Who is LINX?

A Different Approach to Innovation

LINX is based on the recognition that the way innovation is often approached does not always work in practice.

For many years, innovation has been viewed as something that can be planned, measured, and deliver concrete results within a fixed framework. But in practice, that’s rarely how it works. Collaborations across research, business, and business development are complex. They require time, trust, and a shared understanding—none of which arise on their own.

We operate on a different premise: that innovation is not linear; that collaborations are relational; that they are ultimately driven by people; and that value creation occurs over time. This approach has been part of LINX from the very beginning.

Today, we are systematically working to put innovation into practice. Through concrete partnerships and initiatives, we have developed methods that create better conditions for innovation to actually succeed.

How We Work

Collaboration as a Method

LINX is a nonprofit association that works across companies, research institutions, and business development organizations, with a focus on the field of materials. We bridge the gap between knowledge and practice, enabling companies to translate advanced knowledge about materials into practical solutions.

Through concrete experiences and collaborations, we have developed a method for forging connections between businesses and knowledge. The method is based on the premise that stakeholders have different circumstances and needs, and that collaboration requires more than just access to knowledge. It is built on bridging the gap between research and practice and on building relationships that foster a shared understanding.

Projects are an integral part of this approach and serve as frameworks for collaboration, where knowledge is applied and developed in practice. The goal is not merely to share knowledge, but to create the conditions that make it applicable in practice.

Our Role

Coherence in the Business Promotion System

LINX is part of the Danish business development system, but our role is different from that of most other organizations. While many organizations focus on developing knowledge, advising businesses, or offering specific services, we focus on what makes collaboration between them work in practice.

We serve as a neutral and unifying platform for materials-based innovation among companies, research institutions, and business development organizations. Our role is not to replace existing initiatives, but to create cohesion among them.

This means that we connect stakeholders who would not otherwise work together and help foster a shared understanding across disciplines. We work to create the right conditions so that companies and partnerships can apply new knowledge and put it into practice.

In a system with many strong players, differences in work cultures, languages, time zones, and working methods are inevitable. This creates friction, especially in cross-functional collaborations. This is the space where we at LINX operate.

We don’t just develop and manage projects; we also help build the relational, human structures that underpin them—structures that enable collaboration and innovation to thrive over time.

Team LINX

People Make the Difference

Our team is made up of people with diverse professional backgrounds and experience in fields such as materials science, research, business development, industry, entrepreneurship, and strategic development.

Within the organization, our materials specialists, former business consultants, project managers, researchers, and students work side by side, each bringing different perspectives on business, innovation, and collaboration.

When businesses, research institutions, and business development organizations collaborate on materials, innovation, and the green transition, differences in language, work cultures, and expectations often arise. Therefore, the work is not only about specialized knowledge, but also about being able to foster understanding and create connections between different realities.

LINX is built around a variety of disciplines and perspectives, because working with subject matter expertise and cross-disciplinary collaboration requires more than one way of understanding the world.

Purpose and Basis

What We Believe In

We are working to strengthen the cohesion of the Danish business promotion system. This encompasses everything from municipal and regional business services to business clusters, various types of entrepreneurial ecosystems and business support services, as well as the country’s technological institutes and universities. It applies to all stakeholders and organizations that can help businesses thrive.

In Denmark today, there is extensive knowledge about materials among experts, skilled companies, and many other stakeholders, but cross-sector collaboration does not always work in practice. This means that potential remains unrealized and that knowledge does not find its way into practical application.

We want to change that.

We are working toward an integrated business development system in which stakeholders collaborate more effectively and where companies have the real capacity to work with new technology and advanced materials science. At the same time, we are working to strengthen the dissemination and application of materials science as a key driver of the green transition and the enhancement of Danish competitiveness.

This calls for a different approach to innovation. An approach where collaboration is not taken for granted, but is actively cultivated. Where relationships, understanding, and individual strengths are all prerequisites for progress. And where value creation is allowed to emerge over time, rather than being measured or assumed in advance. This is the approach on which LINX is built, and which we are working to embed in our daily practices.

As an organization, LINX is founded on professional integrity, accountability, and a fundamental respect for the diverse realities in which companies, researchers, and business development actors operate. It is this understanding that makes it possible to forge partnerships where knowledge is not merely shared but can actually be turned into action.

Here's how we do it in practice

When Collaboration Turns into Action

For example, it could be a company that wants to work with new materials but lacks an overview of the possibilities or has difficulty finding the right partners.

Here, we serve as a bridge. We foster mutual understanding, align expectations, and ensure coherence in our collaboration so that knowledge is not only shared but also put to use.

We do this, among other things, through projects such as the “Highway for Materials Knowledge,” where we connect companies with materials researchers and specialists and create a common basis for action.