Innovation unit after the reform: New colleagues, better ideas

After fierce debate, the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) rolled out a new administration structure in March 2025. Staff and students have now had more than six months to get used to the new reality.

In a series of articles on the university’s intranet KUnet, UCPH deputy directors of eight central units have shared how they have experienced the first few months and offered an update from their area of administration.

The University Post is now doing a similar series, where we instead speak to employees and union representatives across the organisation.

In this instalment, we speak to two staff members from the UCPH unit for Innovation and Business Collaboration, where the reform has led to more collaboration between different functions — and fewer organisational silos.

An old call for reform

Jes Andersen works with communications and press at the secretariat for the Innovation District Copenhagen. For him, the reform has had a clear impact: it has made his job easier.

Innovation District Copenhagen is a partnership between UCPH, the national hospital Rigshospitalet, and the University College Copenhagen. Jes Andersen has worked across several institutions and units for many years. It requires a grasp of the big picture and access to the right skills, something that he has not always had.

I’ve wanted more coherence and more cross-functional collaboration ever since I started here.

Jes Andersen, employee in Innovation and Business Collaboration

»The university has been extremely fragmented. It was difficult to find the right people because everything was compartmentalised,« he says.

According to Jes Andersen, the reform has changed all that. Not by changing his tasks, but by changing the circle of colleagues around him.

»I’ve got new colleagues who connect me with knowledge and ideas that I can use directly. And that makes the work both more enjoyable and better,« he says.

He describes himself as »100 per cent positive« about the reform’s intentions. The consolidation of professional skills — in communication in particular — stands out as a major improvement.

»I’ve wanted more coherence and more cross-functional collaboration ever since I started here. The reform has already set off movement in an area that had been frozen in place,« says Jes Andersen.

His only real wish is for UCPH to go even further in the same direction.

»There are still areas where different units are doing similar things. I hope we end up with even deeper organisational integration. This makes sense when we’re already working across units,« he says.

More cross-functional collaboration

For Camilla Vang Arffmann, who works on UCPH’s new AI package and who supports external partnerships and digital innovation projects, there is a clear difference between before and after the reform.

»Now we work closely with people from across the university. That means we can deliver on projects in a completely different way,« she says.

I might have wished some things had gone faster. But maybe that’s just me being impatient.

Camilla Vang Arffmann, staff member at the Innovation and Business Collaboration unit

Before the reform, innovation work was spread out across the faculties. Projects, partnerships, and ideas existed in many places, but were rarely coordinated as a single, united effort, she explains.

Whereas she previously worked primarily at the Department of Computer Science, she is now part of a team that covers all of the innovation efforts of UCPH. For her, that is one of the biggest wins of the reform:

»It’s easy to see how many researchers actually want to work together. That’s a huge strength — and it’s fun to be a part of it,« says Camilla Vang Arffmann.

Faster implementation, please!

Though both employees are positive, there are still things they’re waiting for. This is not because they are against the reform — but rather that changes on this scale take time.

Camilla Vang Arffmann points out that some procedures are still not fully in place:

»When a project spans over several faculties, it’s not always clear who it is that handles the budget or who it is that deals with the communications. It’s not that people are unwilling — it is just that this has not been clearly defined yet,« she says.

She describes this as a natural consequence of a massive reorganisation, rather than a fundamental problem.

»These are big changes. I don’t know how you could have prepared for everything in advance. I might have wished some things had gone faster. But maybe that’s just me being impatient,« she says.

From standstill to momentum

In the field of innovation, staff work across faculties, researchers, and disciplines. That’s why the administration reform’s consolidation and coordination of support functions in one place makes particular sense here, they say.

Both employees describe the same thing: the reform has made it easier to work across units. Not perfectly or fully implemented — but easier.

»The important thing is to stay true to the reform’s goal of enabling more cross-functional collaboration,« says Camilla Vang Arffmann.

Jes Andersen agrees:

»We’re not there yet, but I can already feel the difference. There’s movement in something that has been at a standstill for years.«

This article was first written in Danish and published on 25 November. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.