Cash flow from operations Euro million 4.1 7.4 7.1 7.8 1.0
Cash flow for investments Euro million 0 1.9 5.6 4.1 3.7
Investments in tangible fixed assets, gross Euro million 1.8 2.8 5.0 5.0 3.5
Profit ratio % 0.3 2.1 2.8 3.7 1.8
Solvency % 41.7 48.7 46.9 49.9 53.8
Self-financed development % 4.1 4.8 3.6 4.4 3.9
Average number of staff (full year’s work) 845 848 864 835 831
Profit ratio: Profit before extraordinary items as percentage of turnover.
Solvency: Equity at period end as percentage of liabilities at period end.
Self-financed development: Self-financing as percentage of turnover.
work so that the Institute will be in as strong a position as possible, primarily in relation to the imple-mentation of the EU’s 7th
Research Framework Programme.
The Danish Technological Institute’s 100-year history
In September the Institute celebra-ted its 100-year anniversary with a huge conference in Taastrup, where Her Majesty the Queen, who is patron of the Institute, was pre-sented with the first edition of the book about the Institute’s history:
‘100 Years of Innovation’. The book is the result of research carried out by historians from Copenhagen Business School, and represents an important document not only about the Institute’s own history,
but also about part of Denmark’s history. It is an account of how the Institute developed in line with the emergence of industrialisation and how it has been integral to society’s development under different and changing conditions throughout its 100 years of existence.
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen was the main speaker at the conference. Among other things in his speech to the Institute, the Prime Minister emphasised the many strong com-petences the Institute's employees possess. These competences demonstrate both an extremely wide range of skills as well as deep technical know-how, together with the ability to think innovatively;
competences which are being sought more and more in a world where knowledge, insight and speed play a central role.
The Gunnar Gregersen Prize To commemorate the 100-year anniversary a special prize has been instituted which was awarded to employees who have put in a special effort in the same spirit that the Institute’s founder Gunnar Gregersen infused into the Institute throughout its first 44 years of existence. In particular Gunnar Gregersen’s originality and far-sightedness has had a significant impact on Danish industry and on Denmark’s ability to compete in a world market. Four prizes of 3,351 euro each were awarded to four Her Majesty the Queen is received by Board Chairman Hans Kirk and President Søren Stjernqvist.
employees who also represent the entire breadth of the Institute’s work from robot technology through micro-technology, refrigeration technology and renewable energy to business and societal analyses.
The Technology Gateway in Århus In Århus the anniversary was cele-brated with a major open-house arrangement for customers, busi-ness partners and employees. The anniversary provided the occasion for Mayor Nicolai Wammen to-gether with Mads Møller from the architect firm C.F. Møller to inaugu-rate the Technology Gateway, which marks the Institute’s recogni-tion of Århus as a place for innova-tion and new ways of thinking.
The Technology Gateway forms the framework for a number of the Institute’s external activities, for col-laborating and sharing knowledge with customers, and for cross-discipline co-operation between the Institute’s many experts in different technological fields. The Technology
Gateway is of course equipped with the latest communication technology.
The anniversary was similarly cele-brated with a series of business conferences in the new local government regions where the Institute presented their view of the regions’ different strengths and development opportunities.
Finally the events celebrating the 100-year anniversary were rounded off in true festive spirit with a huge party for more than 1,300 guests and employees at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen.
The customers
The customers who buy the Institute’s commercial services (knowledge utilisation and know-ledge transfer) are made up of Danish business customers, orga-nisations and public customers, and international customers. In 2006 the Institute provided solu-tions for a total of 22,000 custo-mers. Among the Danish business
customers 66% came from the service sector, with 34% coming from the manufacturing sector.
Here too the Institute has a close working relationship with especially the small and medium-sized enter-prises – 62.6% of all Danish busi-ness customers are companies with less than 50 employees. The Danish Technological Institute is physically represented in four out of the five new regions. And the regional distribution of customers generally reflects the overall busi-ness structure in the country.
The Institute had 1,410 public customers in 2006. These custo-mers buy services such as consul-tancy and training just as the pri-vate companies do, but on top of this the Institute also provide public customers with a number of opera-tional services which are explained in more detail on page 46.
International activities
The Institute had 1,026 interna-tional customers plus 2,858 com-panies which bought training and Recipients of the Gunnar Gregersen Prize from left:
Claus Risager (MSc), Robot Technology; Centre Manager Hanne Shapiro, Analysis and Business Advancement; Section Leader Pia Wahlberg, Micro-Technology and Surface Analysis;
and Frank Elefsen, Renewable Energy and Transport.
At the inauguration of the Technology Gateway President Søren Stjernqvist and Mayor Nicolai Wammen opened the new building by jumping together through the ‘gateway’ to new
technology.
education services from SIFU AB, the Institute’s largest Swedish sub-sidiary. Altogether the Institute’s international turnover amounts to 18.7 million euro.
Project evaluation
Converting new knowledge into day-to-day practice in companies is a central element in the Institute’s non-profit-making work. This is why it is crucial for us to find out what our customers think about the solutions the Institute provides. At the end of 2005 therefore we put a new form of evaluation in place, with 2006 being the first year that customer satisfaction with the Institute’s projects was measured.
Every invoice sent out is accom-panied by an email questionnaire;
in 2006 over 16,000 were sent out.
And from over 5,000 replies custo-mers have given their assessment of the Institute across a number of parameters, including quality and delivery time. 98% of the custo-mers are satisfied or very satisfied with our work. But in cases where customers have given more critical comments, the individual customer is contacted directly in order to obtain further feedback or clarify any areas of doubt. This means that the Institute’s employees get an immediate response to their work for the customer, and any necessary adjustments or changes to services can be made quickly and effectively.
New strategy plan
In 2006, we also worked very intensively on drawing up plans for the Institute’s work over the next few years in the form of a three-year strategy plan, both for com-mercial projects and for research and development activities. The strategy plan consists of detailed plans and goals for how the Institute will grow over the next three years in three areas – know-ledge development, knowknow-ledge uti-lisation and knowledge transfer.
Knowledge development
The Institute develops new know-ledge largely through its work with research and development projects and with its result target agreement with the Ministry of Science,
Research and development projects 11% (12%) Result target agreement activities 11% (12%)
•Products and services of the future – Developing the possibilities micro and nano-technology can offer
• Increased productivity and quality – A challenge from global
competition
• Digital interaction
– For mobility and efficiency
• New and efficient energy technologies
– The greatest global challenge
• Environment and health – Also important for competitiveness
• Distribution and logistics – Technology on the move Technology and Innovation.
Knowledge development amounts to 22% of the Institute’s turnover.
Several new innovation consortia In 2006 the Institute strengthened its position as regards research and development and is now respon-sible for a total of 14 innovation consortia, which are development projects each with a budget of 2.6-3.4 million euro. The projects are carried out as partnerships be-tween companies, research institutions and technological service institutions. The consortia have been granted funds by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
In June the Institute received grants to fund two new consortia.
One is the BioEnCap consortium, which is involved with developing new methods of encapsulating and then releasing active ingredients in drugs and foods with the help of nano-technology. The other one is the consortium 3D Scaffolds (see page 9), which is developing new materials for bone and tissue re-placement. The Institute has also played a significant role in a third consortium, MoveBots, which is developing ‘intelligent’ grasping robots (see page 11), and which was also awarded a grant in June.
In December the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation committed funds to six consortia in all. The Institute is taking on the role of project leader for three of these and is addition-ally a central player in the fourth, in which new methods of micro and nano-welding are being developed.
The three consortia work with respectively bio-diesel (see page 8), the development of wireless sensors for the building industry and with the optimisation of the monitoring and checking of micro-biological growth in different envi-ronments using a combination of molecular micro-biology, nano-technology and advanced spectro-scopic techniques. The Ministry has provided funds totalling 8.0 million euro for the five new con-sortia which therefore have a com-bined budget of 21.1 million euro.
Two innovation consortia were completed at the end of the year, the ‘Centre for bio-film in technical systems’ and the ‘Centre for micro-systems for chemical and bio-che-mical analysis based on polymers’
respectively, both yielding very pro-mising results for the benefit of both process companies and the medical equipment industry.
The Institute’s investments in robotics
In 2006 the High Technology Fund provided financial support for two projects which follow on the Institute’s decision to concentrate more on robot technology, in the first instance by establishing the Centre for Robot Technology in Odense on 1 January 2007 as an extension of the existing partner-ship with the RoboCluster network and the University of Southern Denmark. One high-tech platform is the Handyman project which further develops advanced and flexible robots that are capable of
‘seeing’, grasping and sorting objects.
The second is the Unique concrete construction project in which robots help turn concrete into a
‘high-tech’ building material. (The project is described on page 16).
Result target agreement activities In 2006 work on the Institute’s result target agreement with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation was completed.
Here too, extremely promising