DDSA's Strategy

Danish Data Science Academy (DDSA), founded in 2021 and serving all data scientists in Denmark with financial support from by Novo Nordisk Foundation and Villum Foundation, has a strong anchoring in the national data science ecosystem by building mutually reinforcing partnerships with national actors in more than 20 active collaborations.

There is a unique and generous commitment across the universities, and other sectors such as hospitals, public institutions, and private companies to DDSA, where DDSA is recognised as a unique actor supporting, often with full funding, talent growth, excellence and knowledge sharing within research, education and innovation.

By applying for a second funding period, we will not just cater for the continued development of Danish data science but pave the road for bringing Denmark to the forefront of data science.

DDSA itself is from late 2027-2031 50% funded by Novo Nordisk Foundation and is now looking for additional funding of DKK 73 Million for the next five year period.

DDSA’s vision is that Denmark has a world-class ecosystem for data science research, innovation, and education. The mission for DDSA 2.0 – meaning DDSA in the period 2027-2031 – concerns individual, the community and society:

• Grow and consolidate excellent conditions for data scientists to practice in Denmark, enabled by training, education, infrastructure, and an inclusive environment
• Cultivate and develop the national community for knowledge sharing and collaboration in data science across sectors and domains
• Anchor and scale the discipline of data science in education, research and innovation supporting a long-term competitive edge for Denmark and Europe

Together with partners, DDSA works for a Denmark known for a coherent, high-trust, and high-impact data science ecosystem, where talent can thrive, and data science delivers strong, measurable results for society.

Together with partners, DDSA works for a Denmark known for a coherent, high-trust, and high-impact data science ecosystem, where talent can thrive, and data science delivers strong, measurable results for society.

DDSA has from 2022 to 2025 awarded a total of 62 Fellowships to highly talented young researchers, who have published 109 publications. This year DDSA will fully grant another 10 PhD Fellowships and 5 postdoc Fellowships, reaching the goal of awarding 56 Ph.D. Fellowships and 21 postdoc Fellowships in DDSA’s first funded period.

Our commitment to knowledge sharing is another example of the impact of DDSA in the ecosystem, where more than 9,000 participants from academia and the public and private sector, have attended courses and events funded by DDSA.

Building on DDSA 1.0 strengths in facilitation of networks and bringing people together to collaborate as well as our efficient set-up with agile and flexible grant application processes, we aim to extend our capabilities to offer more information and knowledge and use our legitimacy to advise within and advocate for data science.

These kinds of results could in the next DDSA period be an inspiration for new social science and humanities projects.

The reality is that the landscape of data science has seen profound transformation with generative AI and Large Language Models as well as a competitive race across continents. For this reason, DDSA has identified four strategic objectives addressing challenges and opportunities for the period 2027-2031. These strategic objectives have been repeatedly pointed out by data scientists themselves as well as by decision makers and in numerous reports:

• Cultivate talent and career paths
• Scale education and training
• Ease the access to data and compute resources, and
• Bridge across domains and sectors

 DDSA 2.0 will pursue these objectives extending the strong results obtained in DDSA 1.0 where a vibrant national data science community has been established and a variety of activities and support for this community developed.

The objectives have been qualified through surveys and workshops in this community to ensure that they correspond with its needs and will be backed by its commitment.

DDSA 2.0 will address each of the strategic objectives through a variety of activities applying four instruments covering facilitating Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration, Knowledge Centre, Funding Science and Education and being a Public Voice within data science and AI.

Within public voice DDSA will seek to be a serious part of the public debate and public media. DDSA will unfold what data science means to the Danish research level and the Danish economy/competitiveness hence the field has grown significantly in the past years and is expected to grow much further.

DDSA 2.0 will thus be setting direction and improving the conditions for data science and data scientists at the individual level, nurturing a safe and engaging community with an even stronger anchoring in all domains and sectors.

Read the press release from DDSA and Novo Nordisk Foundation here!