IRIS Group has conducted an evaluation of the Digital Research Centre Denmark (DIREC), a national, distributed research centre established to strengthen Denmark’s capacity in digital technologies and computer science.

The evaluation is based on interviews with researchers, companies, and ecosystem actors, survey data among participants, a bibliometric analysis, and analysis of project documentation and performance data.

Key findings from the evaluation include:

• DIREC has successfully established a strong national collaboration across all Danish computer science environments, creating a unique platform for coordination and joint research.
• The centre has delivered high-quality research outputs, including publications, prototypes, and new research proposals, with many projects involving collaboration across multiple universities.
• DIREC has contributed significantly to capacity building, including recruitment of researchers and increased student enrolment in IT education.
• The centre plays an important role in the ecosystem by connecting research areas and enabling dialogue across academia, industry, and other actors.
• Collaboration with companies has led to knowledge exchange and early-stage prototypes, though many outcomes remain at a relatively immature stage with longer paths to application.
• DIREC strengthens networking and new collaborations, but engagement levels and concrete outcomes for companies vary across projects.
• The centre operates efficiently with a small secretariat and has demonstrated strong coordination capacity across institutions.

Overall, the evaluation concludes that DIREC has made a substantial contribution to strengthen Denmark’s research and collaboration capacity within digital technologies.