DTU Technology Transfer & Patenting — Denmark's Leading University Innovation Pipeline

DTU's Innovation and Sector Services unit manages technology transfer, patenting and spin-out creation from research carried out at the Technical University of Denmark, headquartered in Kongens Lyngby near Copenhagen.

To convert university research into spin-out companies, patents and licence agreements, and to sustain a systematic, long-term institutional pipeline for innovation.

The unit manages invention disclosures, patent applications (including at the European Patent Office), licence, sale or option agreements, and the creation of spin-out companies from DTU research.

In 2024, DTU registered 14 spin-out companies — 48% of the 29 unique university spin-outs founded in Denmark that year, itself a national record surpassing the previous high of 27 in 2019 — alongside 114 new invention disclosures, 60 patent applications and 36 licence, sale or option agreements, per DTU's own July 2025 report. Independently, European Patent Office 2025 statistics (published March 2026) show DTU filed 113 applications to the EPO, more than any other European university and second only to the University of California system worldwide.

DTU president Anders Bjarklev attributes the results to more than a decade of systematic investment in innovation infrastructure. The spin-out and patent counts are activity measures — the sources reviewed do not report longer-term survival rates or revenue/employment outcomes specific to DTU spin-outs.