A Huge Investment
Bitten & Mads Clausen’s Foundation and LINAK is contributing a sum of DKK. 60 to 80 million to construct the five-floor and 3300 square metre building. The CIE building will house laboratories, test facilities and project rooms to ensure education and research at an international level. CIE will host three new engineering courses and will meet a growing demand for a qualified workforce in the field of electronic engineering.
On April 6th, 2018, a ground-breaking ceremony was carried out for a Centre for Industrial Electronics in Sønderborg. The building is being constructed to house a new education facility within electronic engineering, and is being financed by Bitten & Mads Clausen’s Foundation together with LINAK A/S. Located south of the other blocks of Alsion, the building will be connected to the existing campus through a glass walkway.
CIE will give companies like Danfoss and Linak access to the latest knowledge and the best practice within electrical engineering, thereby helping them to continue to create outstanding global solutions for their customers. The Centre is a result of a unique collaboration revealed last summer: Five partners - Danfoss A/S, Linak A/S, The Region of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg Municipality and SDU all joined, to remedy the lack of electronic engineers in South Denmark. The partners are investing a total of DKK. 176 million in the project.
Already well on its way
Since June 20th 2017, when the parties agreed to finance the new education facility in Sønderborg, much has been accomplished. The first staff have been emplyed, and the head of the CIE has been appointed. CIE has been incorporated as a Competence Centre at European Cluster Power Electronics, ECPEU. The programmes have been approved by the government, and in March 2018, the first 29 young people from all over Europe have applied to receive the education.
Southern Denmark is extraordinarily strong positioned within energy-efficient technologies. Especially around Sønderborg there is a strong ecosystem and a large concentration of companies, Danfoss being one of these. The industry annually exports approx. DKK. 34 billion in total. And for this reason, there is a great demand for engineers, and the industry is struggling to acquire sufficiently skilled labour in the technical field.
The new CIE building will be completed by the Summer of 2019.
