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

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

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, the European Patent Office's 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, suggesting a sustained institutional programme rather than a short-term push. Caveat: the spin-out and patent counts are activity measures (companies founded, applications filed); the sources reviewed do not report longer-term survival rates or revenue/employment outcomes specific to DTU spin-outs.

Read the full analysis: https://www.dtu.dk/english/newsarchive/2025/07/more-companies-are-based-on-inventions-from-dtu