Region of Southern Denmark

Region of Southern Denmark is an administrative region of Denmark with a population of about 1.2 million. The region works concertedly to generate growth and development. Many of the companies in the region are conventional production and industrial businesses. These businesses are under increasing pressure from global competitors that can handle production-intensive assignments faster and more cheaply.

Moreover, population forecasts indicate that Denmark is facing an appreciable demographic challenge. The active workforce in Denmark is set to fall over the coming years, at the same time there will be a dramatic increase of citizens over the age of 65. In 2050, the elderly will constitute 57% of the active Danish workforce, in contrast to 28% in 2000. The same tendency applies to the rest of the world.

The Region of Southern Denmark has chosen to see these challenges as opportunities. The fact that the size of the workforce seems set to decrease over the coming years opens up commercial opportunities for companies with the capacity to supply welfare technology in the form of products and solutions to assist or automate tasks in the health and welfare sector.

Initiatives in the Region of Southern Denmark

The Growth forum of Southern Denmark is responsible for business development in the Region of Southern Denmark. The Growth Forum is made up of representatives of the regional council, the local authorities, research institutions, business communities and business organizations. Since 2007 the Growth Forum has invested EUR 18 million in welfare technological projects with a total budget of more than EUR 56 million. Welfare technology is one out of four focal points for regional business development initiated by the Growth forum of Southern Denmark.

The development of the market and of welfare technology products/solutions, along with the maturing of the market, demands strong, multifaceted engagement. To support this the Region of Southern Denmark, the Municipality of Odense, The National Board of Social Services and the University of Southern Denmark initiated the open forum welfaretechnology.dk in 2008. This is a unique initiative in the Region of Southern Denmark that has succeeded in uniting players in the fields of social services, healthcare and business to create a favorable environment for development and innovation with the capacity to deliver holistic welfare technology solutions - for the benefit of everyone.

The initiative have focused on strengthening the demand as well as the supply side, knowledge sharing about public-private innovation, the availability of venture/seed capital and educational needs of staff members.

Learn more

Read more about our initiatives and ongoing projects at our website: www.welfaretechnology.dk