Denmark cannot afford to fall behind.
If we want a strong and competitive Europe, we must unleash our innovative power. We must build ecosystems that pull good ideas from universities, help them thrive and give them the chance to grow into companies that create jobs, exports and climate impact.
We already have world-class research.
But research only becomes competitiveness when it becomes innovation. When discoveries become solutions, when solutions become products, and when products become companies that can compete globally.
However, it is important to remember that competitiveness is not only about speed and scale. It is also about direction.
Innovation does not happen in a vacuum. It happens in societies with values, institutions and priorities. And Europe is different than other continents.
Not weaker, not slower – simply different. And that difference matters.
We insist on asking a different set of questions when it comes to innovation: What does this mean for people? For democracy? What kind of society do we want innovation to serve?
These questions define us. They make us who we are.
We care about the hard metrics like productivity, growth, jobs.
But we also care about the soft ones like wellbeing, fairness, trust, social cohesion, sustainability.
This broader lens is sometimes portrayed as a burden – a barrier to rapid development. But in the long run, it makes us stronger.
Societies built on trust are more resilient. Technologies that respect human dignity are more sustainable. Systems designed with ethics at the core are less likely to break, backfire, or need to be rebuilt later.
Values give Europe direction. They give us meaning. And ultimately, they give us legitimacy. And these values are not abstract. They take shape in the way we build our ecosystems. In universities, in industries, in public policy.
And I think Denmark is a clear example of this.
Because our values are reflected in our strengths: Our trust, our collaboration, our strong research environments and our willingness to take responsibility for the green transition.
I believe Denmark has the potential to lead the world in bio-based innovation.
We have the agricultural knowledge.
We have strong food and biotech industries.
We have excellent universities and researchers.
And we have an entire cluster dedicated to this field.
But we also have a challenge: While we are extremely good at research, we are still not good enough at turning that research into commercial breakthroughs.
This is exactly why the government has placed such strong emphasis on innovation in the recent research and innovation initiatives. This includes:
• A 4-year funding pool for bio-solutions of DKK 460 million.
• A focus on a strengthened tech-transfer system.
• DKK 1.8 billion in free innovation funding for Danish universities.
These steps are part of a larger strategy. We want to enable the next generation of Danish green and bio-solution start-ups to emerge, survive and scale.
Because if Denmark wants to be a green pioneer, we cannot rely only on established players.
We need the speed, agility and creative energy of our entrepreneurs.
And that creative energy is exactly what pushes the entire ecosystem forward. Even when it makes us uncomfortable.
The climate challenge is urgent. And urgency requires innovation.
Entrepreneurs help us reduce emissions both by improving existing industries but also by rethinking them entirely.
They show us new ways to grow protein, new ways to recycle waste streams, new ways to produce chemicals and materials, new ways to feed the world sustainably.
They offer the breakthroughs we desperately need.
New start-ups can challenge the rest of the ecosystem: Researchers, investors, regulators, established companies, and governments. They force us all to adapt.
And this can be uncomfortable. Innovators ask questions we sometimes prefer not to answer. They move faster than regulation. They create new markets before policymakers are ready.
But I believe that pressure is healthy. It pushes us to build a society that is dynamic, not static. Ambitious, not complacent.
They force us to compete, to innovate, to rethink old structures. As uncomfortable as that can be, it is good for Denmark. It is good for Europe.
And it is certainly good for the green transition.
As I said I spend a lot of my time talking about change and trying to make a better framework for change. But you – the people in this room – are ultimately the experts on change.
You turn knowledge into action.
You turn ideas into solutions.
You turn possibility into progress.
And that is why innovation matter. Not only for Denmark’s green transition, not only for Europe’s competitiveness, but for the world we all share.
Thank you.
