Per believes that to sustain the Danish competitiveness, we need to use mission-driven research and innovation to identify the necessary paths - coupled with binding commitments of collaboration. Focus must be put on increasing investments in research, attraction of highly skilled labour and addressing cross-sectorial challenges through cooperation. Entrepreneurship must be encouraged as well as the overall support to the SME’s to implement concrete actions sooner rather than later.
We have extensive capabilities within 5G and 6G which, if applied more creatively and in combination with a human centric approach, could be ground-breaking for instance within “digital health”.
Jakob Riis: If we look beyond COVID-19, what key strengths do you consider important and which areas need to be further strengthened to sustain Denmark’s competitiveness?
Per Michael Johansen: I consider our high level of trust, collaborative approach, and our ability to integrate technology as an enabler to be some of our unique advantages. However, to turn these into real competitive advantages, we lack a mission driven approach.
I am truly inspired by the economist and Professor, Mariana Mazzucato, who spearheaded the inclusion of goal-oriented “missions” in the EU science funding. Her point of departure was to answer the questions: “What problems need to be solved and how can this be done?” and “How can this turn into a future income-stream for Europe?”. This ultimately led to the identification of five fully financed (earmarked €4.5 billion), priority missions: Climate change, cancer, oceans and other bodies of water, smart cities, and soil & food. This approach is like the “man on the moon” mission, which, in my opinion, could also be applied in a Danish context. Prerequisite to this, is a binding form of cooperation between the stakeholders involved i.e. basic and applied research, start-ups within tech and of course, private, and public sector in general. Today, the subsequent implementation is too difficult and may hinder (potentially global) implementation of great solutions. That is why the co-operation must be binding, also in the implementation phase.
Another strength is our digital skill base in Denmark that could be used to create a more solid base for “digital health”. We have extensive capabilities within 5G and 6G which, if applied more creatively and in combination with a human centric approach, could be ground-breaking for instance within “digital health”.
We have a flourishing SME culture, but more can be done to reinforce digitalisation, internationalisation and the general focus on attracting highly skilled labour, to pave the way up the value chain.
Jakob Riis: I find it quite interesting using the mission-based approach as a step to identify the future competitive advantage of Denmark. If you were to point at an interesting mission for Denmark, what would that be?
Per Michael Johansen: Sustainability (carbon capture – Power to X). We must invest more in this area: Denmark invests approx. 1 % of GDP, whereas China just decided to increase the investment by 7 % per annum to reach 2-3 % of GDP. Denmark should invest at least 1,5 % of GDP. As another comparison, Germany invests 5 % of GDP.
We need to acknowledge that cross-sectorial challenges require cross-sectorial knowledge
Jakob Riis: What is keeping us from using a mission driven approach today – what are the obstacles?
Per Michael Johansen: As mentioned before, we are simply not good enough at leveraging and exploiting our strengths. The decision processes are too slow and are not able to follow the development pace. We are not agile enough. The future challenges of the new global economy will require a highly skilled labour force and much higher investments in research. The investments made by foundations highly exceed the public funding. The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly shown the vital contribution of research is crucial in providing knowledge and understanding the world, and also when it comes to changing the world and solving the great societal challenges. Besides higher investment levels in research, we need to acknowledge that cross-sectorial challenges require cross-sectorial knowledge. We need to become much better at exploiting the combination of social science and humanities which is the very reason for Aalborg University opening a Faculty which combines the two disciplines. And while I am at our pain points, we need to take concrete actions towards more diversity in the Board rooms, in research etc. and do something about it now!
Jakob Riis: So, based on your view on our strengths and barriers, if you were to summarise with a piece of advice to the Danish government, on how to strengthen our competitive advantage, what would that be?
Per Michael Johansen: To strengthen our competitiveness, I would provide the following advice:
- Use the mission- driven approach to identify the necessary paths combined with binding commitments of collaboration
- Increase investments in research and focus on attracting highly skilled labour
- Solve cross-sectorial challenges through cross-sectorial knowledge and solutions
- Increase entrepreneurship and the support to the SME’s
- Concrete actions are needed to change the diversity balance – now!
