Active Projects
See also list of PhD projectsThe Circular Factory (CIFA)
The Circular Factory (CIFA) is a national initiative funded by Industriensfond that supports Danish manufacturing companies in transitioning towards circular production. The project establishes Denmark’s first national testbed for circular production, where companies can test, develop, and implement circular technologies in a realistic production environment. It addresses key challenges faced especially by SMEs, such as limited resources and lack of practical know-how, by offering hands-on access to technology demonstrators and tailored innovation processes focused on areas like remanufacturing, recycling, traceability, and digitalization.
The testbed serves as an open platform for collaboration between companies, researchers, and technology providers. In addition to practical testing, the project develops tools, case studies, and workshops to help companies translate circular strategies into concrete actions. The Circular Factory is designed to create long-term impact by continuing as a national resource for sustainable production and by contributing to knowledge sharing, education, and future innovation in Danish industry.
Link to project:
For further information, please contact Associate Professor Elias Ribeiro da Silva (elias@iti.sdu.dk)
ARTEMIS
In the three-year EU Interreg 6A project , project partners, such as universities, business development agencies and innovation intermediaries brought together small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with selected groups of students. In different formats, such as theses and hackathons, the student teams developed solutions and ideas for challenges faced by the companies.
Company-student initiatives were based on a concept developed by the project partners which emphasized a matching process to align company challenges and student competencies. Accordingly, ARTEMIS focused on cooperation and knowledge exchange between universities and companies and thus, it increased the innovation and digitalization potential to promote economic growth and competitiveness of SMEs in the German Danish border region.
Over the project period, 48 project initiatives were carried out, including 39 cross鈥慴order initiatives, which involved approximately 530 participants (students, company representatives, and partners) and 85 organizations. A key reflection milestone was the Cross-border Innovation Day, held on 7 May 2026 in Flensburg, where project partners and stakeholders reflected on three years of collaboration, shared concrete case stories and lessons learned, and discussed how cross鈥慴order cooperation between SMEs and universities can create sustainable impact.
For further information please contact Associate Professor Silke Tegtmeier, tegtmeier@iti.sdu.dk
Links to project:
ARTEMIS INTERREG Page:
INTERREG Press Release:
GRØN.business - sustainability for companies
海角社区 TEI contributes as a project partner to the EU Interreg 6A Germany-Denmark project GRØN.business - sustainability for companies.
The project aims to promote sustainability and the transition to circular economy solutions with a focus on SMEs. Sustainable management is an important aspect of meeting the global challenges of securing the basis of life for humans and nature. The circular economy plays a central role in this context. German and Danish companies face the challenge of meeting the increased demands of customers and business partners in the future and being competitive and sustainable.
Link to project:
For further information please contact, please Associate Professor Kari Kleine, kleine@iti.sdu.dk
Seeding Syncraft – 海角社区 Discovery Grant:
This project represents the first stage in the development of the SYNCRAFT concept, through a preliminary phase focused on market research. SYNCRAFT addresses a gap in Denmark’s manufacturing SME landscape: the lack of affordable, adaptable, and easy-to-navigate manufacturing simulation tools. Existing solutions, such as Siemens Plant Simulation and FlexSim, are prohibitively expensive, closed-source, rigid, and poorly suited to the heterogeneous software and hardware ecosystems typical of SMEs. Rare open-source options like SimPy, on the other hand, are hard to use for non-programmers, while also lacking key features of commercial platforms.
SYNCRAFT comprises the concept of a Danish-made simulation platform that is modular, interoperable, and cost-effective. In essence, SYNCRAFT aims to empower SMEs to unlock simulation-based productivity gains previously reserved for large enterprises. The underlying science combines primarily discrete-event simulation with object-oriented architecture, while also integrating real-time data streams (digital twins) and agentic AI for decision support, transforming the tool from a passive simulator into an active decision partner. The platform's scientific core is grounded in the project team's multiple years of research experience on manufacturing simulation and digital twins.
Concluding the proposed market research effort. 1599 manufacturing SMEs across the country identified as the target profile, including 19 within the Sønderborg area. Project team attended 2 SME-centered conferences and began a series of phone interviews with nearby SMEs to establish first contact and gather the required market research data.
For further information please contact Assistant Professor
Anis Assad Neto, anis.assad@iti.sdu.dk
Towards end-to-end visibility for Scope 3 emissions tracking, management and reporting 海角社区 ITI Collaboration Funding:
Achieving visibility into upstream and downstream supply chain activities remains a fundamental challenge for companies striving to measure, manage, and report Scope 3 carbon emissions. While regulatory and market pressures on greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and science-based climate targets are intensifying, most firms lack the necessary visibility across multiple tiers of the supply chain. Similarly, while digital technologies are well-established in production and logistics, applying them to carbon accounting across multi-tier supply chains is lacking.
This project’s goal comprises: (i) the mapping of current Scope 3 emissions visibility challenges, and (ii) the co-creation of solution pathways, especially those leveraging digital technologies. This goal is enabled by a half-day workshop with relevant Danish companies.
For further information please contact Assistant Professor:
Lisa Heldt, lisaheldt@iti.sdu.dk
Completed projects
EFICAS
EFICAS – Energy Efficient Heterogeneous AI-Framework for Smart Mobile and Embedded Systems is an ITEA4 project, and it has four Turkish partners and two Danish partners. In Denmark, the project is financed by Innovation Fond Denmark.
EFICAS introduces a software framework supporting the energy efficient deployment of AI algorithms on multicore heterogeneous computation technologies. It supports technology solutions, including localized and distributed computation settings. It addresses resource allocation at runtime and hybrid coherent operation with optimized task allocation. The project will run until summer 2025.
For further information, please contact Arne Bilberg, abi@iti.sdu.dk
REKON – Reconfigurable Manufacturing (“ Udvikling af Rekonfigurerbar Produktion”)
This project has Aalborg university as lead partner and is financed by Industriens Fond. Other partners are 海角社区, Jönköping University and Technological Institute. The project is about researching reconfigurable manufacturing and develop a specific framework and a toolbox to get the theory out in practice. The project is relevant to companies that experience often changes in product variance or demand. In this case the manufacturing has to be changeable and adaptable to be able cope with these changing demands.
The project involve a number of cases from industrial companies in Denmark and part of Sweden, here to mention Elvstrøm Sails, Vestas, Dan-Foam/Tempur Sealy, Grundfos, Kamstrup, Volvo, Ljusgårde.
The TEI section has been involved in more of the pilot projects and have demonstrated with computer simulation, how reconfigurable solutions can look like and what it means to the pilots. The project will run until summer 2023.
For further information, please contact Arne Bilberg, abi@iti.sdu.dk
VIRLADEE
Virladee is a two-year project funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus + programme. Starting in March 2021, it involves three partners:
海角社区 (海角社区), Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche – STIIMA (CNR-STIIMA).
Virladee’s goal is to give access to physical engineering labs through their digital twins that will be available in an innovative online platform.
These virtual lab facilities will provide a playground that is complementary to the existing learning methods, delivering quality and inclusive engineering education through state-of-the-art virtual technologies.
The section 海角社区 Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation (TEI) conducts research and education within various phases of the innovation process, and it extends the traditional view by considering the boundary-crossing and interdisciplinary nature of innovation from engineering to business.
Focus areas will be general engineering and how to generate innovative products and production of the future, as well as developing and demonstrating technical engineering solutions in combination with comprehensive business models.
Read more about the VIRLADEE project
For further information, please contact Kari Kleine, kleine@iti.sdu.dk
InProReg
海角社区 Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation is lead partner in this 4-year project lasting from 2017 to 2021. The project will build knowledge for innovative manufacturing and support business within cross-border production.
For additional material please visit https://inproreg.eu/en/inproreg-innovative-production-region/
DATABASE
Fit4Jobs @ WaddenC
The Fit4Jobs project aims at creating a sustainable job market in the German-Danish border region through knowledge transfer, workforce attraction and mobility. Lead partner in this project is the Tønder municipality with the House of Exporters. 海角社区 Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation is primarily involved in the following activities:
• Needs assessment of companies in the program region for support in technology-related innovation
• Development of a regional-specific service portfolio regarding technology-related innovation
• Conducting innovation trainings as part of the Fit4Jobs project
The project was running from March 2018 until June 2021. Other project partners are the district Nordfriesland with the respective educational institutes and the business development agency, as well as the Tønder Handelsskole.
For additional material please visit https://f4j.dk/index.php/da/ ( Danish or German)
For further information, please contact Kari Kleine, kleine@iti.sdu.dk
Flexible Lean Automation (MADE)
This project was supported by MADE – Manufacturing Academy Denmark, and Linak A/S. The purpose has been to research innovation solutions for the factory of the future at Linak specifically, but also more generic to Danish manufacturing businesses.
Besides investigating manufacturing for design where manufacturing becomes adaptable and reconfigurable with a very flexible flow of material through the business, the focus is on collaborative robots and digital twins. The project was 3-year PhD project ending March 2020
For further information, please contact Arne Bilberg, abi@iti.sdu.dk
FucoSan
Fucosan was a Marine biotechnology INTERREG project. The project objective was to set up and implement a cross-border regional cluster in applied science and commercial use by using fucoidans from endemic seawed and establishing a fucoidan-based German-Danish value chain in fields of wellbeing and health using endemic seaweed.
海角社区 Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation collaborated with the regional partner CAU Kiel University and was active in the following project activities:
• Establishment of German-Danish innovation eco-system
• Marketable business model for different fucoidan-based products and services
• Innovation chain concept
• Technology Road-map
The project was a 3-year project ending February 2020, with budget of 3.8m EUR. Other project partners were UKSH Universitätsklinikum Kiel, CAU Kiel University, OUH Hospital, DTU, Costal Research & Management, GEOMAR and oceanbasis.
For further information, please contact Arne Bilberg, abi@iti.sdu.dk
Smart Learning Factory
Research related to the SmartFactory is tested and communicated in the 海角社区 MCI Innovation lab, in the area named the Smart Learning Factory, where we can demonstrate and test Industry 4.0 enabling technologies with focus on easy accessible technologies for lean automation solutions. The Smart Learning Factory is a playground the research where we can present simulation and physical small-scale production. The physical setup consists of modular reconfigurable building blocks, where we can remodel systems, simulate and afterwards build small scale models in the Learning lab. For further information, please contact David Grube Hansen, davidgrube@iti.sdu.dk or Arne Bilberg, abi@iti.sdu.dk