Home to the skylark - The Velux Foundations

2011

Annual Report 2011

Photo: Ole Haupt 

Background and purpose 

Civil engineer Villum Kann Rasmussen (1909-1993) set up the current 

VILLUM FOUNDATION in 1971 by transferring the majority of his 

shares to the newly formed foundation. Ten years later he founded the 

VELUX FOUNDATION with a cash donation. 

The VKR Group, which Villum Kann Rasmussen founded in 1941, 

develops, manufactures and markets VELUX roof windows and other in- 

dustrial building components, which bring daylight, fresh air and a bet- 

ter environment into people’s everyday lives. The VKR Group employs 

a workforce of around 15,000 in over 40 countries and achieved a net 

turnover of DKK 16,8 billion in 2010. VKR Holding A/S is the VKR 

Group’s parent company, which still has the VILLUM FOUNDATION 

as its main shareholder. 

Donations are allocated for a number of public purposes, taken from re- 

venue in the form of dividends from the VKR Group and from the return 

on the foundations’ basic capital. 

Both foundations have a broad non-profit purpose, supporting scientific, 

artistic, cultural, environmental and social purposes. The foundations can 

also award honorary prizes to people who have made a particular contri- 

bution to the understanding of the value and importance of daylight or 

a similar contribution with regard to industrially manufactured building 

components. 

In addition one of the VELUX FOUNDATION’s particular objectives 

is to provide support for activities involving elderly people, along with 

research in the fields of gerontology, geriatrics and ophthalmology. 

One of the VILLUM FOUNDATION’s particular objectives is further- 

more to present an annual award for technical and scientific research. This 

annual award bears the founder’s name and is presented in recognition of 

an outstanding contribution within these areas. 

For more information, visit www.veluxfondene.dk 

4 BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 5

Tobaksvejen 10 

DK-2860 Søborg, Denmark 

Tel. (+45) 39 57 09 57 

Fax (+45) 39 66 04 24 

E-mail: info@veluxfondene.dk 

www.villumfonden.dk 

www.veluxfonden.dk 

Management: Kjeld Juel Petersen, MSc (Pol. sc.), Managing Director 

Legal adviser: Christian Gregersen, Attorney, Law firm Bruun & Hjejle 

Auditor: Gert Fisker Tomczyk (CA), Audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers 

© VILLUM FOUNDATION and VELUX FOUNDATION 2012 

The Annual Report is published in January 2012 

Edited by: Kjeld Juel Petersen and Henrik Tronier 

Sub-editor: Dorte Sandberg 

Translated by: CLS Communication A/S 

Layout: Jens Raadal 

Production: Marketingbrokers ApS 

ISSN: 1902-7087 

Printed by: Sangill Grafisk Produktion 

Print no.: 0083 

The Annual Report is published in accordance 

with the environmental managing standard ISO 

DS/EN 14001. 

The Annual Report is published on paper meet- 

ing the SWAN Label and the Forest Stewardship 

6 COLOPHON 

Council ® Label. The Cocoon paper is a new and 

very white type of recycled paper. The paper is 

manufactured of recycled paper from offices 

around Paris in France. Cocoon is part of a 

sustain ability forest replanting project in Mozam- 

bique. The climate compensation is administered 

by the paper supplier. 

Foreword ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 8 

The story behind the VILLUM FOUNDATION and the VELUX FOUNDATION ............................................................... 10 

Troels Rasmussen and Henrik Tronier 

Diversified donations by the VILLUM FOUNDATION and the VELUX FOUNDATION ................................................ 16 

Boards ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 22 

Daylight Award ................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 24 

Eva Beckmann 

Postcards from supported projects ........................................................................................................................................................................ 28 

The Internet – now with a geographic dimension ......................................................................................................................................... 40 

Christian S. Jensen 

Stochastic geometry and image analysis .............................................................................................................................................................. 44 

Eva B. Vedel Jensen 

Evolution and climate change .................................................................................................................................................................................. 48 

Bodil K. Ehlers, Martin Holmstrup and Jesper Givskov Sørensen 

Aristotle then and now ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 54 

Sten Ebbesen and David Bloch 

Political attitudes and behaviour: nature or nurture? ................................................................................................................................. 60 

Robert Klemmensen and Asbjørn Sonne Nørgaard 

Medieval Language on the Web ............................................................................................................................................................................... 64 

Merete K. Jørgensen 

Osteoarthritis of the knee and weight loss ........................................................................................................................................................ 70 

Henning Bliddal 

Eye amputees ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 76 

Marie Louise Roed Rasmussen 

From heart to heart. Building bridges between cultures on Nørrebro .............................................................................................. 80 

Merete Tangstad 

Home to the skylark. Residential nature programme for lonely elderly persons .......................................................................... 84 

Christine E. Swane 

Presenting for active duty in 1917. Old men in old uniforms ............................................................................................................... 86 

Christian Raun 

Social inventions ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 88 

Andreas Hjorth Frederiksen and Bernhard Jensen 

Facilitating employment for people with autism in Poland ..................................................................................................................... 94 

Thorkil Sonne 

Social development project for children and youth in Greenland ......................................................................................................... 98 

Kirsten Ørgaard 

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art’s new art stores ......................................................................................................................... 102 

Poul Erik Tøjner 

The Royal Theatre’s past digitised ....................................................................................................................................................................... 108 

Martin Thaarup Larsen 

Exploring the science of art history .................................................................................................................................................................... 112 

Jørgen Wadum 

Climate policy: perhaps the most important indicator of sustainable development? ................................................................ 116 

Thomas Færgeman 

Focused bird protection to save vulnerable species ..................................................................................................................................... 122 

Tine Stampe, Henning Heldbjerg and Michael Borch Grell 

CONTENTS 

7

Foreword 

Past and future in the same vein 

The VILLUM FOUNDATION and the VELUX 

FOUNDATION have frequently made donations 

to activities designed to preserve the past for pos- 

terity. Only a fraction of our donations, but still a 

prominent theme. 

To name but a few examples of our range under 

this theme: a TV series about women in the Danish 

Resistance Movement, a biography of the scientist 

H.C. Ørsted, protective glass casings for the runic 

stones at Jelling, archaeological digs around Ribe 

Cathedral and funding for an extension to house 

the archaeological and ethnographical collections of 

the Moesgård Museum. From small bites of Danish 

history – memories and destinies – to large-scale re- 

search and dissemination projects, all of which serve 

to define our common understanding. For these 

purposes, donations from the Foundations have 

helped to document the past and bring it to life. 

A new green theme 

The VILLUM FOUNDATION’s and the VELUX 

FOUNDATION’s environment and sustainability 

donations support a relatively new funding area and 

have been made mainly in aid of research projects. 

But in 2011, we trod new ground, and decided to 

set our sights on a more distant future. 100 years 

from now. 

A future-oriented project designed to demonstrate 

what it takes to become a sustainable society based 

on conscientious use of resources and protection of 

the natural world. 

By sustainable development we mean – to quote the 

Brundtland Report of 1987 – ”development that 

meets the needs of the present without compromis- 

ing the ability of future generations to meet their 

own needs”. 

We all know that the world’s complex environmen- 

tal challenges require innovation. We hope to be 

able to contribute to the debate on several fronts. 

Among other things by supporting the develop- 

ment of new economic models, other mindsets and 

Lars E. Kann-Rasmussen 

VILLUM FOUNDATION 

patterns of consumption and behaviour. In sum, 

projects that look far into the future and acknowl- 

edge that what we do today will to a great extent 

determine what is possible tomorrow. In this way, 

by opting for some things, we will necessarily have 

to opt out of others. 

In the coming years, the Foundations will be con- 

tinuing to cater for past, present and future alike 

through donations with the common interest in 

mind. 

We would like to convey our thanks for the con- 

tinued attention from applicants within our many 

funding areas. And for the discussions and openness 

we meet whenever we launch new initiatives. Our 

thanks also to board members, experts and employ- 

ees for their efforts over the past year. 

Hans Kann Rasmussen 

VELUX FOUNDATION 

8 FOREWORD VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 

9

the 

The story behind 

VILLUM FOUNDATION 


and the 

BY TROELS RASMUSSEN AND HENRIK TRONIER 

Troels Rasmussen (born 1967), MA in history 1995 and until 2001 researcher 

at Department of Border Region Studies in Aabenraa. Since 2002 employed at 

VKR Holding’s company history department. Head of department since 2003. 

Henrik Tronier (born 1965), MDiv. 1989. Research fellow and subsequently 

associate professor at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Copenhagen, 

1990-2006. Since 2007, foundations adviser with the VELUX FOUNDA- 

TION’s human sciences programme as his special area of responsibility. 

In 2011 the VILLUM FOUNDATION celebrated its 40 th anniversary, 

while the VELUX FOUNDATION celebrated its 30 th anniversary. 

“Well it can’t only be for the sake of your blue eyes” might be the knowing, 

almost reassuring retort if you are the recipient of what appears to be a be- 

nevolent gift. Aside from generalised scepticism surrounding the real inten- 

tions behind human actions, this kind of scepticism in the face of charitable 

acts is perhaps reinforced in our culture by the legacy of Protestant suspicion 

surrounding “good deeds”. In a nutshell: isn’t this just self-interest? Or is it 

perhaps slightly more complicated? 

A pressing problem 

In 1941, when Villum Kann Rasmussen (1909-1993) – or KR as he was 

known – founded the company that went on to become what is now VKR 

Holding, he could scarcely have imagined the massive growth he would be 

looking back at by the late 1960s as he approached his 60th birthday, when 

the future of the company and the issue of corporate succession had become 

pressing concerns. How was this to be accomplished without incalculable 

financial impacts on the business? And how to achieve the ideal future gov- 

ernance of the company? 

The answer for KR was to set up a non-profit foundation, since this would 

unite a complex of differing interests and considerations: it would eliminate 

the threat of ruinous financial draining of the company into inheritance tax 

following generational succession, and it would establish a form of corpo- 

rate governance that would give the company long-term stability and resil- 

ience. And last, but not least, a large proportion of the company’s profits 

could thereby be channelled back to the society that, according to KR, was 

Villum Kann Rasmussen from 

the period in which he became 

increasingly taken up 

with finding the answer to 

the question of his company’s 

future and corporate succession. 

Photo: 1966 

10 THE STORY BEHIND THE VILLUM FOUNDATION AND THE VELUX FOUNDATION VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 

11

Villum Kann Rasmussen at his office on his 60 th 

birthday, 23 January 1969 

ultimately the source of its wherewithal. 

KR, the son of a church minister, was, if anyone, aware of 

the duality of the motives: he is quoted as saying – per- 

haps also as an expression of modesty – that “all forms of 

altruism are essentially egotistical”. Yet he was driven by a 

philanthropic involvement that had already inspired similar 

moves in the past: in the early 1960s he had established a 

memorial fund named for his parents: “Pastor Lars Bertel 

Rasmussen and wife, née Therese Kann’s Memorial Fund” 

for the benefit of Mandø Church and the further education 

of children from Mandø, KR’s island birthplace. He was 

also cited as invoking a well-known Danish quotation “all 

endeavours are owed to the Fatherland” to account for his 

motives. This philosophy matched that of J.C. Jacobsen, 

founder of the Carlsberg brewery and Carlsberg Founda- 

tion, who had combined a commitment to safeguarding his 

business with charitable works, and who was presumably an 

important source of inspiration for KR. 

Establishing the foundations 

On 21 December 1971, KR went ahead and established the 

VILLUM FOUNDATION (originally called the VELUX 

FOUNDATION) by transferring all of his B-class shares to 

the non-profit foundation, which thereby became the prin- 

cipal shareholder of the company. The board of directors 

was to be composed of external members in order to keep 

the running of the foundation and the business separate 

in financial and legal terms. The foundation name change 

occurred a decade later with the founding of the VELUX 

FOUNDATION of 1981 (now the VELUX FOUNDA- 

TION) by means of a cash endowment and with its own 

independent board of directors. 

According to the foundation statutes, a direct descendant 

of the founder must always be represented on the board, 

and KR himself took up the position of chairman of the 

board. The Rasmussen family’s commitment to the work 

of the foundation has certainly been considerable. KR’s 

elder brother, Aage Kann Rasmussen and subsequently 

Villum Kann Rasmussen presents a donation to a retired employee at the No. 10 Tobaksvejen site in Søborg. Seen 

on the far left: Magdalene Jørgensen, CFO of the VKR Group’s parent company. Photo: 1973 

KR’s children – Aino, Lars, Anne-Margrete (Sussi) 

and Hans – gradually taking up a number of key 

appointments both on the boards and within the 

management of the joint foundation secretariat. 

Today, KR’s grandchildren also serve on the boards 

of the foundations. 

The original funding programmes reflected KR’s 

interests, work and his personal circumstances: 

honorary awards to individuals for achievements in 

raising awareness of the value and use of daylight; 

support for the activities of senior citizens; funding 

for research into diseases of the eye (ophthalmol- 

ogy), gerontology and geriatrics; and assistance 

for employees of the company in difficult circum- 

stances or with special needs. Since 1991, the last 

of these programmes has been managed indepen- 

dently through the establishment of the “Employee 

Foundation of the VKR Group”, which accordingly 

celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. 

Expansion 

As the company’s profits expanded, so too did the 

non-profit funding capacity. In 1986, the original 

charitable purposes were augmented in the statutes 

with a very broadly-defined funding area: support 

for major undertakings with scientific, artistic, cul- 

tural or social – and from 2008 also environmental 

– objectives. 

In this way, donations from the two foundations 

were extended from areas which more specifical- 

ly reflected KR’s interests and circumstances to a 

wider range of non-profit purposes spanning much 

of society, including donations to Greenland and 

Central and Eastern European countries for social 


13

1986 saw the release of an anniversary publication 

to mark the 15th anniversary of the establishment of 

the two foundations. This was followed in the ensuing 

years by annual reports for the two foundations. As 

such, the foundations’ annual report 2011 is a 25th anniversary 

publication. 

purposes. Not only the breadth, but also the an- 

nual amounts donated expanded from a few hun- 

dred thousand Danish kroner in the initial years 

to several hundreds of millions of Danish kroner 

annually in recent years. As such, today, the two 

foundations are among the most significant non- 

profit foundations in Denmark. 

This breadth and significance entail a great re- 

sponsibility for ensuring that the funds that are 

disbursed are of maximum societal benefit. Ac- 

cordingly, over the last decade, the foundations 

have made every effort to increase their outreach 

and dialogue with those parts of society that 

might benefit from funding. In addition, more 

recently, the foundations have sought to strength- 

en their dialogue with society at large through a 

number of initiatives to preserve the openness and 

transparency that surrounds the activities of the 

foundation in line with the natural demands of a 

democratic society. 

Personal interest and public interest hand in 

hand 

Aside from being a story of dramatic growth, the 

history of the foundations is thus also a testimony 

to the fact that personal interests and public inter- 

ests are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and may 

instead form a complex interaction and go happily 

hand in hand given the right societal and legislative 

conditions. This is true of the bigger story, just as 

it was originally, at a personal level in KR himself. 

Certainly, the fact remains that the foundations set 

up by KR 40 and 30 years ago have so far result- 

ed in a diverse range of non-profit donations and 

grants worth in excess of DKK 3 billion “for the 

benefit, encouragement and use of many people”, 

as KR modestly expressed it in 1986 in the first an- 

nual report for the foundations. 

Timeline for the VILLUM FOUNDATION 

and the VELUX FOUNDATION 

1971 The non-profit foundation VELUX FOUN- 

DATION (now the VILLUM FOUNDATION) is 

established by Villum Kann Rasmussen on 21 

December 1971. 

1981 The original foundation changed its 

name to the VILLUM KANN RASMUSSEN 

FOUNDATION (now the VILLUM FOUN- 

DATION), and on 2 December a new nonprofit 

foundation was set up under the name 

of the VELUX FOUNDATION of 1981 (now the 

VELUX FOUNDATION). 

1986 On 21 December, an addition was 

made to the statutes of the VILLUM FOUN- 

DATION to permit conferral of ”The Villum 

Kann Rasmussen Annual Award for Technical 

Research”, and the two foundations’ statutes 

are supplemented with extensively formulated 

funding areas. 

1988 The preamble to the statutes of the 

VILLUM FOUNDATION was amended with the 

omission of a number of the purposes now 

devolved to the VELUX FOUNDATION; these 

being support for the activities of senior citizens; 

support for research in ophthalmology, 

gerontology and geriatrics. 

1991 To tie in with the VKR Group’s golden 

jubilee on 1 April, the board of the VILLUM 

FOUNDATION established the Employee 

Foundation of the V. Kann Rasmussen Group 

(now the VKR Group). 

1993 Founder Villum Kann Rasmussen passed 

away on 24 August at the age of 84. 

2004 ”The Villum Kann Rasmussen Annual 

Award for Technical Research” changed its 

name to ”The Villum Kann Rasmussen Annual 

Award for Technical and Scientific Research”. 

2008 The Danish ”Hædersprisen” (award 

for excellence), which since 1980 had been 

conferred by the VILLUM KANN RASMUSSEN 

FOUNDATION and the VELUX FOUNDATION 

was converted into an international award 

entitled ”The Daylight and Building Components 

Award”. This award was first presented 

to physicist Professor Richard Perez. 

2008 Amendments to the statutes of both 

foundations permitted environmental purposes 

to be incorporated as a funding area. 

2009 The centenary of Villum Kann Rasmussen’s 

birth on 23 January was celebrated 

throughout the VKR Group, and to tie in with 

the events, the VILLUM KANN RASMUSSEN 

FOUNDATION and the Employee Foundation 

of the VKR Group received endowments of 

DKK 750 and 100 million, respectively. 

2010 On 1 January, the VILLUM KANN 

RASMUSSEN FOUNDATION changed its name 

to the VILLUM FOUNDATION. 

2011 On 2 December, the VELUX FOUN- 

DATION celebrated its 30th anniversary, and 

on 21 December the VILLUM FOUNDATION 

followed suit with its 40th anniversary. On 2 

October the anniversaries were celebrated at 

a command performance at the Royal Danish 

Theatre in Copenhagen. 


15

Photo: Carsten Andersen 

the 

and the 

Diversified 

donations by 

VILLUM 

FOUNDATION 

VELUX 

FOUNDATION 

Both of the foundations operate with a broad-based donations strate- 

gy embracing a number of different areas, all of which are comprised 

by the foundations’ statutes. The bar charts below indicate which areas 

each of the two foundations have supported over the last five years. 

The following presents a number of examples of funding areas. Exam- 

ples of specific and current donations are provided on a regular basis 

on the foundations’ websites. 

The VILLUM FOUNDATION 

The foundation primarily supports research activi- 

ties in science and technology, but also funds pro- 

jects in which the emphasis is on dissemination of 

research in these disciplines. The foundation also 

provides funding for major social undertakings 

and cultural projects in and outside of Denmark. 

Since 2007, the foundation has provided fund- 

ing for social projects in Poland, Hungary and a 

few other countries in Eastern and Central Europe 

and in Greenland. In addition, environment and 

sustainability was adopted as a new funding area in 

connection with a change in the statutes in 2008. 

Examples of funding areas 

In association with the VELUX FOUNDATION, 

the Daylight and Building Components Award is 

conferred on an individual or group whose artis- 

tic, scientific or practical work has made a signifi- 

cant contribution to appreciation of the value and 

importance of daylight. The award is worth EUR 

100,000. 

Technical and scientific research 

Annual Award for Technical and Scientific Re- 

search – DKK 2.5 million to a Danish researcher 

of high international standing upon nomination by 

an external committee. 

The VILLUM FOUNDATION’s total donations 2006-2011 (DKK million) 

350 

300 

250 

200 

150 

100 

50 

0 

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

Research projects (basic research) – funding to 

cover payroll, equipment, operating, travel and 

administration expenses. A typical grant is worth 

Other statutory objectives outside Denmark 

Other statutory objectives within Denmark 

Environment and sustainability 

Social purposes outside Denmark (incl. Greenland) 

Social purposes within Denmark 

Technical and natural sciences 

Figures for 2011 were estimated at the time of going to press. The precise figures for total donations for 2011 are 

presented in the insert enclosed at the back of the annual report. 

16 DIVERSIFIED DONATIONS VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 

17

DKK 2-5 million. 

VKR Centres of Excellence – each grant is typically 

worth DKK 25-60 million over 5-10 years for sci- 

entific and technical basic research centres without 

walls conducting original, innovative research at an 

advanced international level. 

Visiting Professor Programme – a total of DKK 15 

million is granted every other year for visiting re- 

searchers in order to boost research and education 

in Denmark and build up international research 

networks. Each university distributes the funds it- 

self among the applicants. 

The VILLUM FOUNDATION’s Young Investi- 

gator Programme – DKK 50 million per annum 

in funding for talented young Danish researchers 

aiming to establish their own, independent re- 

search profiles. 

Postdoctoral programme – DKK 40 million grant- 

ed every other year to talented researchers in science 

and technology at Danish or foreign universities. 

Infrastructure – funding for major, advanced 

equipment, e.g. special laboratory facilities, re- 

search centres, databases, biobanks, etc. 

Social purposes in Denmark 

Funding for activities in aid of socially at risk chil- 

dren, people with disabilities and homeless people. 

Social purposes outside Denmark 

Stand-alone projects and activities lasting 2-5 

years that aim to improve quality of life for disad- 

vantaged children and young people in Poland, 

Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greenland, etc. 

Eligible projects may cover welfare protection and 

alleviation of social distress, preventive activities, 

support for labour market integration or develop- 

ment and reform of the social and welfare system. 

Donations typically amount to between DKK 2-10 

million out of a total funding allocation of approx. 

DKK 90 million. 

On the opposite page: The sculpture ”The Thought Provoker” at the VKR Holding headquarters in Hørsholm. Photo: 

Carsten Andersen 

The VELUX FOUNDATION 

The Foundation makes a number of annual grants 

for the purpose of motivating and supporting sen- 

ior citizens in staying active. The foundation also 

supports ophthalmological research and geronto- 

logical research. Since 2007, the foundation has 

increased its funding for research projects in the 

human sciences. The foundation also supports 

cultural, artistic and social purposes, and envi- 

ronment and sustainability was adopted as a new 

funding area in 2008 in connection with a change 

in the statutes. 

The VELUX FOUNDATION’s total donations 2006-2011 (DKK million) 

180 

160 

140 

120 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

Environment and sustainability 

Art and culture and others 

Social purposes 

Humanities 

Health sciences generally 

Gerontology and ophthalmology research 

Acitivity among older persons 

Figures for 2011 were estimated at the time of going to press. The precise figures for total donations for 2011 are 

presented in the insert enclosed at the back of the annual report. 

18 DIVERSIFIED DONATIONS VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 

19

Examples of funding areas 

Human sciences 

Collective core group grants with an annual fund- 

ing allocation of DKK 25-30 million. Funding for 

independent research in all fields of humanities 

research, together with anthropology, political 

science, sociology, psychology and public health 

science with a humanities component. A typical 

research project lasts 3-4 years and usually re- 

ceives funding of DKK 5-6 million. 

In addition to which, individual postdoctoral 

grants of DKK 1-2 million per project. 

Gerontological research and ophthalmological 

research 

Typically PhD projects with grants of DKK 1-2 

million, but also larger amounts for procurement 

of new equipment at university hospitals and re- 

search institutions, together with major multidis- 

ciplinary research projects. 

Active senior citizens 

A large number of small grants for active senior 

citizens. 

Social purposes 

Funding for activities to counter social vulnerabil- 

ity, especially among people with disabilities and 

homeless people. 

Culture 

For example joint donations with the VILLUM 

FOUNDATION for heritage and preservation- 

worthy monuments, archaeology, museums or 

other cultural institutions. 

Administration percentage 

The two foundations share one secretariat and 

have a joint administration at their disposal. How- 

ever, the statutes of the two foundations differ in 

certain respects. Consequently they have different 

portfolios, and the number of applications and 

the size of donations also vary. 

This means that the administration percentage 

differs within the two foundations. The VELUX 

FOUNDATION for example makes a large num- 

ber of small grants to active senior citizens (a row- 

ing boat, a book publication, a set of personal ar- 

chives), whereas the VILLUM FOUNDATION 

typically funds major projects. 

The administration percentage is the sum of the 

total expenses (management, operation, rent, fees 

for advisers and experts, etc.) incurred by each 

foundation divided by the year’s total donations 

amount for each foundation. 

All figures stated in 

DKK 1,000 

VILLUM 

FOUN- 

DATION 

VELUX 

FOUN- 

DATION 

Total foundation operating 

costs 15.569 9.033 

Foundation’s donations 

in 2010 290.508 121.469 

Administration 

percentage 5,4% 7,4% 

YEAR’S RESULT AND BALANCE 2010 

All figures in thousands DKK VILLUM FOUNDATION VELUX FOUNDATION 

INCOME STATEMENT 2010 2009 2010 2009 

Dividend from shares in VKR-Holding 900.640 314.872 - - 

Received donation from the VILLUM FOUNDATION - - 60.000 2) 20.000 

Income from securities and bank deposits 113.526 175.546 58.819 72.037 

Profit for the year 1.014.166 490.418 118.819 92.037 

Board 750 600 875 700 

Other administration costs 14.819 11.354 8.158 9.107 

Total management and administration 15.569 11.954 9.033 9.807 

Annual result 998.597 478.464 109.786 82.230 

Annual grants 290.508 193.821 121.469 48.611 

BALANCE AS PER 31. DECEMBER 2010 2009 2010 2009 

20 DIVERSIFIED DONATIONS VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 21 

Assets 

Tied-up foundation assets: 

Shares in VKR Holding (nominal value) 90.000 1) 90.000 - - 

Securities 1.876.906 1.615.264 1.862.174 1.648.702 

Office premises 27.328 27.539 27.328 27.328 

Bank balance and other receivables 282 5.118 14.975 18.695 

Total tied-up foundation assets 1.994.516 1.737.921 1.904.477 1.694.725 

Available foundation funds: 

Securities 1.434.692 854.970 232.790 190.850 

Bank balance and receivables 61.820 26.835 27.419 26.648 

Total available foundation funds 1.496.512 881.805 260.209 217.498 

Total assets 3.491.028 2.619.726 2.164.686 1.912.223 

Liabilities 

Awarded, not yet disbursed amounts 636.664 607.290 226.615 172.824 

Deposits for later use 771.790 223.449 33.837 45.797 

Tied-up equity 2.082.574 1.788.987 1.904.234 1.693.602 

Total liabilities 3.491.028 2.619.726 2.164.686 1.912.223 

1) According to VKR Holding’s annual report as per 31. December 2010 the net asset value of these is equivalent to 11 billion DKK (2009: 10,1 billion DKK) 

2) The VELUX FOUNDATION received a donation of further 40 million DKK to their tied-up foundation assets (2009: 40 million DKK)

The board of the VILLUM FOUNDATION 

From left: Peter Landrock, Lars E. 

Kann-Rasmussen, Nina Smith, Bodil 

Nyboe Andersen, Bjarne Gråbæk 

Thomsen, Kristian Elmholdt Stubkjær 

(the foundation’s observer Jens Kann- 

Rasmussen is not on the photo). 

Photo: Carsten Andersen 

Name Year elected Titles etc. Other boards etc. 

Lars E. Kann-Rasmussen (b. 1939), 

Chairman 

Kristian Elmholdt Stubkjær 

(b. 1953), Vice-chairman 

2005 Director, BSc Engineering 

2005 Professor, head of depart- 

ment, MSc Engineering 

Peter Landrock (b. 1948) 2008 Director, professor, MSc, 

PhD 

Bodil Nyboe Andersen (b. 1940) 2005 Former governor, Dan- 

marks Nationalbank, MSc 

Economics 

Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 

Thomas B. Thrige Fonden (Foundation), Danish Academy of Technical 

Sciences, The Climate Foundation 

Cryptomathic Ltd. (chairman), WindowMaster A/S, Monodraught 

Limited, Wolfson College, Cambridge University 

Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Sampension, TV2, Laurits 

Andersens Foundation (chairman), Advisory Board for Ordrupgaard- 

samlingen, Advisory Board for Nordic Investment Bank, Helsinki 

Nina Smith (b. 1955) 2011 Professor, MSc Economics Nykredit Realkredit (mortgage credit), Nykredit Holding, The Nykredit 

Association (vice-chairman), Nykredit Foundation og Nykredit’s Audit 

Board, NIRAS Group (chairman) and NIRAS Foundation, The Aarhus 

Festival, Favrskov Gymnasium (6th form college) (vice-chairman), pro- 

gram committee of the Rockwool Foundation, Danish Economic Councils 

Bjarne Gråbæk Thomsen (b. 1946) 2009 Consultant, former CEO The Employee Foundation of the VKR Group, Superwood, HTF A/S 

Jens Kann-Rasmussen (b. 1969), 

serves on the board as the family’s 

observer under the Statutes 

(chairman), VKR France S.A.S, VELUX Magyarország Kft., NB Polska Sp. z 

o.o., A/S Østbirk Bygningsindustri, Skærbæk Bygningsindustri A/S 

2011 BSc Engineering VKR Holding A/S, Partizanske Building Components SK s.r.o. 

The board of the VELUX FOUNDATION 

Name Year elected Titles etc. Other boards etc. 

Hans H. Kann Rasmussen (b. 1945), 

Chairman 

Hans Henrik Bruun (b. 1943), 

Vice-chairman 

From left: Marianne Zibrandtsen, 

Hans Peter Jensen, Hans H. Kann 

Rasmussen, Kamilla Kann Rasmussen, 

Hans Henrik Bruun og Emilie Kann 

Elten. Photo: Carsten Andersen 

2006 Bsc Engineering V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation (chairman), VKR’s Familiefond (VKR 

2002 Ambassador, adjunct 

professor, MSc Political 

Science 

Hans Peter Jensen (b. 1943) 2004 DPhil, warden of a hall of 

residence with the title of 

”Efor” 

family trust fund) 

Fondet for Dansk-Norsk Samarbejde (foundation for Dano-Norwegian 

cooperation), P. Mikkelsens Mindelegat (foundation), Danish House, 

Paris (Maison du Danemark), (chairman) 

Gefion Gymnasium (6 th form college), (chairman), The Council for Inter- 

nationalisation of Danish Education (chairman), Alectia Foundation 

(chairman), Eksperimentarium, Ellehammer A/S 

Kamilla Kann Rasmussen (b. 1967) 2004 Educationist VKR’s Familiefond (VKR family trust fund), (chairman) 

Marianne Zibrandtsen (b. 1951) 2005 6 th form college 

Emilie Kann Elten (b. 1987), 

serves on the board as the family’s 

observer under the Statutes 

principal, MA 

2010 Studying biological science 

at LIFE 

Aurehøj Gymnasium (6 th form college), Advisory Board of the University 

of Copenhagen, Faculty of Humanities and Faculty of Theology, 

Øregaard Museum (chairman of the board of governors), Presiding 

Committee of UNICEF Denmark, Den Letterstedska Föreningen (Nordic 

society for industry, science and the arts), KUBULUS students’ association 

at the University of Copenhagen 

V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation (observer), manager and board member 

of the students’ association NOA at the University of Copenhagen 

22 THE BOARDS VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 

23

Daylight Award 

BY EVA BECKMANN 

Eva Beckmann (born 1965) holds a degree in Public Relations from Roskilde 

University and is an independent PR consultant to companies and organisa- 

tions. Since January 2011 she has worked on the VILLUM FOUNDATION’s 

and the VELUX FOUNDATION’s press relations, including conferral of the 

Daylight Award on two innovative French architects. 

Light is vital for plants, animals and human 

beings alike. But buildings too benefit from 

abundant daylight. This is true not least in 

social housing in deprived neighbourhoods, 

where simple effects and plenty of daylight can 

give classic concrete tower blocks a whole new 

lease of life. This discipline is mastered by the 

two French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean- 

Philippe Vassal. On 7 March 2011 the duo was 

presented with the Daylight and Building Com- 

ponent Award 2011, worth EUR 100,000. For 

year 2011, this accolade, bestowed once a year 

by the VILLUM FOUNDATION and the VE- 

LUX FOUNDATION, recognises Lacaton & 

Vassal’s long-standing work on daylighting. 

Through the 1970s, high-rise residential properties 

are mushrooming in the Parisian suburbs – in the 

so-called villes nouvelles. The properties are built to 

house people from rural districts and North African 

immigrants. The many new housing projects are 

built in a ring around the city centre, and some of 

them are given a distinctive design to make them 

stand out from their surroundings. Yet many people 

today associate this type of architecture with a failed 

integration policy where for a time, unrest and arson 

became everyday fare for the residents. 

An example of one such building is Tour Bois le 

Prêtre, a 16-storey high-rise situated in the 17th 

arondissement, and built in 1962. Once they move 

in, many residents stay living here for decades. 

On the brink of demolition 

The building stands unchanged with every passing 

year. But one day the sight of it is just too dilapi- 

dated and depressing, and there are political moves 

to have the high-rise razed to the ground. By now a 

ghetto of immigrants where unemployment is rife, 

demolition of this outmoded tower block seems the 

obvious solution. But not if the two award-winning 

French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe 

Vassal have anything to say. 

“It never pays to demolish social housing in favour 

of building a new replacement. The costs of renova- 

tion will always be lower. Instead, respect should be 

shown for good and solid buildings that can readily 

be remodelled and transformed into new and invit- 

ing neighbourhoods,” says Anne Lacaton. 

Daylight is a free resource 

And these architects know what they are talking 

about. For more than 20 years they have been stud- 

About the Award 

The Daylight and Building Component 

Award is presented annually to individu- 

als or groups for outstanding artistic, sci- 

entific or practical achievements in pro- 

moting appreciation of the value and im- 

portance of daylight. Previous recipients 

of the Award, which has been presented 

since 1980, include the architects Jørn Ut- 

zon, Henning Larsen and James Carpenter 

and the researcher Richard Perez. 

In March 2011, the two French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal received the Daylight and Building Component 

Award 2011 worth EUR 100,000. The photo shows the award being presented by Lars Kann-Rasmussen, Chairman 

of the Board of the VILLUM FOUNDATION. Photo: Kristian Ridder-Nielsen. See also the architects’ lecture delivered 

at the award ceremony in the ceremonial hall at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design 

and Conservation: http://arkitekturtv.dac.dk/ 

24 DAYLIGHT AWARD VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 

25

Greenhouses especially inspired the 

architectural duo in their projects 

to remodel social housing. Photo: 

Lacaton & Vassal 

Lacaton & Vassal create open spaces, 

in which the occupants can adapt 

to the incoming daylight and create 

shaded areas as required. Photo: 

Lacaton & Vassal 

ying large buildings where no restrictions apply; hangars, warehous- 

es, commercial greenhouses and supermarkets. 

“More than anything, the greenhouses impressed us. The light- 

weight steel structures, the full exploitation of daylight, and a simple 

and low-tech method of controlling humidity and sunlight. These 

are methods that can be copied directly over to housing. And which 

don’t even cost the earth.” 

New lease of life for old housing 

The greenhouses directly inspired the transformation of dilapidated 

buildings according to the Lacaton & Vassal duo’s vision. By intro- 

ducing more daylight into the buildings, removing as many walls as 

possible, adding enhanced acoustics and using glass as extra cladding 

around the building, the architects succeeded in giving old buildings 

a whole new lease of life. In most cases, the extension of each housing 

unit by means of added glazing and light has also meant more living 

space for the residents. 

Anne Lacaton, 55, and Jean-Philippe Vassal, 57, are the principals of 

the architectural firm they established jointly in 1987. The duo is re- 

sponsible for major projects throughout France such as the refurbish- 

ment of Palais de Tokyo in Paris, School of Architecture in Nantes, 

France and Café Una in the Viennese museum district. 

Besides Tour Bois de Prêtre in the 17th arrondissement (made in as- 

sociation with Frédéric Druot, architect), the firm is currently work- 

ing on another social housing block in La Chesnaie, Saint Nazaire, 

France. In the town of Mulhouse in southern Alsace, they are work- 

ing in partnership with world-renowned architects such as Jean Nou- 

vel, Shigeru Ban and Mathieu Poitevin – again, on a large-scale social 

housing project. 

In their designs they strike an accomplished balance between daylight 

quality, energy consumption and cost-efficiency which is humanistic 

and aesthetically convincing. The projects are run on the principle 

that 90% of what is required for a project is already available on site. 

Respect for the existing building 

“For us, sustainability is accomplishing a radical improvement in the 

living conditions of a great many people. These days, there’s a lot of 

focus on developing technologies to save energy. That’s all well and 

good, but it doesn’t hold up on its own. Instead, we want to be able 

to make the most of existing methods and help people to achieve 

improved liveability so they feel they have good living conditions. 

That will naturally inspire residents to assume more responsibility for 

taking better care of the environment and their surroundings, so that 

they too get involved in saving energy.” 

The two architects call for modern man to learn from more primitive 

ways of life, for example, from the ability of nomadic peoples to adapt 

to prevailing conditions. 

Jean-Philippe Vassal certainly credits some of the firm’s inspiration 

for social refurbishment to the five years he spent working in Niger. 

Here he saw how creativity and innovation could produce significant 

changes – with limited resources available. A number of Lacaton & 

Vassal’s housing projects incorporate this flexibility – such as the use 

of a loose bamboo roof to provide shade in a sunny conservatory or 

curtains to split a large interior up into discrete functions and so forth. 

Refurbishment without rehousing 

For the 97 families of the high-rise on the outskirts of Paris, the refur- 

bishment works are carried out with the occupants still in residence. 

Initially, when the residents were asked if they were interested in radi- 

cal renovation of the property, the architects were met with scepti- 

cism and a lot of questions, but when the project was put to the vote, 

nine in ten gave it the thumbs up. 

While the refurbishment has called for flexibility and patience on 

the part of the contractors, architects and residents alike, the pro- 

ject is now nearing completion. Everyone now has a conservatory 

in the form of an additional layer of glass on the exterior of the large 

tower block, and some have even been given a balcony. Among the 

residents there is satisfaction with the result, and the architects them- 

selves sense a better atmosphere when they drop by the high-rise with 

its new ‘packaging’. 

The renovation of Tour Bois le Prêtre will cost an estimated EUR 11 

million – around 880 €/sqm - and will extend the building’s life by 

up to 50 years. 

“The cost of building a brand new high-rise could easily run to twice 

as much, regardless of how green the replacement building might 

be,” says Anne Lacaton. 

Tour Bois de Prêtre was originally 

built with an asbestos facade, which 

was peeled off during the renovation 

project. In its place, a whole new 

glass frontage was fitted to the exterior 

of the building. Graphics: Lacaton 

& Vassal 

“The occupants stayed on in their 

flats during the refurbishments, so 

the builders and installers had to 

work efficiently. Every day, as many 

as six flats were fitted with the new 

glass frontage,” says Jean-Philippe 

Vassal. Photo: Frêdêric Druot 

26 DAYLIGHT AWARD VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 

27

Postcards 

from supported projects 

The foundations support many more 

projects than can be described in the 

confines of this annual report. To give 

an impression of the range of the ac- 

tivities, however, the foundations have 

asked a representative selection of the 

ongoing projects to send us postcards 

with snapshots of their activities. 

Thin film solar cells not so inefficient 

Solar cells are being made thinner and thinner to 

save on the costly optically active material in or- 

der to keep the price down. However, when thin- 

ner, the solar cells are less able to absorb sunlight, 

which makes it more difficult for them to generate 

energy, and their efficiency is reduced. The price 

per KWh is therefore not necessarily any lower un- 

less something is done to compensate for the re- 

duced thickness. This is exactly what the PLATOS 

project is working on. In this project we exploit the 

fact that fractions of the sunlight interact extremely 

efficiently with metallic, nano-sized particles if the 

light’s wavelength matches a characteristic length 

of metal particle. Under certain circumstances, 

which are being investigated theoretically and ex- 

perimentally, the sunlight is propagated efficiently 

into the solar cell at large angles following the in- 

teraction with the metal particles on the surface of 

the solar cell. This has the effect of increasing the 

light’s effective path length within the solar cell and 

thereby compensates for the reduced cell thickness. 

Professor Arne Nylandsted Larsen, DSc, Depart- 

ment of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University. 

In 2009, “Localised surface plasmons and silicon 

thin-film solar cells – PLATOS” was awarded a 

grant of DKK 11,926,619 by the VILLUM FOUN- 

DATION. 

Solar cells under manufacture in a clean room. 

Photo: Thorbjørn Villesen 

28 POSTCARDS Photo: Thea Bech-Petersen 

VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 

29

Project manager Matthew James Driscoll studying saga manuscripts with PhD student Silvia Hufnagel. Photo: 

Ragnheiður Mósesdóttir 

Tales from prehistoric Scandinavia 

The Icelandic Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda, the 

legendary sagas or literally ‘tales of Norse times 

past’, constitute a key genre of saga literature and 

are an indispensable part of the Scandinavian cul- 

tural heritage both in that they concern Norse 

prehistory and because of their reception in more 

recent times, the Romantic Period in particular, 

when they provided an important source of inspi- 

ration for literary authors in Denmark of the likes 

of Johannes Ewald and Adam Oehlenschläger. The 

some 35 sagas that make up this genre are also 

immensely entertaining, with their splendid bat- 

tle scenes and populations of supernatural beings, 

fair maidens and valiant heroes. This is probably 

the main reason why they were also one of the 

most popular genres in Icelandic literary history. 

The large number of manuscripts in which the sa- 

gas have been passed down testifies to this – some 

1,550 manuscripts in all, the earliest from circa 

1300, the latest from the early 20th century. But 

who transcribed all these manuscripts? And how 

were they used, and by whom? At the Department 

of Scandinavian Research, University of Copenha- 

gen, a core group of researchers have teamed up to 

survey the origin, dissemination and reception of 

the Icelandic Fornaldasagas from the Middle Ages 

to the modern era. The texts are being analysed in 

the context of wider historical, social and cultural 

processes, and on the basis of these transmission 

history studies, a series of digital versions will be es- 

tablished of some of the most important and most 

interesting of the manuscripts, making them avail- 

able in a whole new way to researchers, students 

and other interested readers. 

Matthew James Driscoll, D.Phil. (Oxon), Associate 

Professor, Department of Scandinavian Research, 

University of Copenhagen. In 2011, “Alle tiders his- 

torier: De islandske fornaldarsagaer” (Stories of all 

time: the Icelandic Fornaldarsagas) was awarded a 

grant of DKK 5,000,000 by the VELUX FOUN- 

DATION. 

New Nest in Aarhus 

The VELUX FOUNDATION and VILLUM 

FOUNDATION are supporting the construction 

of a new Nest International drop-in centre and 

refuge in Aarhus. This will provide some of the 

most vulnerable people – street prostitutes with 

a drug addiction – with a new centre to replace 

the cramped and dilapidated premises which since 

1996, for many of the women, have been the clos- 

est they get to a home and close human relations. 

In recent years, the Aarhus centre run by Nest 

International under the Danish YWCA has seen a 

dramatic increase in the number of women who 

visit the centre, some of whom stay there for some 

time. New forms of abuse also mean that some 

of the women are conflict-seeking, some need 

peace and quiet, others need private counselling. 

But what all these women have in common is that 

Architect’s drawing of the new Nest in Aarhus, as viewed from the street. 

Graphics: Arkitektfirmaet Frost Larsen A/S 

they need to find a place of refuge from the risks 

of working the streets. “The life lived by drug-ad- 

dicted, prostituted women is unbelievably tough 

because it is fraught by a combination of differ- 

ent forms of abuse, psychiatric issues, prostitution 

and homelessness. These women do not reach old 

age, but they do age before their time. Which is 

why we are very pleased to be able to offer the 

women brand new premises, which provide them 

with a welcoming setting and give us better facili- 

ties for meeting their many different needs,” says 

Joan Hougaard, manager of the Nest in Aarhus. 

Susanne Exner, Head of Fundraising, Danish 

YWCA’s Social Work. In 2011, “New Nest in 

Aarhus” received donations totalling DKK 

15,000,000 made equally by the VILLUM FOUN- 

DATION and the VELUX FOUNDATION. 

30 POSTCARDS VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 

31

Brave women 

“The Germans couldn’t imagine women taking part 

in such activities, so we had a lot more freedom to 

get around than the men.” The comment is made 

during an interview with one of the many women 

who were involved in the Danish Liberation Move- 

ment of 1940-45. But not all of the women escaped 

attention. More than 700 women were caught by 

the Gestapo and sent to the Frøslev labour camp 

in Denmark. In a TV documentary series, Li Vil- 

strup and Pia Fris Laneth dispel stereotypical per- 

ceptions of the resistance movement as brigades of 

young men in trench coats. Fifteen women tell their 

dramatic stories. Some became gradually involved 

in railway and factory sabotage. Others stole and 

transported firearms, hid refugees, members of the 

resistance and Britons, tracked down informants or 

obtained fake identity papers. Still others printed 

and distributed illegal pamphlets and books. These 

are testimonies to personal courage, ethical dilem- 

mas, comrades who were betrayed and executed. 

The TV series is supplemented by a website with 

materials for upper-secondary history teaching. 

Journalist and author, Pia Fris Laneth, MSc Admin- 

istration and Political Science. In 2010, the TV series 

“Danske kvinder i modstandsbevægelsen” (Danish 

women in the Resistance Movement), devised by Li 

Vilstrup, Director, and Pia Fris Laneth and produced 

by Copenhagen Film Company, received a grant of 

DKK 700,000 from the VELUX FOUNDATION. 

Hedda Lundh and her husband in the uniforms of The 

Danish Brigade. Hedda Lundh was a railway saboteur. 

Her group was betrayed by an informant, arrested and 

sent to a German concentration camp. She and her husband 

escaped to Sweden in time where they joined The 

Danish Brigade and Lottekorpset, the women’s auxiliary 

force. Photo: May 1945 

Keeping children safe 

The “Safe childhood” project supports a network 

of more than 70 organisations operating in all 16 

provinces of Poland. This initiative focuses on 1) 

supporting parents at the initial stage of parent- 

hood where the new parents face various difficul- 

ties that pose a risk to their child’s health and safe- 

ty; 2) providing education for parents, caregivers 

and professionals as well as providing support 

for children who are exposed to various kinds of 

abuse and need particular support if they have to 

give evidence in legal proceedings; 3) improving 

child safety on the Web, because children have ac- 

cess to new electronic media and are exposed to 

harmful content and cyber-bullying or are at risk 

of Internet addiction. These multifaceted threat- 

prevention measures, based on interservice com- 

munication and a national network supported by 

the project contribute to the welfare of children 

throughout Poland. 

Gabriela Kühn, programme coordinator, The No- 

body’s Children Foundation. In 2009, “Safe Child- 

hood” was granted DKK 5,276,584 by the VIL- 

LUM FOUNDATION. 


33

Photo and graphics by Michael Petersen 

Flamingos on the wing 

The opening of the large aviary on 21 June 2011 saw the 

realisation of a long-held wish. In fact, the idea of a large 

aviary close to the entrance was presented back in 1999, 

when the plan for Copenhagen Zoo Towards 2010 was 

launched. The aviary has provided greatly improved liv- 

ing conditions for the flamingos and other flighted birds as 

they no longer need to have their wings clipped. Through 

the entrance locks, visitors have access to the birds in their 

new habitat. Along a hanging plank bridge, the visitors pass 

through the ‘forest’ at the western end of the enclosure. 

From the ‘forest edge’, there is a view of the ‘wetlands’, 

where the flamingos and other waders are forever foraging 

for food in a hive of activity. From a hideout at the western 

end of the aviary, zoo-goers can watch the birds in peace 

and quiet. This is also where the visitor information facility 

explains about the behaviour of the flamingo and red ibis 

through the year – courtship, nest-building and rearing. 

Lars Lunding Andersen, MSc, Director of Copenhagen Zoo: 

In 2010,”Aviary for flamingos and other wading birds” re- 

ceived a donation of DKK 8,000,000 from the VILLUM 

FOUNDATION. 


35

Jobs for everyone 

Denmark has a vast potential workforce that fails to 

find employment due to barriers in the structural 

design of workplaces. These people with disabili- 

ties are thus prevented from working to the best 

of their ability. The new centre built by Disabled 

Peoples Organisations Denmark is designed to 

demonstrate how, by incorporating accessibility 

into the architectural design, it is possible to cre- 

ate physical surroundings that are universally acces- 

sible, without having to be in any way expensive, 

ugly or inconvenient. As the building is intended 

as a model of how to design the office building of 

the future, a lot of emphasis was placed on making 

sure it would be environmentally sustainable. But 

sustainability often goes hand in hand with accessi- 

bility requirements. Good daylighting for example 

is a key accessibility component, while it is also key 

to the building’s energy strategy. During the de- 

sign and construction process, we trained a great 

many people from the Danish building industry in 

Universal Design. This was such a success that we 

now have every confidence that they are able to 

live up to our ambition of designing and construct- 

ing the world’s most accessible office building. On 

completion in autumn 2012, the centre will pro- 

vide office space for at least 17 disabled people’s 

organisations. The centre will therefore serve as a 

powerhouse in Denmark, where people with dis- 

abilities meet and work, and as such will be of great 

benefit to all differently abled people. 

Stig Langvad, President of the Danish Disabled Peo- 

ples Organisations. Funding of DKK 34,400,000 

was granted in 2010 towards the construction of the 

centre, Handicaporganisationernes Hus, by the VIL- 

LUM FOUNDATION. 

Disused churches as a legacy of Danish history 

When construction works unearth skeletons it is nearly always a sensation. 

But the finds tend to be of purely archaeological interest, and the sites are 

often disused churches. Yet discoveries of an increasing number of previously 

unknown derelict churches have posed a number of questions: how many 

are there, what functions did they serve, can we determine the church gov- 

ernance structure they were part of, and so forth. Given that the churches 

and their governance structure are used in drawing conclusions as to settle- 

ment patterns, demographics, social structures etc., an altered perception of 

church governance structure may have implications for a number of other 

fields of research. But archaeology is not the only source of new knowledge. 

The written sources, legends, place names and parish borders etc. also help 

to provide answers to these new questions. Selected parts of this vast body of 

material are now being examined and analysed, and within a few years it will 

be possible to provide informed answers to at least some of the questions. 

Jakob Kieffer-Olsen, PhD, Senior Research, National Museum of Denmark. 

In 2008 and 2011, “Kirke og kirkestruktur i middelalderens Danmark” 

(Churches and Ecclesiastical Polity in medieval Denmark) received a grant of 

a total of DKK 3,310,000 from the VELUX FOUNDATION. 


37

Bone tissue without osteoporosis 

Why do some people develop osteoporosis? 

Osteoporosis or brittle bone disease is a condition 

in which even trivial everyday activities may sud- 

denly cause painful fractures and result in hospi- 

talisation and even surgery. Osteoporosis afflicts 

at least 25% of women in Denmark after the age 

of 50. Like the Eiffel Tower, bones in the human 

body are constructed in a latticework to provide 

great strength with minimal structural material. 

A research team at the Department of Biomedi- 

cines, Aarhus University, is currently conducting 

a study with the aid of a microCT scanner of how 

this microstructure changes with age. The aim 

is to determine how these changes in the micro- 

structure influence the risk of osteoporosis. 

Annemarie Brüel MD, associate professor, and Jes- 

per Skovhus Thomsen MD, associate professor, De- 

partment of Biomedicine, Aarhus University. In 

2009, ”Procurement of a μCT scanner for research 

in bone microstructure and the significance of age 

in the development of osteoporosis” was awarded a 

grant of DKK 1,448,250 by the VELUX FOUN- 

DATION. 

Bone tissue with osteoporosis 

Advanced climate chamber just supplied to Technical University of Denmark - DTU 

Technical University of Denmark - DTU has 

just taken delivery of a state-of-the-art climate 

chamber for measuring the combined mechanical 

and climatic impacts (temperature and humidity 

levels) of materials and components. The con- 

figuration and construction of the chamber from 

Vötsch Industrietechnik in Germany has been in 

progress for the past twelve months. Challenges 

in the design notably included the choice of the 

right multilayer glass for the custom-constructed 

ventilating pane in the door through which ad- 

vanced optical deformation measurements will 

be made. This will be accomplished using DTU’s 

ARAMIS systems, which were acquired a couple 

of years ago, also with a donation from the VIL- 

LUM FOUNDATION. In the months ahead, 

the chamber will be integrated in a so-called bi- 

axial impact configuration to permit impacts to 

be delivered to test specimens inside the cham- 

ber. This will be followed by a battery of tests on 

test specimens in both wood and fibre compos- 

ites with a view to investigating the behaviour of 

wood structures and wind turbine blades under 

extreme climate impacts. 

Christian Berggreen, PhD, associate professor, De- 

partment of Mechanical Engineering, and Sigur- 

dur Ormarsson, PhD, Department of Civil Engi- 

neering, Technical University of Denmark. 

In 2010, “Climate chamber for investigation of 

climate-sensitive materials and structural compo- 

nents” was awarded a grant of DKK 1,156,410 by 

the VILLUM FOUNDATION. 


39

The internet 

– now with a 

geographic 

dimension 

BY CHRISTIAN S. JENSEN 

Christian S. Jensen (born 1963), PhD 1991, D. Tech. 2000, Professor of Com- 

puter Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark, 2010. Appointment at Aal- 

borg University, Denmark, and research stays at the University of Maryland 

(USA), University of Arizona (USA) and Google Inc. (USA). Member of the 

Danish Academy of Technical Sciences and the Royal Danish Academy of Sci- 

ence and Letters, and recipient of several national and international awards. 

The amount of data in electronic form is growing exponentially. At 

the same time, the IT infrastructure, including the internet, which we 

use every day, is developing at great speed. For example, smartphones 

are proliferating rapidly while mobile bandwidth is increasing all 

the time. At the other end of the infrastructure, we see data centres 

springing up everywhere. These are buildings with large numbers of 

processors and hard drives which facilitate the handling of huge vol- 

umes of data as cheaply as possible. This trend is continually creating 

new challenges and opportunities. Christian S. Jensen received the 

Villum Kann Rasmussen Annual Award for Technical and Scientific 

Research for his work that includes contributing to the efficient stor- 

age of, and searching in, spatio-temporal data, which is data refer- 

enced by time and place. Part of this work aims at giving the Internet 

a geographic dimension. According to Christian S. Jensen, the annual 

award of DKK 2,500,000, will be used to enable further research 

into foundations of the internet of the future. 

Data centres have large numbers of processors and hard drives that enable the handling of huge volumes of data. 

Photo: Robert Scoble 

Vast volumes of data 

The digital universe, or the total volume of elec- 

tronic data, is currently doubling every 18-24 

months. It has been estimated that it encompassed 

1.2 zettabytes in 2010. A zettabyte is 1024 exa- 

bytes, which is 1024 petabytes, which is 1024 ter- 

abytes. A terabyte is equivalent to what can now 

be stored on the single platter of a hard disk. In 

other words, it took 1.2 billion hard disks to store 

the digital universe as it existed in 2010. In 2020, 

the digital universe is expected to swell to 35 zet- 

tabytes. 

It is estimated that there are about 250 million web 

servers and even more websites on the internet. 

The number of documents on the internet exceeds 

25 billion. Moreover, it is estimated that the Goog- 

le search engine alone receives about 3 billion que- 

ries a day. These enormous volumes of data make 

for exciting challenges and new opportunities. 

“Google” with a geographic dimension 

Before long, the internet will be used more from 

mobile devices than from stationary computers. At 

the same time, it is increasingly possible to posi- 

tion mobile devices. It is also possible to attach a 

geographic location to many websites (such as a 

restaurant’s website). Studies show that about 20 

per cent of all web queries are for results that are 

40 THE INTERNET VILLUM FOUNDATION 41 

TECHNICAL AND NATURAL SCIENCES

Smartphones are proliferating 

rapidly. Photo: Cheon 

Fong Liew 

Indexing 

geographically close to the user and thus 

have “local intent.” 

This makes it relevant to add a geographi- 

cal dimension to “Google queries.” A 

normal query consists of keywords en- 

tered by the user. In response to the query, 

a list of links to web pages matching the search 

words is returned. Google’s goal is to respond 

within 200 milliseconds. An important question then 

is how to also simultaneously take the positions of the 

users and web pages into account. 

One type of geographic query finds links to web pages that both match 

the keywords and are close to the user’s location. It is a bad strategy to 

check every web page for every query. Instead, it is desirable to build in- 

dexes that make it possible to quickly disregard web pages that either do not 

match the keywords or are located far away from the user. 

It has long been known how to create indexes that render the finding of 

web pages based on keywords efficient. These are the kinds of indexes used 

in search engines. As something new, we have developed indexes that simul- 

taneously take into account the positions of the users and web pages. These 

new indexes make it possible to find relevant web pages by only looking 

through very little data, which enables short response times. 

Mobile objects 

Another challenge arises because mobile users are continuously on the 

move. Imagine that each of Facebook’s 500 million active users wants to 

see a list of their 10 closest Facebook friends. Or that tourists want to look 

up the 10 closest points of interest (cafés, pharmacies, etc.) that best meet 

their current needs. 

The challenge here is to keep all lists updated as the users move, and to do 

this as efficiently and cheaply as possible. One strategy to solve the problem 

for the tourists works by first finding the 10 currently best points of inter- 

est. This can be done using the indexes described above. Then a safe zone 

around the tourist is calculated within which the current result does not 

change. When the tourist moves outside the zone, the tourist’s smartphone 

sends a message to the data centre where a new result and a new safe zone 

are calculated and sent to the tourist. It turns out 

that safe zones can be described by multiplicatively 

weighted Voronoi cells. 

Privacy 

The technological advances that enable the services 

described here also have a downside in terms of 

access to increased surveillance and disclosure of 

private information. According to law professor 

Eva Smith, 82,000 pieces of information were reg- 

istered about each Dane in 2008, corresponding to 

225 pieces of information per day. The concept of 

location privacy includes aspects such as not wish- 

ing to disclose your exact location to a third party, 

but also not wishing to reveal that you are geo- 

graphically close to another person or that you are 

not home. 

p1 

p3 

p2 

R1 

p4 

word 

word 

a 

b 

c 

a 

b 

c 

R5 

R2 

InvF1 

Use of the IR-tree for the indexing of nine web pages (p.1 to p.9) with locations. The tree structure captures the spatial 

containment hierarchy shown on the left. The simplified text associated with the nine pages is shown at the top, and the 

bottom table shows the contents of the so-called inverted files associated with the nodes in the tree 

Research on privacy shows that it is often possible 

to achieve support for privacy. For example, one 

p1 

0.3 

0.7 

p7 p8 

p5 

R3 

p9 

p6 

(p1,0.3) 

(p2,0.5) 

(p1,0.7) 

(p2,0.5) 

R4 

R6 

p2 

0.5 

0.5 

InvF2 

(p3,0.4) 

(p4,0.6) 

(p3,0.6) 

(p4,0.4) 

p3 

0.4 

0.6 

InvF3 

(p5,0.1) 

(p6,0.9) 

(p5,0.9) 

(p6,0.1) 

p4 

0.6 

0.4 

InvF4 

(p7,0.2) 

p5 

0.1 

0.9 

(p8,0.8) 

(p9,0.7) 

(p7,0.8) 

(p8,0.2) 

(p9,0.3) 

p6 

0.9 

0.1 

R5 R6 

InvF5 

(R1,0.3) 

(R2,0.4) 

(R1,0.5) 

(R2,0.6) 

(R1,0.7) 

(R2,0.6) 

can find out where the “closest pizzeria” is without 

revealing one’s exact position – one can just ask 

for all pizzeria locations in the whole of Denmark 

and sort the results on the phone. The challenge 

is to return results at the lowest possible cost to 

the system. One promising strategy would, in this 

example, be to send pizzeria location queries at 

an increasing distance from a nearby false location 

until one is sure that one has received enough in- 

formation to be able to provide the correct result 

for the correct location that only the phone knows. 

Applications 

p7 

0.2 

0.8 

InvF6 

(R3,0.1) 

(R4,0.2) 

(R3,0.9) 

(R4,0.8) 

(R3,0.9) 

(R4,0.8) 

p8 

0.8 

0.2 

In addition to making a wide range of location- 

based internet services possible, research in spatio- 

temporal data management also has applications 

in a number of other areas, including intelligent 

transportation systems, logistics, physical planning, 

marketing and epidemiology. 

p9 

0.7 

0.3 

InvF7 

R1 R2 InvF5 R3 R4 

InvF1 InvF2 InvF3 InvF4 

InvF7 

(R5,0.4) 

(R6,0.2) 

(R5,0.6) 

(R6,0.9) 

(R5,0.7) 

(R6,0.9) 

InvF6 

p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 

42 THE INTERNET VILLUM FOUNDATION 43 


Stochastic 

geometry and 

image analysis 

BY EVA B. VEDEL JENSEN 

Eva B. Vedel Jensen (born 1951), DSc 1987, professor at Aarhus Univer- 

sity 2003. Director of the Thiele Centre 2004-2009 and the research pro- 

ject Histo Informatics 2007-2010 at Aarhus University. Coordinator of the 

Marie Curie training site Advanced Medical Imaging and Spatial Statistics 

(MISS) 2002-2006. Member of the Danish Natural Science Research Council 

2001-2007. Since 2010 director of CSGB – a VKR Centre of Excellence. 

In 2010 the VILLUM FOUNDATION donated DKK 25,000,000 

to a VKR Centre of Excellence: Centre for Stochastic Geometry and 

Advanced Bioimaging – CSGB. The Centre has been established as 

an interdisciplinary collaboration between Aarhus University (AU), 

Aalborg University (AAU) and University of Copenhagen (KU), in- 

volving Department of Mathematical Sciences (AU), Clinical Institute 

(AU), Department of Mathematical Sciences (AAU) and Department 

of Computer Science (KU). CSGB will develop new mathematical and 

statistical methods of analysing advanced image data from biological 

tissue (bioimaging). A particular focus is the analysis of image data 

at the molecular level, using state-of-the-art microscopy techniques. 

Many of the methods will utilise the latest advances in stochastic ge- 

ometry, a discipline on the borderline between mathematics and statis- 

tics. The research takes place in a combined Danish and international 

research environment. The centre is expected to contribute to added 

knowledge in public health-care and the biomedical industry. 

Mathematics and statistics play a key role in the biosciences. Dur- 

ing the last 25 years mathematical and statistical models have been 

developed for the analysis of cell populations, based on data from 

traditional light microscopy. With the development of, e.g., laser 

scanning and so-called cryo-electron microscopy it is, however, 

now possible to acquire images of biological tissue (bioimaging) 

at the molecular level and this requires a corresponding develop- 

ment of mathematical and statistical methods. 

Stochastic geometry 

Stochastic geometry is an important prerequisite for this develop- 

ment of methods. Stochastic geometry is used in modelling and 

analysis of spatial structures such as curves and surfaces. Stereology 

is an important subfield of stochastic geometry. As the name indi- 

cates, stereology provides information about a spatial structure 

(three dimensions) from a number of sections (two di- 

mensions) through the structure (see fig. 1). 

One of the principal contributions of stochastic 

geometry is a number of geometric calcu- 

lation formulae (functionals) to describe the 

quantitative properties of a spatial structure, for in- 

stance, volume, surface area, length, number and curva- 

ture. These functionals have been used in numerous stereo- 

logical studies of biological tissue at the light microscopy level. 

Local stereology 

In stochastic geometry, there has recently been a lot of focus on the 

study of a number of new functionals, so-called volume and surface 

tensors, that are, so to speak, able to ‘zoom in’ and provide more 

detailed local information about a spatial structure than the more 

general global information in the previous functionals. At the cen- 

tre we want to utilise these advances in enhancing analysis of image 

data from biological tissue. 

For example, earlier stereological analyses of the cerebral cortex 

in humans with dementia or schizophrenia do not show changes 

in the total number of neurons. We expect that there are instead 

changes in the spatial arrangement of neurons in certain regions 

of the cortex. Likewise, disease-caused changes in tissue do not 

Fig.1. Local stereology makes it possible 

to calculate estimates of parameters 

of a spatial structure, such as volume 

and surface area, from observations 

along lines or in planes passing 

through a reference point. At CSGB, 

local stereological methods of determining 

so-called volume and surface 

tensors are developed. These tensors 

can provide new information about 

shape and orientation distributions in 

cell populations. Illustration: Markus 

Kiderlen 

44 STOCHASTIC GEOMETRY AND IMAGE ANALYSIS VILLUM FOUNDATION 45 


(1) 

necessarily affect the size distribution of cells but 

instead affect their orientation and shape distribu- 

tion. It will therefore be of immense value if de- 

velopment of the new methods allows us to go 

further than merely describing the distributions of 

the volume and surface area of the cells to also de- 

scribe the distributions of cell orientation, shape, 

symmetry, etc. 

Point processes as building blocks 

(2) 

Fig.2. Point processes are the fundamental building blocks of stochastic geometry models. Point processes can describe 

data consisting of simple point patterns (1), and marked point patterns where the points may have associated marks 

specifying e.g. different types of points (2) or geometric objects such as line segments (3), circles (4), or more complicated 

shapes. Illustration: Jesper Møller and Daniela Mayer 

During the last few decades, stochastic geometry 

has also provided a wealth of stochastic models. 

The majority of these models have so-called point 

processes as fundamental building blocks (see fig. 

2). But, until now, the models have not had the 

influence in bioimaging, especially quantitative mi- 

croscopy, that they deserve. At the centre, we want 

to contribute to more extensive use of the models 

in microscopy and more generally in bioimaging. 

In particular, the obvious potential of point process 

models in the analysis of spatial arrangements of 

cells has not yet been thoroughly investigated. 

Bioimaging challenges stochastic geometry 

The new microscopy techniques also challenge sto- 

(3) 

chastic geometry. A number of fascinating math- 

ematical and statistical questions arising from the 

study of the connection between objects in the 

‘real’ world and their digital representations (for 

instance, in the form of microscopy images) remain 

to be answered. The new advanced experiments 

within microscopy that give access to the mole cular 

level, including laser scanning microscopy and 

cryo-electron microscopy, require the development 

of completely new stochastic geometry models for 

random fields. Cryo-electron microscopy especially 

has produced several successes in recent years with 

many publications in Nature and Science, but now 

faces a number of barriers concerning speed and 

optimisation of the algorithms that can only be 

eliminated in collaboration with mathematicians, 

statisticians and computer scientists. 

Fluorescence microscopy taken to the mole- 

cular level 

(4) 

In this CSGB project, we study the interaction be- 

tween proteins within a living cell by measuring 

distances between proteins. However, the inter- 

action distances are typically at the 1-10 nm scale 

and this resolution is impossible to achieve by tra- 

Structure Determination by Cryo-EM 

ditional fluorescence microscopy. As an alternative, 

we use a special technique, FRET microscopy, 

which allows indirect measurement of these short 

distances. The raw data consists of three noisy digi- 

tal fluorescence images. The measurement noise 

now enters the analysis in a very complicated fash- 

ion. A crucial component of the project is therefore 

to model the noise correctly so that reliable results 

can be obtained. 

Image acquisition and particle selection 

Molecular cryo-electron microscopy 

Molecular cryo-electron microscopy allows us to 

study 3D structures of macromolecular assemblies 

that are scarcely accessible using more traditional 

Two-dimensional 

Averaging (SNR ) 

3D Reconstruction 

Fig.3. Illustration of the different steps involved in cryo-electron microscopy, from noisy images to reconstructed macromolecule. 

Illustration: Monika Golas and Björn Sander 

techniques. Data from cryo-electron microscopy 

comprise several thousands to millions of individ- 

ual particle images and analysis of these data is ex- 

tremely demanding, both in terms of hardware and 

algorithmically. Within cryo-electron microscopy, 

the most important future challenges for CSGB are 

(1) to increase image resolution by developing new 

statistical methods of identifying subpopulations of 

macromolecules and (2) to find new efficient com- 

putational methods of three-dimensional recon- 

struction of macromolecular structures (see fig. 3). 

At the time of writing, (2) is in progress in a col- 

laboration with the Image Group at University of 

Copenhagen which is also participating in CSGB. 

46 STOCHASTIC GEOMETRY AND IMAGE ANALYSIS VILLUM FOUNDATION 47 


Evolution and 

climate change 

BY BODIL K. EHLERS, MARTIN HOLMSTRUP AND JESPER GIVSKOV SØRENSEN 

Bodil K. Ehlers (born 1971) holds 

a PhD from Aarhus University 

and was appointed frontline assis- 

tant professor at the Department 

of Biology, University of South- 

ern Denmark in January 2010. 

Her principal field of research is 

the evolutionary ecology of plants, 

with particular emphasis on the 

importance of the interplay be- 

tween biotic and abiotic factors in 

adaptation and coexistence. 

Martin Holmstrup (born 1961) 

holds a PhD and DSc in biology 

from Aarhus University and is a 

professor at the Department of Ter- 

restrial Ecology (TERI), Aarhus 

University. He has investigated 

soil dwelling animals’ adaptation 

to extreme climate conditions and 

the potential impacts of climate 

change on terrestrial ecosystems. 

Jesper Givskov Sørensen (born 

1972) holds a PhD in biology from 

Aarhus University, and since 

2009 he has held an appoint- 

ment as Senior Scientist in the 

Department of Terrestrial Ecology 

(TERI), Aarhus University. JGS 

is a Sapere Aude DFF-research 

director (2011-2015) and has 

primarily conducted research in 

molecular aspects of invertebrates’ 

physiological and evolutionary ad- 

aptation to the environment. 

In 2010, the VILLUM FOUNDATION granted DKK 4,100,000 over 

4 years to a research project aimed at studying evolutionary responses to 

climate change. The research project is a collaboration between scientists 

from the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and Aarhus University 

(AU). The grant was awarded to Bodil Ehlers (BI, SDU), Thomas Batail- 

lon (BiRC, AU), Martin Holmstrup and Jesper Givskov Sørensen (TERI, 

AU). The aim of the project is to study whether, and if so how and how 

quickly, animals and plants respond to evolutionary climate change. The 

project employs an existing climate project – INCREASE – which simulates 

future climate change in Europe. INCREASE is a climate change experi- 

ment in which an area of nature in each European country is subjected to 

temperatures slightly above average or increased drought. The project aims 

to study whether evolutionary changes have in fact occurred in species that 

have been subjected to future climate scenarios for generations. 

Polar bear in trouble. Global 

warming poses a threat 

to many current animal and 

plant habitats. The project 

studies the ability of plants 

and animals to adapt evolutionarily 

to ongoing climate 

change. Photodesign: Mikael 

Rex og Sisse Bay 

48 EVOLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE VILLUM FOUNDATION 49 


Clocaenog (Wales) is a field experiment 

in which for 10 years, areas 

with natural flora and fauna have 

been treated with warming at night 

and precipitation has been artificially 

eliminated for a period of approximately 

one month per year. Warming 

is created by night-roofing which 

raises the temperature in the soil by 

1-2 degrees, equivalent to how much 

it is expected to increase over the 

next 50-100 years. Likewise, drought 

is created by roofing that automatically 

rolls out when it rains. The effect 

of these climatic manipulations on 

genetic changes is examined in the 

project for certain species of plants 

and soil dwelling animals. Photo: Elin 

Jørgensen 

Man affects nature 

The activities of man greatly affect the chances of survival of other 

living organisms. Recently, it has become clear that our various 

activities more or less are to blame for species becoming extinct 

globally and locally. The rate at which species and populations 

are becoming extinct has been estimated to be equal to or above 

previous periods of mass extinction, and scientific studies are nec- 

essary in order to understand the processes that lead to extinction. 

The species are threatened by a combination of several factors. 

Many populations have become smaller and more isolated due to 

changes in the landscape. In small populations, related individuals 

may breed (inbreeding) and erosion of the genetic diversity (vari- 

ance) may occur. This may lead to decreased resistance to diseases 

or reduced fertility. It also means that small populations will be 

less able to adapt evolutionarily to changes in the environment, as 

genetic variance is the basis for adaptation. These different factors 

that make life in a small population dangerous affect and reinforce 

each other in a so-called “extinction spiral”. 

Global climate change 

The entire world is facing the challenge of global 

climate change. The climate is a crucial determi- 

nant of which species are able to survive. Basically, 

a species is able to respond within 3 months of its 

environment having been changed: it may move 

(migrate) to new areas where the environment is 

better suited to its biology, or it may adapt to the 

changes taking place in its current environment. 

If none of these responses are possible, the species 

may become extinct. 

During previous periods of climate change, it 

may be assumed that the individual populations 

were to some extent able to find a suitable new 

environment, e.g. by migrating south or north. 

Today most species are “captured” in “nature is- 

lands” that are surrounded by a ‘hostile environ- 

ment’. The natural areas have largely been deter- 

mined and local populations may find it difficult 

to find new suitable areas, even if they are able 

to migrate. This is why it is important to study 

how populations react to climate change and 

how they adapt to e.g. higher temperatures. This 

knowledge will help us understand which genetic 

prerequisites must be fulfilled for adaption to a 

changing climate to succeed, how much time it 

takes, and which groups of animals and plants are 

particularly robust or fragile. 

Global warming? Graphics: NASA 

How do animals and plants respond to climate 

change? 

The climate is changing rapidly. Summers are warm- 

er and dryer and climatic fluctuations are becoming 

more extreme. This causes the living conditions for 

animals and plants to change. Climate change may 

lead to adverse living conditions for some species, 

while at the same time, some species, e.g. southern 

species, may be able to thrive in northern latitudes. 

Changes in the composition of species may also po- 

tentially affect species that are not directly affected 

by climate change and may, thus, influence the en- 

tire ecosystem network. Species of the biological 

community affect each other, and the extinction of 

one species may cause a cascade of changes that may 

lead to other species’ disappearing or multiplying. 

In this way, biological systems consist of a myriad 

of interacting elements and each element cannot be 

seen as standing alone. Interactions may e.g. be be- 

tween predators and prey, hosts and parasites, flow- 

ers and pollinators or seeds and seed distributors. 

New invasive or newly introduced species (flora/ 

fauna pollution) may be caused by similar imbal- 

ances. 

This project focuses on whether species are able to 

adapt evolutionarily and, if so, whether they can 

adapt “quickly enough”. Evolutionary adaptation 

implies genetic changes in a species’ genetic ma- 



Soil samples are collected from field 

experiments that have imitated global 

warming since 1999/2000. Among 

other things, animals of great ecological 

importance for conversion of 

matter are collected in the soil samples. 

The animals are collected from 

test areas that have been manipulated 

for exposure to drought, increased 

summer temperatures, and 

unmanipulated conditions (control). 

The animals have lived in these climatic 

conditions for ten years and 

they are examined for whether they 

have evolutionarily adapted to the 

changed environment and whether 

they have the potential to continue 

to adapt. The examined animals are 

small, live in the soil and have a short 

generation time. An example is the 

springtail, shown on the picture on 

the right. Photo: Elin Jørgensen 

terial due to the new natural selection pressure caused by climate 

change. The genetic changes take place over several generations and 

may cause a population to be better adapted to its environment. 

Evolutionary adaptation is happening and has happened since the 

origin of life. Because the ongoing climate changes are happening 

fast, and because many natural populations today are small and, 

therefore, contain less genetic variation for adaptation, the question 

of adaptation is two-fold. It concerns to what extent species have the 

evolutionary potential to adapt and, if so, whether they are able to 

adapt at a rate that matches the rate of the climate change. 

A European experimental setup 

Currently, there is a serious lack of scientifically based knowledge of 

whether animal and plant species are able to evolutionarily adapt to 

current climate changes. This knowledge is essential for predicting 

future species distribution and fate, and for developing strategies 

for future nature preservation (both for threatened species and for 

potentially invasive species). 

The cause of this lacking knowledge is a lack of long-term studies 

specifically designed to examine the evolutionary adaptation of spe- 

cies as a response to rapidly changing climate. What limited knowl- 

edge we do have is based on studies in natural climate gradients 

where the same species lives under different climate conditions and 

where phenotypic and genetic variation in such a species have been 

studied over so many years that possible changes in 

this variation can be documented. Very few studies 

meet these requirements. 

The current study utilises existing experimental 

setups – INCREASE – which simulate future cli- 

mate change in Europe. INCREASE is a climate 

change experiment that has been set up in natural 

habitats with parallel experimental setups in several 

European countries in 1999-2000. INCREASE 

has been running for enough years to allow us 

to study whether evolutionary changes have, in 

fact, taken place in species that have lived under 

different future climate scenarios for generations, 

and to compare these changes to populations that 

have not been under this natural selection pressure 

(control). The design makes it possible to compare 

populations consisting of the same species that 

have been living in the same habitat, but under 

different climate change scenarios (increased tem- 

perature, increased drought and control). 

The design of the project provides a solid foun- 

dation for documenting whether evolutionary 

changes have, in fact, taken place as a response to 

climate change. Three European countries (Den- 

mark, Great Britain and the Netherlands) have a 

great overlap of animals and plants. This makes 

it possible to examine, both locally and on a Eu- 

ropean scale, whether these species have already 

responded phenotypically and genetically, due to 

ten years’ natural selection resulting from increased 

temperature and drought, and whether they have 

the evolutionary potential to adapt in the future. 

The project involves a lot of experimental work in 

the field and laboratory and molecular work (“next 

generation sequencing”). The project examines 

possible evolutionary changes that have taken 

place as a response to climate change and drought 

as well as species’ evolutionary potential and, con- 

sequently, their chances of adapting in the future 

as well. The molecular work will make it possible 

to localise the actual genetic regions that have re- 

sponded to natural selection for climate change 

and, thus, to find the genes that are important for 

future climate-induced evolutionary changes. As 

both plants and animals are being studied, it is ex- 

pected that the project will be able to reveal gen- 

eral patterns regarding organisms’ ability to adapt 

and how quickly they do so. 

Photo: Steve Hopkin 



Aristotle 

then and now 

BY STEN EBBESEN AND DAVID BLOCH 

Sten Ebbesen (born 1946), D.Phil. 1981, is 

professor in Greek and Latin with special as- 

signments concerning the Aristotelian Tra- 

dition at the SAXO Institute, University of 

Copenhagen, director of the Centre for the 

Aristotelian Tradition, and member of the 

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Let- 

ters. He is the author of 235 books and scien- 

tific articles. 

David Bloch (born 1975), PhD 2006, is 

professor in Greek and Latin at the SAXO 

Institute, University of Copenhagen, deputy 

director of the Centre for the Aristotelian 

Tradition, and member of the Royal Dan- 

ish Academy of Sciences and Letters. He is 

the author of 45 books and scientific articles. 

In 2008, the VELUX FOUNDATION donat- 

ed DKK 5,675,000 to a three-year core-group 

project commencing 1 April 2009 entitled 

“History of Philosophy in Reverse. Reading 

Aristotle through the lenses of scholars from 

the Middle Ages and the 16th-17th centuries”. 

The premise is to study interpretations of the 

epoch-making Greek philosopher Aristotle’s 

(384-322 BC) works from the period 1150- 

1650 in the interests of determining what they 

reveal of the thought of their age, and whether 

they have anything of value to offer contem- 

porary Aristotelian research. The donation 

resulted in the establishment of Centre for the 

Aristotelian Tradition, which is staffed as fol- 

lows: Sten Ebbesen (director), David Bloch 

(deputy director), Jakob Fink (postdoctoral re- 

searcher) and Heine Hansen (postdoctoral re- 

searcher). Also: Michael Stenskjær Christensen, 

student assistant, and, with financing from oth- 

er sources, postdoctoral researcher Ana Maria 

Mora-Márquez. 

Platon and Aristotle 

2,377 years ago, a 17-year-old doctor’s son from a 

Greek provincial town travelled to Athens to study 

under one of the greatest philosophers of the age, 

Plato. The young man was Aristotle. 

Plato’s Academy was no ordinary school: among 

other things, the principal was to receive no salary; 

the opportunity to take part in the search for new 

knowledge being reward enough, but the mem- 

bers of what was in effect an academic ‘club’ were 

expected to contribute, according to their means, 

to the running of the institution. There was no 

nominal duration of study, as this would have been 

contrary to Plato’s fundamental premise that the 

search for truth takes however long it takes. 

Plato and Aristotle in passionate debate in Athens, according 

to the Renaissance interpretation by famous 

Italian architect and painter Raphael (1483-1520). 

Source: Wikipedia 

54 ARISTOTLE THEN AND NOW VELUX FOUNDATION 55 

HUMANITIES

Centre for the Aristotelian 

Tradition holds a series of colloquies. 

The project group’s 

Jakob Fink is seen emphasising 

a point, with Katerina Ierodiakonou 

of Athens University 

and Heine Hansen from 

the project group listening. 

Photo: Miira Touminen 

In any case, Aristotle was in no hurry to leave and actually stayed at the Acad- 

emy for twenty years until Plato died in 347 BC. At that time, Athens had 

a magnetic attraction for intellectuals from the whole of the Greek world, 

which extended almost right round the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. 

This created an inspiring environment for a man like Aristotle, and after 

twenty years with Plato he was ready to emerge as the world’s leading scien- 

tist and philosopher. He spent the next twelve years outside of Athens, in- 

cluding a couple of years in Macedonia as tutor to the crown prince, who was 

later to become Alexander the Great. In 335, he returned to Athens and cre- 

ated his own research academy, the Lykeion (lyceum). He died in 322 BC. 

The importance of Aristotle 

Aristotle’s written legacy is vast. He was the founder of logic, biology, literary 

theory and wrote the first comprehensive treatises on many other disciplines. 

Although a polymath, he never merely dabbled in subjects, and was both 

imaginative and logical in his reasoning. Posterity recognised his accomplish- 

ments, and he came to dominate European thought, education and research 

for two millennia. 

Our culture became suffused with Aristotelianism. Aristotle pervaded our 

language and ideology. Our understanding of science and its methods and 

procedures, fundamental aspects of our vocabulary and system of ideas – 

our whole way of thinking is so influenced by this ancient philosopher that 

it would be no exaggeration to say that we are still essentially, in the 21st 

century, Aristotelians. It is almost inconceivable that we should be unable to 

distinguish between generalities and specifics or between the actual and the 

potential, but these and many of the other distinctions we draw are the work 

of Aristotle. 

This is why so many scholars to this day have good reason for devoting a 

great deal of time to studying Aristotle: he is historically important, but not 

only that: he is still a source of philosophical inspiration. Having familiarised 

oneself with his thoughts on ethics, say, or on the relationship between lan- 

guage and thought, one is well equipped to form a personal opinion on such 

matters. 

Each year sees the publication of excellent books and articles on Aristotle’s 

works and thoughts, but they are almost always flawed in the same way: they 

fail to take account of earlier scholars who might be able to offer them a few 

perspectives that happen to be out of vogue in the present day and age. 

Earlier scholars 

There is in fact a great deal of inspiration to be found for modern scholars of 

Aristotle in sources dating back to an era in which Aristotle’s writings were 

standard textbooks at the higher institutions of education in Western Eu- 

rope, i.e. from circa 1150 to 1650. These writings have never been studied 

so intently as they were then. The medieval preoccupation with Aristotle was 

characterised by a desire not only to understand him, but simply to under- 

stand, to learn what was true and real, and his writings proved their worth 

The Centre’s logo is a stylised 

version of a fresco in a Greek 

church, featuring Aristotle. 

The fresco is from the 17th 

century and the artist has 

identified Aristotle as a nobleman 

by dressing him in a 

fine turban. A photograph of 

the fresco is seen in the background 

to the photograph 

from the colloquy on the opposite 

page. Logo: Martin 

Emborg 

56 ARISTOTLE THEN AND NOW VELUX FOUNDATION 57 

HUMANITIES

Teaching scene from the University of Leuven in what is 

now Belgium. The teacher, the only seated person present, 

is delivering a lecture on Aristotle. The picture was 

drawn by a student in 1467, but apart from the unusual 

uniform worn by the students, the scene at other universities 

in the middle ages would not have been much 

different. Reproduced with the permission of the University 

of Aberdeen 

58 ARISTOTLE THEN AND NOW 

time and time again in attempts to make sense of 

aspects of logic, ethics, zoology, metaphysics and 

many other disciplines. There was a reasonable 

expectation that making a thorough study of his 

writings would be rewarded, and so readings of 

Aristotle were taken very seriously indeed. The 

texts were approached on the premise that they 

held something valuable; it was merely a ques- 

tion of finding the right key to interpreting them. 

This is not a bad basis for interpretation, nor one 

altogether abandoned today, although the major- 

ity of modern scholars soon conclude that some 

Aristotelian thoughts and arguments no longer 

pass muster. 

The early scholars of Aristotle can therefore be 

usefully studied in two ways. 

First, they can be studied as independent think- 

ers, who simply take Aristotelian writings and 

thoughts as their point of departure. Many early 

scholars were in fact first-rate theoreticians them- 

selves, and often make for useful reading in that 

they instruct us on their own bygone ideologies 

while spurring modern reflection. A home-grown 

example would be readings of Danish philosopher 

Boethius of Dacia’s gem of a work entitled On the 

Highest Good from circa 1275, which is inspired 

by Aristotle’s Ethics. This work is perhaps less than 

instructive about the ancient Greek’s works, but 

instructive all the same. 

Second, we may study these works for their Aristo- 

telian scholasticism, and ask: Given their different 

premises, were early scholars able to see something 

in his writings which modern scholars overlook? 

Have they taken any interesting angles of ap- 

proach to the text which modern readers might 

have forgotten? Do they employ techniques that 

might be useful to take on board either as-is or 

with some modification? 

Centre for the Aristotelian Tradition 

At the Centre for the Aristotelian Tradition we 

do both. The first-named form of study has been 

practised for a long time, but there is still potential 

for a great many exciting discoveries, given the vol- 

ume of unexamined texts that exist only as a few 

manuscripts from the late Middle Ages. They are 

all in Latin, and penned in a script which only a few 

people today are able to decipher. But this is some- 

thing we can do at our centre, so one of our prod- 

ucts is print editions of hitherto unprinted works 

on Aristotelian philosophy. Poring over a manu- 

script which may not have been read for more than 

500 years is nothing short of thrilling! 

The second form of study is what makes our 

project original. We have found several types of 

productive thoughts and readings which would 

be worth pursuing further. To name a couple of 

examples: 

1) Aristotle was the first to attempt to describe 

the world around us systematically. To that end, 

he created various models for organising the dif- 

ferent parts of the world. One of the most fun- 

damental models is known as the doctrine of 

Categories: Aristotle classified all that exists in 10 

categories – substance, quantity, quality, relation 

etc. – which proved an enduring concept. True, 

the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant 

(1724-1804) criticised Aristotle’s classifications 

as being arbitrary, yet was still unable to conceive 

of a philosophy without a theory of categories, 

and so had to devise his own. In the Middle Ages, 

almost everyone accepted Aristotle’s ten catego- 

ries, but was like Kant aware that the Philosopher 

by the name of Aristotle had not explained why 

there were exactly ten and only those specific ten 

categories. There were, however, many who be- 

lieved they might come up with an explanation, 

but no proposal found a general following, and 

so a discussion evolved as to whether it was pos- 

sible to prove that Aristotle’s classification was 

correct. Several medieval attempts at justifying 

the Categories have been rediscovered by modern 

scholars, yet they lack their predecessors’ well- 

developed awareness of the problems entailed by 

each of the attempts, or by making the attempt in 

the first place. So, there is much to learn from the 

early scholars! And it matters to do so! After all, 

this concerns how we understand all that exists! 

2) In one of his writings, Aristotle offers useful ad- 

vice on how to reveal and counter fallacious argu- 

ments in a discussion, but also provides tricks for 

how to give as good as you get if your opponent 

is not quite playing fair. You might for instance 

exploit the fact that out of loyalty to his teacher he 

feels obliged to defend theories which normal au- 

diences would think are off the rails. Why would 

the father of logic do such a thing? Help debat- 

ers to cheat! Twelfth-century scholars had a good 

idea why, because in Paris at that time the situa- 

tion was probably not unlike Aristotle’s Athens, in 

that the pupils of the leading philosophers met in 

public debates, where each of the parties felt duty 

bound to defend the master’s theories, even if it 

sounded to the untrained audience as if they had 

lost the plot. 

Within the scope of our project period, we only 

have the time to run pilot studies of the philoso- 

pher’s vast authorship and the colossal volume of 

commentaries, but we are not in any doubt that 

we are onto something that holds huge potential 

going forward: for a whole new type of Aristote- 

lian research combining modern analytical tools 

with the medieval scholars’ assiduous interpreta- 

tive models and their appreciation of the enduring 

importance of Aristotle’s writings. 


59 

HUMANITIES

Political attitudes 

and behaviour: 

nature or nurture? 

BY ROBERT KLEMMENSEN AND ASBJØRN SONNE NØRGAARD 

Robert Klemmensen 

(born 1972), associate 

professor in political sci- 

ence at the University of 

Southern Denmark. He 

has previously done research on 

governments’ negotiated policy 

settlements, government respon- 

siveness to voter demands, and 

political behaviour and attitude 

formation, at an elite as well as 

at a mass level. 

Asbjørn Sonne Nør- 

gaard (born 1966), 

professor in political sci- 

ence at the University 

of Southern Denmark. 

Among other things he has stud- 

ied the interaction between par- 

liament and organised interests, 

and the role of the media in poli- 

tics. His long-standing interest 

in attitude formation and politi- 

cal participation at an elite level 

now extends to the mass level. 

In 2009 the VELUX FOUNDATION granted DKK 5,435,000 

to the project “Nature or Nurture - What Determines Political 

Attitudes, Values and Behaviour?”. Traditionally, the focus in 

political science has been on environmental factors such as early 

childhood socialisation, culture, and social and economic status 

to account for political attitudes and behaviour. In psychology 

and behavioural genetics it has long been recognised that biol- 

ogy also influences people’s values and behaviour. By comparing 

fraternal and identical twins, the project examines if and how 

heritability influences individual political traits. The project sur- 

veys the political attitudes and behaviours of more than 3,500 

20-40-year-old twins over a four-year period. The initial results 

show that genetic factors play a role in political attitude forma- 

tion and the individual’s inclination to be politically active. 

Thanks to the grant, Dr. Sara Binzer Hobolt of Oxford Univer- 

sity has been able to join the research group under a part-time 

professorship at the University of Southern Denmark. The grant 

has also made it possible to recruit Dr. Peter Thisted Dinesen as 

a postdoctoral assistant professor. The Danish Agency for Sci- 

ence, Technology and Innovation has supported the hiring of 

two PhD students, who are now working on dissertations re- 

lated to the project. Recently, the Dean of the Faculty of Social 

Science at the University of Southern Denmark decided that a 

research programme developed on the basis of the project sup- 

ported by the VELUX FOUNDATION is to be a priority field 

of high international standard. 

Since the era of Enlightenment, social sciences have largely assumed that 

human behaviour, feelings and values could be explained by externally 

given factors. Man is born as a ‘clean slate’, a ‘tabula rasa’. Gradually, the 

slate fills up via early socialisation at home, then among friends, at edu- 

cational institutions and with experiences from work and family life. All 

these elements help people shape their outlook on life. 

According to this classic paradigm, we should be able to explain our at- 

titudes and values by differences in the socialisation to which we have 

been exposed. It follows that people who have been exposed to identical 

socialisation and have similar experiences should develop similar values 

and attitudes. 

The challenge 

Our project challenges these assumptions. We ask to what extent biology 

can explain why people develop different attitudes; in other words, could 

genetic disposition play a role in addition to external socialisation? 

The first step in our investigation is to examine whether attitudes and 

values are heritable at all. If they turn out to be partially heritable, the 

assumption of socialisation as the only cause of attitudes and values must 

be rejected. 

The Danish Twin Registry at 

the University of Southern 

Denmark is the oldest of its 

kind in the world, and as such 

a mine of information for scientists 

interested in the significance 

of heritability and environment 

in the context of ageing 

and predisposition to certain 

diseases. The registry is 

now also being used to investigate 

how heritability and environment 

influence political 

attitudes and political involvement. 

Logo: The Danish Twin 

Registry 

Identical twins have not only 

been raised by the same parents, 

genetically they are also 

100% identical. Both factors 

may indicate that they develop 

identical political attitudes 

and interests, because heritability 

too plays a role. Photo: 

Colourbox.com 

60 POLITICAL ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR VELUX FOUNDATION 61 

HUMANITIES

Twin studies 

In cooperation with the Danish Twin Registry we 

asked Danish twins about how they participate in 

politics, where they place themselves on a right- 

left political scale, how interested they are in poli- 

tics and many other questions about social values 

and political attitudes. 

Twin studies are particularly well suited to iden- 

tifying heritability in a given area. In this type 

of study, we compare responses from fraternal 

twins with responses from identical twins. If the 

responses from the identical twins are more uni- 

form than the responses from the fraternal twins, 

we have reason to believe that there is a genetic 

component in the expression of attitude. 

There are two reasons for believing that this ‘ho- 

mogeneity’ is due to heritability: (1) identical 

twins are 100% identical, whereas fraternal twins 

on average are 50% identical; (2) each set of twins 

is exposed to the same early socialisation in their 

nuclear families. Socialisation therefore cannot 

explain the more uniform responses among the 

identical twins, which leaves only the ‘homogene- 

ity’ in biology to explain why the identical twins 

are more alike. 

The initial results 

So what do the initial Danish twin studies show? 

Surprisingly, it turns out that the hereditary com- 

ponent in political participation is quite large. We 

have measured political participation in activities 

such as taking part in a demonstration, writing 

to a politician etc. Approximately half of the vari- 

ation we measure can be explained by a genetic 

component. 

The fact that we find largely the same results in 

American twin studies conducted by our partners 

makes the result even more sensational. It is re- 

62 POLITICAL ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR 

markable that heritability is significant for politi- 

cal participation in a political culture that is so dif- 

ferent from the Danish political culture. 

In addition, we find that ‘political sense of effi- 

cacy’, i.e. the feeling that one can make a differ- 

ence in politics, to a very great extent stems from 

the same basic genetic component that influences 

political participation. 

This is a very interesting result for research on 

political participation. Earlier research has point- 

ed out that the feeling of being able to make a 

difference in politics is quite decisive for whether 

individuals want to engage in politics. The notion 

has been that the sense of political efficacy is so- 

cialised and something you can acquire given the 

right experiences and the right influences from 

your surroundings. Our research shows that the 

reason a correlation was established between the 

two phenomena is that they stem to a large ex- 

tent from the same latent genetic factor. In other 

words, we are genetically predisposed both to a 

great sense of political efficacy and to being politi- 

cally active. 

Another surprising result is that much of the vari- 

ation in political interest can also be explained by 

heredity. For those who are politically interested, 

approximately 50% of the variation can be ac- 

counted for genetically. Again, the result among 

American twins is remarkably close to the Danish 

results. 

Future outcomes 

Over the next few years we will be developing the 

project via two paths: (1) We will be inves- 

tigating how personality inter- 

acts with genetics 

in forming 

political 

Political interest – e.g. taking part in a political demonstration is not only a question of socialisation. Political interest is also 

genetically determined. Photo: Raadal 

attitudes and values. We know from psychology 

that personality traits (e.g. extro- or introversion, 

conscientiousness or carelessness etc.) are highly 

hereditary – it is very difficult to teach an intro- 

vert to become extrovert. Our idea is that the 

influence of genetics on political behaviour and 

attitudes is partly explained by the fact that genet- 

ics affect people’s personality, which affects their 

attitudes and disposition to be politically active. 

(2) We will be investigating how the environment 

people move around in interacts with both their 

personality and with genetics. The idea is to in- 

vestigate under which conditions genetic factors 

are especially important, 

and under which con- 

ditions environmental 

factors are significant in terms of explaining po- 

litical behaviour and political attitudes. 

Our grant from the VELUX FOUNDATION 

allows us to follow the same twins over several 

years, and we will be the first in the world to study 

how nature and nurture affect political attitudes 

and behaviour from a dynamic perspective. One 

of many interesting questions is whether twins 

who were previously very similar become increas- 

ingly dissimilar as they complete different educa- 

tions and gain different life experiences. The in- 

terplay between nature and nurture is precisely a 

dynamic process, and it will be interesting to see 

if this process also affects the formation of politi- 

cal attitudes, the sense of political efficacy and the 

inclination to be politically active. 


63 

HUMANITIES

Medieval 

Language 

on the Web 

BY MERETE K. JØRGENSEN 

Merete K. Jørgensen (born 1951), MA (Copenhagen) in Danish and history. She has worked for the Dictionary of 

Old Danish project since 1984; as editor-in-chief since 1991. 

In 2008, the VELUX FOUNDATION grant- 

ed DKK 1,378,405 to the project “Documen- 

tation of the Danish language from 1100 to 

1515 on the Internet”. The aim of the pro- 

ject was to digitise the citation-slip collec- 

tion, numbering nearly one million slips in 

total, that forms the basis for editorial work 

on the Dictionary of Old Danish. The project 

also included the construction of a structured 

database, and production of a website with 

sophisticated search functions and help texts. 

64 MEDIEVAL LANGUAGE ON THE WEB 

A number of advanced search options based 

on the dictionary’s very comprehensive and 

detailed inventory of sources were developed, 

enabling various criteria to be combined, so 

that searches can be refined and very precise. 

The process of digitisation and the subsequent 

development of the database and website were 

outsourced, while planning, monitoring and 

quality control were tasks undertaken by the 

dictionary’s two editors, Merete K. Jørgensen 

and Marita Akhøj Nielsen. 

Why do we need to know Old Danish? 

Danish identity is currently under much 

discussion. Although this article is not an 

opinion piece, it does concern the concept 

of identity. If we are not acquainted with 

our past, how can we preserve our identity? 

Maintaining and deepening our historical 

awareness needs to be done on a scholarly 

basis so as not to create myths. We have 

to explore historical written sources, and in order to understand them 

properly, a thorough knowledge of the language from various linguistic 

periods is essential. As far as the Middle Ages are concerned, knowledge 

of the relevant medieval languages is the gateway to the period’s poetry, 

historiography, view of justice, medicine, ideas about education, religious 

life and world-view. The period, referred to in historical linguistics as Old 

Danish, covers the years 1100 to 1515. It is a very long period, covering 

almost half of those centuries for which it makes sense to talk of a fully 

developed and autonomous Danish language. 

The Dictionary of Old Danish 

Staff at the Dictionary of Old Danish have spent many years working to 

provide the foundation for a scholarly description of the Danish language 

during the Middle Ages. In real terms, this foundation comprises a cita- 

tion-slip collection, based on all the extant texts from the Middle Ages 

written in Danish. Every single word in these sources, whether it occurs 

thousands of times or only once, has been copied onto citation slips. For 

very common words, only carefully selected examples have been included. 

The collection comprises nearly one million slips, grouped under approx. 

30,000 headwords. On each slip there is a well-defined text quotation with 

a reference to its source, the headword in a normalised orthography and 

information about its word-class. The editors have written extra information 

on many of the slips clarifying each word’s spelling, inflection or meaning. 

Some of the Old Danish texts, particularly the provincial laws, are preserved 

in many manuscripts that differ from one another, and the citation slips 

include the readings from these other manuscripts. Other texts have been 

translated, typically from Latin, Swedish or German, and the wording in 

these foreign original texts is also included. Finally, references are sometimes 

provided to recent scholarly literature. 


65 

HUMANITIES

So, the information collected on these slips is a veritable 

goldmine, and their scholarly value is therefore priceless. 

Information about the sources on which the dictionary is 

based has been collected in a very extensive source list that 

also acts as an overview of everything that has been pre- 

served in Danish from the Middle Ages. Here information 

can be found on the dating of the sources, genre, modern 

editions (if any), archival details and the identification of 

parallel manuscripts in Danish as well as of relevant origi- 

nal texts in other languages. 

Digitisation 

When the dictionary project was rehoused in a building 

next to the Royal Library’s “Black Diamond”, we began 

thinking about digitising the collection. The move had 

brought the question of security into focus, and plans for 

making a backup copy of the collection were soon devel- 

oped further to become plans for making a digital copy 

and for publishing the collection on the Web and using 

the digitised citation slips in future editing of the diction- 

ary articles. 

The necessary financial support came in 2008 from the 

VELUX FOUNDATION and made the project “Docu- 

mentation of the Danish language from 1100 to 1515 on 

the Internet” possible. In addition to being aimed at any 

interested non-specialist, the website is geared towards 

researchers and students investigating the Scandinavian 

languages and their history, and cultural, literary and reli- 

gious history more generally. After being digitised, all the 

slips existed as image and text files, and a website was set 

up to present the citation slips with related search options. 

The website interface is designed to be as simple and in- 

Rimkrøniken, the Rhymed Chronicle, which in 

1495 was the first book printed in Danish. It 

contains the history of the Danish kings up to 

and including Christian I told in verse. Here we 

see the beginning of Margrete I’s story (p5r = 

15. quire, the front of leaf 5). She relates that 

although women are frail, she herself became 

ruler of the Nordic kingdoms. Photo: The Royal 

Library, Copenhagen 

Left page: Codex Holmiensis K48, which among other things contains medical texts by Henrik Harpestreng, dates back 

to c.1300. Here we see page 10 recto (= the front of leaf 10). In the middle of the page the paragraph about Porrus or 

chives begins. It says that chives are a good remedy if you are spitting blood, and that they help women who are bleeding 

from the abdomen. In the margin we can see later writings, the first is “blot spøtte” (blood-spitting). Photo: The Royal 

Library, Stockholm 

66 MEDIEVAL LANGUAGE ON THE WEB VELUX FOUNDATION 67 

HUMANITIES

In 1997, the Dictionary of Old Danish, together with the rest of The Society for Danish Language and Literature, moved 

to Fisken (“the fish”), the small white building next to the Royal Library. Photo: Schmidt Hammer Lassen / DSL 

tuitive as possible, and extensive help pages have 

been included with instructions and guidelines 

on searching, information about the material and 

also about Old Danish. 

Initially, the idea was to operate only with searches 

for headwords. However, a number of advanced 

searches were made possible by linking the in- 

formation available in the dictionary source-list 

to the abbreviations on each citation slip that act 

as references to the sources. When searching it is 

possible to define the time period, subject matter 

and source (or group of sources) as desired. Fur- 

thermore, searches for sources can be restricted 

to specific periods and subjects. It is possible to 

perform very complex searches by combining the 

headword, source, period and subject matter. For 

example, if we want to study the occurrence of a 

certain word at different stages, we can search for 

it in specific periods of time; or if we are interested 

in the development of legal concepts, then we can 

find all the words with a specific suffix in the later 

law texts; or if we want to conduct detailed stud- 

ies, we can investigate the entire vocabulary of a 

particular source. Users can define their search 

profiles entirely as they wish. This goldmine can 

be found at: http://gammeldanskordbog.dk/ 

Future plans 

By publishing the citation-slip collection on the 

Web, we have come a long way towards making 

the medieval world intelligible to modern people. 

But the slip collection only provides a tool, and 

is not in itself a complete linguistic description 

of Old Danish. We will only have this when the 

editors have processed the material and shaped it 

into dictionary articles. During this processing, 

the digital slips will also be utilised. Links to the 

relevant slips will be used in the dictionary articles 

instead of traditional citations. The website of the 

citation-slip collection will thus function along- 

side a new site, currently being planned, that will 

present the edited dictionary articles. 

The front page of the Old Danish citation-slip collection on the Web. On the left is the entry point to 

the pages where help is available, and in the middle it is possible to start searching straightaway 

Here is a search with the following search profile: early quotations from diplomas and law-texts with 

the suffix -dom. The first quotation on the word “anøthighdom” (slavery) can be seen in the middle 

68 MEDIEVAL LANGUAGE ON THE WEB VELUX FOUNDATION 69 

HUMANITIES

Osteoarthritis 

of the knee 

and weight loss 

BY HENNING BLIDDAL Henning Bliddal (born 1952), MD 1986, specialist in rheumatology 

1989, senior consultant in rheumatology 1990, professor 1997. Clin- 

ical professor in rheumatology and arthritis at the Parker Institute, 

Frederiksberg Hospital and University of Copenhagen, and assistant 

professor at SMI, Aalborg University. Since March 2011, head of 

the Parker Institute. Special research interests in osteoarthritis and 

diagnostic imaging of rheumatological diseases. 

In 2007, the VELUX FOUNDATION granted DKK 

5,100,000 for the project “Is deterioration of osteoarthritis 

preventable?”, and thereby became the main donor towards 

the Parker Institute’s studies of the influence of weight loss on 

knee osteoarthritis. The idea was to give a large group of pa- 

tients with concomitant osteoarthritis of the knee and clinical 

obesity treatment involving high weight reduction, which re- 

sults in a relatively substantial improvement in knee function. 

The studies will establish whether this improvement is reflect- 

ed in the tissue surrounding the knee, i.e. cartilage, bone and 

muscle. Originally 192 patients were recruited for the project, 

and after approx. three years around 150 are still taking part 

in one of the longest-running studies to date of the influence 

of weight reduction on knee osteoarthritis. Aside from Hen- 

ning Bliddal, the research team is made up of Pia Christensen 

and Arne Astrup (dieticians), Robin Christensen (statistician), 

Mikael Boesen and Henrik Gudbergsen (MR scanning), Søren 

Torp-Pedersen and Birgit Falk Riecke (ultrasound diagnos- 

tics), Marius Henriksen and Jens Aaboe (gait analysis), Else 

Bartels (biochemistry), and the project is collaborating with 

the universities of Lund, Leeds and Tasmania. 

Osteoarthritis, on account of its prevalence alone, is a significant 

problem for the everyday life of the population. The problem is so 

widespread that the World Health Organization regards it as a main 

cause of impaired mobility in the elderly. 

In a Dutch study, where a cohort representing a wide age-range 

underwent X-rays of virtually the entire skeletal system, signs of in- 

cipient osteoarthritis in different joints were detected in individuals 

as young as 20, and with high age, almost everyone will have at least 

one joint affected by osteoarthritis. 

The importance of the knee 

Osteoarthritis causes different kinds of problems depending on 

which joint or joints are affected. However, of all the joints in the 

body, the knee joint is the most significant for the individual’s social 

functioning. A well-functioning knee joint is needed for standing 

up without appliances or assistance, for coping with stairs or dis- 

tance walking etc. 

Among people aged 55+, around 10% of the population suffer per- 

sistent pain from knee osteoarthritis, and in old age up to one third 

of people will be dependent on help from others because of prob- 

lems with their knee joints. This makes knee osteoarthritis the com- 

monest, treatment-requiring joint disease, and the one associated 

with the highest costs to society. 

The symptoms are partly pain, partly reduced mobility. The joint 

cartilage has no nerve supply; the pain of osteoarthritis comes from 

other tissues. The focal point is particularly the bone immediately 

beneath the cartilage, which can be assessed by MR scanning. 

Basic therapy: weight reduction 

In some people, their knees are so affected that surgery to replace 

the knee joint is the only treatment available, bearing in mind that 

such surgery is not critical for survival. Many patients are able to do 

something themselves to either delay or completely avoid surgery. 

Approximately half of all sufferers are also obese, a complication 

which is becoming increasingly widespread. For these individuals 

the recommendation is just common sense: to lose weight. 

The effects of weight reduction have been investigated scientifically. 

Studies at the Parker Institute have determined the significance of 

70 OSTEOARTHRITIS OF THE KNEE AND WEIGHT LOSS VELUX FOUNDATION 71 

AGEING RESEARCH AND OPHTHALMOLOGY

losing weight – ideally a weight reduction of more than 10% – and 

also of maintaining the weight reduction over the following year. 

Not surprisingly, the result is improved mobility and in the major- 

ity also reduced pain. Based on a total score of symptoms from 

the knee, a 10% weight reduction results in clinical improvement 

of approx. 30%. The degree of osteoarthritis has no influence on 

the scale of the weight loss or the degree of improvement achieved 

from dieting, which allows us to impress on patients that bad knees 

are no excuse for not losing weight. 

Clearly, care has to be taken in any weight-loss plan. If patients 

go on a crash diet, they risk becoming deficient in important sub- 

stances, including vitamins. This may be avoided by taking dietary 

products such as special powder soups to replace ordinary meals for 

a period. On the Parker Institute’s programme, almost 200 partici- 

pants had their poor vitamin status thoroughly rebalanced on this 

form of diet (see the diet plan at www.parkerinst.dk). At the end of 

the weight-loss programme, the idea is to gradually taper off the 

meal replacement products in favour of an ordinary healthy diet, 

and patients are recommended to seek the advice of a dietician for 

this process. 

An extra piece of advice on weight loss: it is not possible to lose 

weight through physical exercise alone if the patient’s knees are not 

up to it. There is no avoiding a change in diet, but after weight 

reduction, physical exercise will be that much easier. 

Basic therapy: physical exercise 

Staying fit is always a good idea, and not least for people with bad 

knees. If the knee osteoarthritis is still in its early stages, it appears 

that people can exercise without limitation, although it has not 

been finally established whether the same applies to severely af- 

fected knees. Pain after physical activity is a good guide to what the 

knees can cope with, and for people who are obese, it is in any event 

a good idea to lose weight alongside physical exercise. 

Left page: The team behind the ultrasound-based studies at the Parker Institute: Professor Bente Danneskiold-Samsøe 

MD; Dr Søren Torp-Pedersen, senior research consultant, ultrasound specialist (left) and Henning Bliddal. 

72 OSTEOARTHRITIS OF THE KNEE AND WEIGHT LOSS VELUX FOUNDATION 73 


MR scan of a knee affected by 

osteoarthritic changes (coronal 

T1 weighted scan). On the 

left: before; on the right: after 

weight reduction. The arrow 

indicates bone changes 

beneath the joint surface 

inside the knee (medial tibial 

condyle). These changes 

are indicative of inflammation 

in the bone. Note the 

severe changes in the knee 

joint with bone spurs. The 

diet-based projects demonstrate 

that bad knees are no 

excuse for not losing weight 

- and that it is never too late 

to aim for improvement 

through weight reduction. 

The patient was a 75-year-old 

woman, who took part in a 

diet- based project and within 

16 weeks achieved weight 

reduction from a BMI of 38 

down to 33.9. In our studies 

based on 200 participants, a 

number of scans were unchanged 

following weight 

loss, but where the scans did 

change they were more often 

than not for the better. 

Objective measurements of knee status 

Aside from subjective descriptions, scientific measurement techniques 

provide an indication of the condition of the knee joint. Weight reduction 

is thus an excellent investment, since losing one kilo in body weight means 

two kilos less strain on the knee. Scans indicate that the condition of the 

knee joint improves as a result of weight reduction, e.g. with reduced 

fluid visible on ultrasound, while MR scans reveal that weight reduction 

prevents worsening of the inflammation of the bone closest to the joint 

(see figure). 

Inflammation 

74 OSTEOARTHRITIS OF THE KNEE AND WEIGHT LOSS 

Osteoarthritis is not normally regarded as an inflammatory disease like for 

example rheumatoid arthritis. Inflammation causes swelling of tissue with- 

out any bacterial infection being present. But there is much to indicate that 

the pain of knee osteoarthritis is actually caused by inflammation, and scans 

using either MR or ultrasound detect inflammation in approx. 80% of pa- 

tients with relatively severe osteoarthritis. Some patients have no symptoms 

from their osteoarthritis affecting the joint, and are affected by a disease 

mechanism other than inflammation, or the patients simply do not register 

inflammatory symptoms. The findings of the dietary studies at the Parker 

Institute indicate that inflammation may be gradually reduced as a result of 

weight reduction. Given that inflammation is the primary source of pain in 

osteoarthritis, it is worth considering whether the improvement achievable 

from weight reduction is attributable not only to alleviation of the weight 

burden on the knee but also to a reduction of the inflammation. 

Medication for osteoarthritic pain 

Recognition of the significance of inflammation for the pain of knee osteo- 

arthritis has led to revised treatment regimens. Common medication for 

inflammatory pain, NSAIDs such as ibuprofen, are widely used to alleviate 

osteoarthritic pain, but since NSAIDs have side effects, they are not re- 

commended for long-term pain relief. 

The outlook 

The treatment available for knee osteoarthritis is currently very variable in 

Denmark. An improvement in the condition may be achieved from weight 

reduction programmes for people with obesity, combined with physical 

exercise regimes, and even if it ends in a knee replacement, these activities 

will provide a better foundation for post-operative rehabilitation. 

However, the first choice in pain relief during the process has not been 

determined, nor whether it is significant to reduce inflammation for ex- 

tended periods. 

Most cases of knee osteoarthritis 

are affected by inflammation, 

commonly involving 

the accumulation of excess 

joint fluid, “water on 

the knee”. Removing the fluid 

relieves the symptoms, and 

since the abnormal joint fluid 

contains substances that degrade 

tissue, fluid draining is 

a form of therapy in itself. 


75 


Eye 

amputees 

BY MARIE LOUISE ROED RASMUSSEN 

Marie Louise Roed Rasmussen (born 1979). Medical Doctor 

(2006) and PhD (2011) from the University of Copenha- 

gen. Research fellowships in the period 2006-2010 in the 

Eye Pathology Section, Department of Neuroscience 

and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen and 

the eye department at Glostrup Hospital. 


ed DKK 1,363,000 for the PhD study “Eye 

amputees – development of prognostic fac- 

tors for quality of life, function and progress.” 

Super visors: Peter B Toft, Martin Johnsson, Finn 

Kamper-Jørgensen, Ola Ekholm and Jan U Prause. 

In Denmark eye prostheses are manufactured in both glass and acrylic. These pictures show the blowing of a glass 

prosthesis. Photo: Bent Olesen, edited by Marie Louise Roed Rasmussen 

Eye amputation is often the endpoint of a long 

clinical journey. People who undergo eye amputa- 

tion vary in age and have different diagnoses, but 

after their final surgeries they all have some degree 

of visual impairment and facial disfigurement that 

affects many aspects of their lives. 

Eye amputees have to reorientate and reorganise 

their daily life. The missing eye results in a loss 

of visual deep perception and an inevitable blind 

spot. But the change in facial appearance may also 

cause psychological changes, the latter particu- 

larly in encounters with other people. Changes 

in facial appearance cannot be concealed and are 

consequently often more difficult to come to 

terms with than changes affecting other parts of 

the body. 

Indications for eye amputation are most frequent- 

ly: painful blind eye, cancer of the eye and compli- 

cated eye trauma. The mean age for loss of an eye 

is 53 years [range 0 – 102], with a slight prepon- 

derance among males (53%). Following amputa- 

tion, the patient is commonly fitted with an eye 

prosthesis inset in the orbit. The eye prosthesis 

may be made of glass or plastic (acrylic). 

The donation from the VELUX FOUNDATION 

has been used to investigate two circumstances. 

1. Phantom eye syndrome which consists of 

phantom vision and phantom sensations (in- 

cluding phantom pain). 

2. Quality of life, perceived stress, self-rated 

health and impaired capacity for work due to 

illness and disability among Danish eye am- 

putees. 

Phantom eye syndrome 

Phantom eye syndrome consists of phantom vision 

and phantom sensations after removal of an eye. A 

well-known example of phantom sensations would 

be the pain or intense itching experienced in a non- 

existing foot following leg amputation. 

76 EYE AMPUTEES VELUX FOUNDATION 77 


Iris 

Pupil 

Eyelid 

Sclera 

Sketch and cross section of 

a normal eye. Graphic: Jens 

Raadal 

Visual hallucinations were described by 42% of patients. Phantom vision 

is the experience of ‘seeing’ with the non-existing eye. The most frequent 

description is continuous, bright white light. Some patients describe white 

and coloured flashes and others have more kaleidoscopic experiences. But 

the sense of seeing with two eyes (in three dimensions) is also common. 

Triggers for phantom vision are individual, but the phenomenon is often 

experienced when the person is tired, stressed and in dark surroundings. 

Phantom vision may be experienced with both closed and open eyes – and 

hence give rise to problems with falling asleep, night driving or psycho- 

logical stress owing to anxiety about mental illness. 54% of patients with 

phantom vision experience these problems once a week or more. Few have 

phantom vision constantly. 

Approximately 23% of all eye amputees experience phantom pain. One third 

of the patients experience phantom pain every day, one third more than 

once a week and the rest less than once a week. Triggers were known for all 

patients with phantom pain. Low temperatures, windy weather and psycho- 

logical stress⁄fatigue were the most commonly reported. In this investigation 

it would appear that preoperative eye pain is a risk factor for postoperative 

phantom pain in 30% of patients. 

Only two per cent of patients described phantom sensations; mainly as itch- 

ing around the eye and sensation in a non-existent eyelid. 

Quality of life 

Iris 

Pupil 

Lens 

Cornea Ciliary body 

Retina 

Choroid 

Sclera 

Optic nerve 

The impact of an eye amputation is considerable. Eye amputees have poorer 

quality of life, poorer self-rated health and more perceived stress than the 

100 

90 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

BP GH MH PF RE RP SF VT 

general Danish population. The largest differences in quality of life between 

eye amputees and the general population were related to role limitations 

due to emotional and mental problems. 

Patients who had an eye removed because of severe pain, have lower quality 

of life and more perceived stress than patients who had their eye removed 

because of cancer or trauma. The percentage of eye amputees who divorced 

or separated was twice as high as in the general population. Furthermore, 

25% retired or switched to part-time jobs as a result of the eye amputation. 

40% stopped participating in leisure activities due to their eye amputation, 

mainly ball games but also water activities and activities involving sight con- 

centration (like reading books and household chores). 

Rehabilitation 

The studies indicate that eye amputation is on the whole not necessarily 

the best solution for all patients, not least because of the high incidence of 

subsequent afflictions that may require lifelong medical care. It may how- 

ever be possible to improve outcomes by providing eye amputees with more 

support and information. If so, we might be able to retain these people on 

the labour market for the benefit of both the patients themselves and society 

generally. 

Eye amputees The danish population 

For patients with a painful blind eye especially, new alternatives to amputa- 

tion should be considered. However, for patients with cancer and compli- 

cated traumas, eye amputation is still the best treatment available. 

The figure shows the results 

of a comparative investigation 

of quality of life among 

eye amputees and the Danish 

population in terms of 

eight different subcategories 

of quality of life: Bodily 

pain (BP), general health perceptions 

(GH), mental health 

(MH), physical functioning 

(PF), role limitations due to 

emotional problems (RE), 

role limitations due to physical 

problems (RP), social functioning 

(SF) and vitality (VT). 

Graphics: Marie Louise Roed 

Rasmussen 

78 EYE AMPUTEES VELUX FOUNDATION 79 


From 

heart 

to heart 

Building bridges 

between cultures 

on Nørrebro 

BY MERETE TANGSTAD 

Merete Tangstad (born 1956), found- 

er of Woman to Woman, the object of 

which is to free up women’s resources for 

the benefit of the individual woman, 

her network, and her community. The 

foundation is a dynamic forum, in 

which projects, both large and small, 

have been successfully realised. 

In 2009 the VELUX FOUNDATION grant- 

ed DKK 400,000 for the project “Building 

bridges and the meeting of cultures – a host 

programme for immigrants on Nørrebro, with 

older people as the prime initiators”. 

The important thing for the FRIENDS host pro- 

gramme was for it not only to be a new “pro- 

gramme/project” for integration, but more spe- 

cifically, for it to promote and facilitate friendships 

between people, regardless of language, nationality, 

religion and age. The goal was for 300 immigrants 

and 100 Danish women to form lasting friendships 

within the two years the project was scheduled to 

run for. With this project we hoped to put the par- 

ticipants’ prejudices to rest, and to gain a better 

understanding of our differences and enriching 

insights. The vision is for the new insights and un- 

derstanding to spread throughout the FRIENDS 

network. 

Events to help form friendships 

To create contact between women immigrants and 

the Danish volunteers, we arranged monthly café 

nights and other events. These events were to be 

productive, enlightening, relaxing and enjoyable, 

in an atmosphere of respectfulness and equality. 

The idea was that the more we relaxed and enjoyed 

ourselves, the more we would be open to each 

other, and to the unknown. 

We made sure that our agenda inspired everyone 

to participate. The participants contributed dishes 

from their native country, and took part in multi- 

cultural dancing, singing, music and storytelling. 

We matched women immigrants with new Danish 

friends in this convivial atmosphere. 

Friendships 

To befriend an immigrant the volunteer has to be 

• well integrated into Danish society, and be able 

to understand and speak a foreign language. 

• be able to see beyond her own surroundings 

(prejudices) 

• meet up with her immigrant friend at least 3 

times 

• introduce her immigrant friend to her own 

network 

Café nights are vital for the contact between women 

immigrants and the Danish volunteers. Photo: Jessie 

Eisenbaum 

80 FROM HEART TO HEART VELUX FOUNDATION 81 

ACTIVE ELDERLY PEOPLE

Some of the capabilities that we talk about are 

• listening with both heart and ears, being 

flexible. 

• meeting the immigrant woman on an equal 

footing, in the belief that everyone has some- 

thing to contribute 

• acknowledging that friendships are enriching 

when you both give and take. 

Openness, trust, respect and honesty are key ele- 

ments. 

Common features of women immigrants in 

Denmark 

One of the common findings among immigrants 

is a feeling of loneliness and isolation. A lot of the 

women in FRIENDS are resourceful and intelli- 

gent individuals, who have found Danes hard to 

make contact with, in spite of Danes seemingly be- 

ing open. Some of the immigrants had not spoken 

to a Dane since arriving, and the isolation was a 

factor that took them by surprise. Meetings with 

these wonderful women, some of them with small 

children, were sometimes heartbreaking, but for 

many of them, FRIENDS became a very welcome 

way out of loneliness. 

Activating senior citizens 

Encouraging senior citizens to befriend immigrants 

proved more difficult than we had imagined. Some 

senior citizens felt that they did not have the per- 

sonal resources the task required, others thought 

that they had nothing to offer someone from a dif- 

ferent culture. The elderly volunteers preferred to 

be involved in the practical elements of our café 

nights, where they made Danish national dishes, 

told stories from their lives, and described Danish 

traditions, often with a great deal of humour. 

In the hope of meeting the many requests from 

immigrants to meet with Danish senior citizens, we 

contacted the local Nørrebro Sankt Joseph senior 

citizens centre. This resulted in the first tea party, 

in which 12 immigrants went out with Danish sen- 

ior citizens, the result of which was enriching con- 

versation across different age-groups and cultures. 

What has FRIENDS meant to the individual? 

FRIENDS has been a golden opportunity for im- 

migrants to meet women across the divides of cul- 

ture, age, and language, and has provided a setting 

for new friendships to be formed in an easier and 

more relaxed fashion, as in the case of Khaluin and 

Lisette, Birgit and Madelis. 

“I studied in Denmark for three years. For the 

first two years I felt incredibly alone, and it was 

hard to build up a social network outside of the 

university. My first encounter with FRIENDS 

was great; here I could meet Danish women, and 

others in the same situation as myself. It gave me 

a large network outside of the university, and I 

always looked forward to the next event”, says 

Khaluin Eakbat, 25, from Mongolia, and friend 

with Lisette Jacobsen, 47. 

“Lisette was so sweet. The first time we met, we 

went for coffee and then came back to my place. 

The second time she invited me round for tradi- 

tional Danish Christmas food. In spite of the age 

difference, it was easy to connect. I learned a great 

deal about Danish culture, and got some great in- 

sights into Danish family life that I wouldn’t have 

missed for the world. Now I’m heading back to the 

UK, but with so many great friends in Denmark, I 

wouldn’t rule out returning to Denmark. I have 

encouraged four of my immigrant friends to attend 

FRIENDS events, even though I’m not going to 

be there. They have to experience what I have ex- 

perienced.” 

Similar feelings are expressed by Birgit Schachtenhaufen, 66, from Bal- 

lerup, Denmark and friend Madelis Gonzales Medina, 40, from Cuba: “I 

had heard so many bad things about immigrants, but meeting Madelis has 

changed my perception of immigrants. Madelis is really keen and hard- 

working, we share the same sense of humour, and it has been wonderful to 

see her blossom and come into her own in the time we have known each 

other. Madelis soon found a place in my heart, in my family and network, 

and even though I didn’t feel I was missing out on anything before, Madelis 

has given my life new meaning.” 

Madelis: “I had a lot of prejudices about Danes. I thought they were cold, 

and completely different to me. My encounter with Birgit has meant every- 

thing to me. We can both laugh and cry together, and Birgit is very hospi- 

table; her heart is filled with love, and together with her, I can be who I am. 

I have received a lot of good advice concerning education and work from 

Birgit, which has meant a lot to me. Through my friendship with Birgit, I 

have got to know other Danes, and I no longer feel lonely in Denmark.” 

For FRIENDS, the encounter with immigrants is all about reaching out 

from the heart. 

The friendship between Birgit 

Schachtenhaufen and Madelis 

Gonzales is one of many in the 

FRIENDS host programme. 

Photo: Eby Betsayyad 

82 FROM HEART TO HEART VELUX FOUNDATION 83 


Home to the skylark 

Residential nature programme 

for lonely elderly persons 

Christine E. Swane (born 1960), 

cultural sociologist, PhD is the di- 

rector of the EGV humani tarian 

foundation for disadvantaged 

elderly persons in Denmark. For 

more than 20 years, she has con- 

ducted research in the everyday 

lives and living conditions of frail 

elderly citizens. 

BY CHRISTINE E. SWANE 

In 2010, EGV received a donation from the VELUX FOUN- 

DATION of DKK 217,000 towards an experiential residential 

college devoted to nature appreciation aimed at lonely elderly 

persons from all over Denmark. 

To mark its centenary in 2010, EGV placed added focus on the im- 

portance of socialisation and shared experiences. This was achieved 

through various projects such as a residential nature programme at 

the Dronningens Ferieby resort at Grenå; a four-day-long, uncon- 

ditional success for just under 100 senior citizens aged 65 to 97, 

including voluntary helpers from the non-profit travel association, 

Jyttes Handyrejs. 

A rural snapshot 

The sun is high. We’re on an excursion to Fuglsang Hede (literally 

“birdsong heath”), set up for the day by a filling lunch and a talk 

by nature guide Jens Reddersen on the unique countryside near 

Grenå. The songbooks have been hidden away in his backpack, and 

there is delight all round when he stops to hand them out. 

This is the fourth verse of a much-loved Danish ballad celebrating 

the mysteries of nature on the theme of a skylark’s nest hidden on 

the heath, but Jens claims that it is fakery: “You won’t see sky- 

larks nesting any less than 50 metres away from the nearest trees 

Jeg lurer bag en slåen. 

Dér står jeg ganske nær. 

Jeg rækker mig på tåen 

og holder på mit vejr. 

or bushes, else the magpies will have them!” To 

the sounds of birdcall, the party collects HUGE 

mushrooms, examines berries, flowers, sings more 

songs, surveys a map of the area, asks questions and 

“yes, when the anemones die back, the woodruff 

will be there”. Here you never walk alone, because 

all the flowers are there to greet you. And the more 

you know about botany, say, the more interesting it 

is to explore the natural world and share its sights 

and sounds. 

After a full day, weariness sets in, and beneath the 

warm autumn sun, wheeled walkers and wheel- 

chairs are pushed along the dusty road, and the 

walking sticks leave their indents in the sandy 

heath. For those who managed the trip without 

any appliances, this is a great achievement. 

Reaching out to each other 

(Peeping behind the sloe. 

Quite close I stand there. 

Stretching on tiptoe, 

taking not a breath of air.) 

The EGV foundation has been working to alleviate 

the loneliness of elderly people for a century. We 

still do so through research and social projects – 

and by encouraging everyone to engage with and 

show concern for lonely elderly persons. 

Photos: Henrik Bjerregrav 

84 HOME TO THE SKYLARK VELUX FOUNDATION 85 


Presenting for 

active duty in 1917 

Old men in old uniforms 

BY CHRISTIAN RAUN 

Christian Raun (born 1947), architect and illustra- 

tor. Vice President of Chakoten – The Danish Mili- 

tary Historical Society. Leisure interests: Old houses 

and modelling figures in historic uniforms – and of 

course cultural heritage and military history. 

In 2010, Group 1914 under the Danish Mili- 

tary Historical Society received a grant from 

the VELUX FOUNDATION of DKK 20,000. 

A uniform alone does not a soldier make – it takes 

a fair bit of equipment too. Group 1914 is conse- 

quently extremely grateful to the VELUX FOUN- 

DATION for the large grant it received for kitting 

out a large corps with the equipment issued to each 

infantryman when he was called up for active duty in 

the Danish First World War Defence Force. Stand- 

ard issue field gear included a belt, cartridge pouch, 

entrenching tool (spade), water flask and enamelled 

tin mug, bread bag and signalling equipment. 

Group 1914’s mission is to re-enact the everyday 

life of soldiers called up for active duty under the 

Danish Defence Force of 1914-18. The group’s 

members are generally 25 years older than the old- 

est of the men called up at the time, but given that 

‘mature’ men a century ago tended to look much 

older than we do now – and the fact that our pas- 

time keeps us on our toes – our ‘old boys corps’ is 

in pretty good shape! 

Many events 

Uniforms and equipment were first presented to 

the public at an event at the Vestvold Copenhagen 

Fortifications on 26 September 2010. In association 

with Projekt Vestvolden, a job training programme, 

we set up a military camp with tents, equipment, 

telegraph stations, a casualties clearing tent, medical 

officer and nurse, medics and 26 privates and non- 

commissioned and commissioned officers. 

The renactments demonstrated collection of casu- 

alties, the medical officer working under an alert, 

and signalling using flags, light signals and the lat- 

est invention of the day: the field telephone. Meals 

and coffee were prepared on the canteen com- 

ponent of the mess kit. The Artillery Magazine 

housed an exhibition of models of the Vestvolden 

fortifications along with live workshops where tin 

soldiers were cast and painted. The some 4,000 

visitors were fascinated! 

During winter half-term 2011, Group 1914 and 

Projekt Vestvolden were invited to take part in an 

event at Roskilde Museum’s historic grocer’s store, 

Members of Group 1914 presenting for morning rollcall 

in front of the Artillery Magazine at the Vestvolden 

section of the Copenhagen Fortifications. 

At the Roskilde Museum’s grocer’s store, children signed 

up for military service and were issued with an authentic 

copy of an old service record. 

where we set up a medical board for examining 

military conscripts. On arrival, the visiting children 

were issued with a service record. They were then 

dressed in ‘uniform’ and assigned four tasks: bak- 

ing pancakes over a canteen, scoring points in an 

authentic game of skittles, writing field postcards 

using a real pen and ink – which left some of them 

pretty smudged – and casting a tin soldier. This 

event also featured live workshops and presenta- 

tions of original equipment, including knapsack 

contents. We never saw such well-behaved chil- 

dren! Maybe old soldiers are still held in some awe? 

At the Copenhagen Fortifications event day, several 

types of signalling were demonstrated to an audience 

over the day of more than 3,000. 

Sergeant Hald assisting a young recruit to write a field 

postcard to Mum and Dad. 

The children’s interest and involvement were over- 

whelming – so we will definitely be back to repeat 

the success at Roskilde next year. 

In April 2011, Group 1914 provided the live ac- 

tion in a documentary on the Copenhagen For- 

tifications produced for Skoletjenesten, an educa- 

tional service institution. Naturally we were in full 

combat gear, complete with original rifles. Fortu- 

nately, the producers hadn’t scripted any scenes 

requiring us to storm the ramparts, as our forte is 

more the leisurely patrol! 

86 PRESENTING FOR ACTIVE DUTY IN 1917 VELUX FOUNDATION 87 


Social 

inventions 

BY ANDREAS HJORTH FREDERIKSEN AND BERNHARD JENSEN 

Andreas Hjorth Frederiksen (born 1976), MA in 

history and minority studies as well as multimedia 

design. Senior consultant and project manager at 

Social Development Centre SUS. Has specialised in 

social inventions and project design via positions held 

with Danish Red Cross Youth, Save the Children 

Denmark, the online voluntary worker register and 

placement agency FrivilligJob.dk and as the director 

of the KPH project venue and consulting centre. 

Bernhard Jensen (born 1956), MSc Social Science 

and socio-educational teacher. Director of Develop- 

ment, Social Development Centre SUS. Has exten- 

sive experience in developing and implementing so- 

cial inventions and civil society innovation, volun- 

tary social work and user influence. Has previously 

worked for organisations such as the Nordic Council 

of M inisters and as head of the governmental social 

services information and consulting centre in Esbjerg. 

In 2009, the VELUX FOUNDATION donated DKK 2,996,750 

to the Social Inventions project mounted by the non-profit, non- 

governmental Social Development Centre SUS. The object of the pro- 

ject is to promote opportunities to extend and enhance social inven- 

tion processes. The project identified innovative programmes in the 

professional and voluntary social work sector and the people behind 

the social inventions. The project, which is founded on both theory 

and practice, concluded with a report, available to download (in Dan- 

ish) at www.sus.dk. 

November 1572. Tycho Brahe, who goes on to become the world famous 

Danish astronomer, happens to discover a bright new star in the Cassiopeia 

constellation. Since ancient times, it was commonly held that this constel- 

lation was immutable. But Tycho Brahe’s observations and measurements 

indicated otherwise: what he had observed was a supernova, a gigantic ex- 

ploding star. 

From his observatory on the island of Hven, Tycho Brahe led the world to 

a new understanding of celestial bodies. His main resources were curiosity, 

a systematic approach, patience and the naked eye. Telescope technologies 

had not yet been invented, but Brahe gave us an optic through which 

to view the celestial realm, which paved the way for 

even more discoveries. 

Hven return trip 

September 2010. A crowd has gathered on 

the quayside of Copenhagen’s Nyhavn. To the 

sounds of a Balkan-style innovator’s anthem, 50 

creative minds from the whole of Denmark march 

aboard the boat destined for the island of Hven 

off Scania, Sweden. 24 hours’ hard work lie ahead. 

They will be coming up with 100 ideas for radical 

new solutions to social problems. 

Without the advantage of a technology that predicts 

the future, the social innovators can avail themselves 

only of the same resources as Tycho Brahe: curiosity, 

a systematic approach and the naked eye. But there will 

scarcely be time for patience, given the ambitious target 

of 100 trail-blazing ideas for social inventions. 

88 SOCIAL INVENTIONS VELUX FOUNDATION 89 

SOCIAL PROJECTS

After what feels like the blink of an eye, the 24 hours have gone by. The 

result: 104 ideas. For example: the idea of ‘stewardship pay’ in deprived 

neighbourhoods, where residents are rewarded for fewer incidents of van- 

dalism. The idea of social charter trips, where the whole family gets to 

spend one week of their holiday doing voluntary social work. And the 

idea of offering prison inmates entrepreneurship programmes as 

an independent way of rejoining the labour market after serv- 

ing a prison sentence. The target has been reached and the 

ideas are shared between all the participants for subsequent 

elaboration. 

The 24 hours on Hven and the 104 ideas are part of a 

project on social inventions. For more than a year, Social 

Development Centre SUS, with funding from the VELUX 

FOUNDATION, has studied, analysed and upended the 

anatomy of social development work and the quantum leaps 

that give impetus to innovations and new paradigms. 

What are social inventions? 

Social inventions are pioneering initiatives that change the way people 

relate to themselves and each other. A social invention solves or prevents a 

social problem – or facilitates new, social improvements. 

A new legal statute will – provided it is completely original – be a social 

invention. That was the case, for example, with Section 68 of the Social 

Assistance Act of 1976, which authorised the establishment of sheltered 

home-shares for people with disabilities and pointed the way forward to 

brand new ways of giving people with disabilities enhanced quality of life. 

The first Danish folk high school for adult residential non-vocational educa- 

tion in 1844 was without doubt a world first in terms of organising educa- 

tion. And stepping even further back in time, primary and secondary school 

education, public libraries and kindergartens were examples of social inven- 

tions of a more revolutionary kind. 

The internet is to be regarded as one of the greatest social inventions of our 

time. The internet has given us whole new ways of accessing and exchanging 

information and forming and maintaining relationships with other people. 

The internet has solved problems, created new opportunities and launched 

new innovations such as social media like Facebook and YouTube. But the 

internet has also created new problems and challenges, which now have to 

be solved by social inventions. 

Not all inventions are tangible 

The majority of private-sector business and product areas are based on a 

number of technological, methodological or organisational advances that 

enhance production efficiency, create new products or identify new markets. 

Developments in market terms are profit-driven, so protection – patenting 

– of innovative products or production methods has consequently been a 

key precondition for urging companies and individuals to invest time, effort 

and resources in development. Because of the resulting patents, trademark 

registrations and other protection mechanisms it is relatively easy to identify 

the pioneering advances commonly referred to as inventions or innovations. 

But when it comes to the social invention arena in Denmark, the picture is 

quite different. 

The whole of our society depends on innovation. We have a constant need 

to organise our society in the best possible way to meet the challenges we 

are presented with, and new problems are cropping up all the time, begging 

An intense effort was made 

when 50 creative people 

gathered on the island of 

Hven to come up with ideas 

and social inventions. Photo: 

Tine Harden 


SOCIAL PROJECTS

for new solutions. The entire structure, function 

and progress of our society is the result of innova- 

tive solutions. These are the original, trail-blazing 

initiatives known as social inventions. Inventions 

that are not patented because they are not for pro- 

fit. Inventions that are not necessarily tangible, but 

are a way of thinking perhaps; for example, how 

we perceive the concept of ‘disability’ or ‘normal’. 

Everyone has a creative streak 

Every social invention starts with a creative pro- 

cess. And input is welcome from everyone! This 

creativity is – as cognitive brain research would tell 

us – just conceptual blending. Meaning that ideas 

do not come out of nowhere. Anything new being 

merely two or more existing insights blended in a 

new way. 

The point is not that ideas, concept development 

and creativity should be underrated or that they 

are not important elements in the innovation pro- 

cess, rather that concept development and creati- 

vity need to be demystified. Everyone has a creative 

streak, and everyone can have good – even brilliant 

– ideas with a bit of help along the way. 

Social inventions result in new social inventions. 

New combinations of familiar solutions and prob- 

lems create new ways forward in creating the socie- 

ty and social inventions of the future. 

There is no lack of problems to tackle. Here is a selection of social challenges as expressed by socially marginalised people. 

Photo: Tine Harden 

Social imagination – just supposing … 

Social inventions are not just about solutions to social problems, but also 

about facilitating new social progress. Which is why the idea for a social 

invention might also start with a possibility or with what might be termed 

‘social imagination’. 

Supposing, for example… 

• the authorities acted as if they were (almost) family? 

• the authorities asked what you had in mind? 

• society didn’t regard socially marginalised persons as victims, but as 

players who haven’t yet found their mission? 

If a social invention is based on questions and potentials, it goes on to be- 

come an initiative that turns “supposing...” into a reality. That being so, it’s 

a question of meeting an unarticulated need – or to put it another way: of 

meeting a need people didn’t know they had. 

An optic for observations 

There is no formula for coming up with good ideas. And no formula for 

dreaming up social inventions. But if we imagine there was, it might look 

like this: 

Social problem* (imagination + innovative attainment) 

+ pioneering actuation = social invention 

We are unlikely to discover a formula that tells us how to solve the world’s 

problems. But Tycho Brahe gave us an optic for observing celestial bodies, 

so we could make new discoveries about the universe. And with this grant 

from the VELUX FOUNDATION we now have an optic through which 

to observe, analyse and learn from social inventions – and hopefully create 

new and better solutions to social problems and create brand new social 

potentials. 

We are convinced that everyone can come up with good ideas for social 

inventions. What is your idea? 


SOCIAL PROJECTS

BY THORKIL SONNE 

for people with autism 

in Poland 

Thorkil Sonne (born 1960) holds an MSc 

in surveying and is the father of three 

children. He has worked in the field of 

IT in the corporate sector for 20 years. 

He founded Specialisterne and Specialist 

People Foundation after his youngest son 

was diagnosed with autism. He has been 

awarded an Ashoka Globalizer Fellow- 

ship. 

Facilitating 

employment 

In 2010 the VILLUM FOUNDATION grant- 

ed DKK 5,357,448 to the three-year project 

“Specialisterne – Creating jobs for people with 

autism in Poland.” The project will enable Spe- 

cialist People Foundation, in association with 

local partners, to establish a Specialisterne li- 

cence partnership which will give well-func- 

tioning people with autism spectrum disorder 

in Poland a new opportunity to assess their po- 

tentials on the labour market. Following posi- 

tive assessment and subsequent training, people 

with ASD in Poland will for the first time have 

opportunities for meaningful and productive 

employment where their special skills can be 

turned into specialist capabilities. Specialisterne 

Poland will break new ground as the first-ever 

employment opportunity for people with ASD 

in Eastern Europe and will as such become a 

role model for Eastern Europe. 

From left, Specialisterne Danmark consultants Christian Andersen, Morten Lolck and Trygve Rastad Bjørst working onsite 

at the Specialisterne offices in Ballerup. Photo: Specialisterne 

A personal background 

Thirteen years ago when our youngest son Lars 

was 2½ years old, he rejected the other kids in his 

kindergarten class and seemed most comfortable 

alone on the swing. 

The staff at the kindergarten had great difficulties 

with Lars. He was a nice child who never harmed 

the other kids, but he would not take part in so- 

cial activities. The staff recommended that Lars 

should be observed by psychologists. After thor- 

ough observation and assessment, the psycholo- 

gists told us that there was no doubt that Lars 

was affected by “infantile autism,” an incurable 

lifelong pervasive developmental disorder. 

We only knew autism from the Rain Man film – 

but we found out that autism is much more than 

what you see in this film. We learnt that around 

1% of the population would qualify for a diagno- 

sis within the autism spectrum – and we found 

out that hardly any people with autism had a job 

where they could use their special skills. Despite 

their strong memory, structured mind, passion 

for details and perseverance in repeating tasks 

they were excluded from the labour market by 

their lack of social skills. 

With support from my family and a mortgage on 

our house, I set out to create new opportunities 

for people with autism and founded Specialis- 

terne (The Specialists), a for-profit enterprise in 

which well-functioning people with autism would 

receive the understanding and support needed 

to feel wanted and to excel. The company was 

launched in 2004 in Denmark. 

The Specialists in Poland 

Specialisterne employs people with autism in our 

business section as consultants working on valu- 

able tasks like software testing, programming and 

data input for the corporate sector. Our custom- 

ers are large and medium-sized companies, and 

have included many international companies. 

In 2008 I gave a speech in Cracow at a software 

94 FACILITATING EMPLOYMENT FOR PEOPLE WITH AUTISM IN POLAND VILLUM FOUNDATION 95 

SOCIAL PROJECTS

From left, Specialisterne Youth Education students Adam Ejby Eliasen, Phillip Thrane Møller, Jonathan Luthmann and 

March Urbanovitz going through training onsite in Ballerup. Photo: Specialisterne 

testing seminar where I presented Specialisterne 

and discussed the opportunities for replicating the 

Specialisterne model in Poland and thereby let the 

software test industry gain access to an untapped 

pool of skilled resources from people with autism. 

Later on that year I was invited by the Polish Au- 

tism Organisation to present Specialisterne at a 

conference in Szczecin in front of a large number 

of parents with family members affected by au- 

tism. The interest from the software testing in- 

dustry and the autism organisation seemed very 

strong – but our organisation did not have the 

capacity to replicate the Specialisterne model to 

Poland. 

In 2008 I founded Specialist People Founda- 

tion as a not-for-profit organisation which took 

over ownership of Specialisterne. The purpose of 

Specialist People Foundation is to make societies 

globally respect and accommodate specialist peo- 

ple with autism and similar challenges as worthy 

and valuable citizens. We have been urged by peo- 

ple in 60 countries to replicate the Specialisterne 

model. To that end, we set ourselves the goal of 

facilitating one million jobs for people with au- 

tism and similar challenges. 

With the Specialist People Foundation as a plat- 

form for disseminating our knowledge on assess- 

ment and employment internationally, we carried 

out our first international replication when Spe- 

cialisterne Scotland was launched in 2010. 

Since my speeches in Poland, I have been wait- 

ing for an opportunity to come back to the stake- 

holders in Poland and start planning for a Spe- 

cialisterne replication. Poland is a very important 

Specialisterne Danmark consultant Thomas Jacobsen and Specialist People Foundation Business Development Manager 

Anne-Marie Søbye Rapp working with Lego Mindstorm. Specialisterne Danmark use Lego Mindstorm to help evaluate 

the talents and skills of each candidate. Photo: Specialisterne 

country in our international plans as a country 

with a well developed IT industry close to Den- 

mark and with the potential to serve as a gateway 

to Eastern Europe. 

A helping hand 

In 2010 I got in contact with the VILLUM 

FOUNDATION and suddenly the opportunity 

was there to start planning for Specialisterne in 

Poland. We applied for funding to carry out a fea- 

sibility study, business plan and to launch Special- 

isterne Poland with a local partner. 

We were very happy and proud to be granted 

three-year funding for planning and setting up 

Specialisterne in Poland. 

Since November I have been in Poland several 

times to meet parent organisations, business pro- 

fessionals, authorities and other stakeholders. 

Wherever we visit we are met with great inter- 

est and willingness to support our quest – to set 

up Specialisterne as a lighthouse demonstrating 

that people with autism can contribute to society 

through meaningful and productive jobs in Po- 

land. 

Without the support of the VILLUM FOUNDA- 

TION we would not have been able to undertake 

the thorough planning needed to translate the 

Specialisterne concept from the Danish welfare 

setting into a welfare model as different as the 

Polish one. 

We look forward to working with the VILLUM 

FOUNDATION for many years in this project 

and hopefully taking our results deeper into East- 

96 FACILITATING EMPLOYMENT FOR PEOPLE WITH AUTISM IN POLAND VILLUM FOUNDATION 97 

ern Europe. 

SOCIAL PROJECTS

Social 

development project 

for 

children and youth 

in Greenland 

BY KIRSTEN ØRGAARD 

Kirsten Ørgaard (born 1957), MSc 

in Psychology, vocational leadership 

diploma (2002), is the superintendent 

of the children’s and youth residential 

centre “Mælkebøtten” in Nuuk, Greenland. For 20 

years she has been involved in projects under the Green- 

land Home Rule Administration, the Municipality of 

Sermersooq and the Greenland Employers Association. 

The aim of the various projects has been to improve so- 

cial welfare for vulnerable children and adolescents in 

Greenland. Kirsten Ørgaard has, among other things, 

carried out the study “Children and youth in police 

reports – who and why?” and is co-author of “Children 

and youth in Greenland – an anthology”, MIPI, Ilis- 

matusarfik, University of Greenland. 

In 2010 the VILLUM FOUNDATION grant- 

ed DKK 4,800,000 for the establishment of the 

Mælkebøtten residential care centre for vulner- 

able children and adolescents in Greenland. In 

addition the foundation is covering 50% of the 

running costs for the first two years. In Green- 

land there are not enough placement homes for 

vulnerable children who – due to social problems 

– are unable to stay living with their parents. 

Thus, the Foundation has contributed to the 

implementation of an “open-around-the-clock” 

provision for children and adolescents in need of 

“family-style” residential placements with caring 

adults. The age limit is 3-17 years, and siblings 

have the opportunity to live together. Further- 

more the children stay within their immediate 

environment in order to maintain contact with 

their social network and parents. 

Background 

In 2003 the Greenland Employers Association initiated a partnership 

with Save the Children, Nuuk Rotary Club and Lions Club Nuuk 

on projects to improve conditions for vulnerable children and youth 

and prevent further neglect. In order to document the scale of the 

problems – and to professionally orchestrate and develop relevant fo- 

cus areas – the employers initiated the study: “Children and youth in 

police reports – who and why?” The study, which was conducted by the 

author of this article, reports on the number of children aged 0-17 

years who were involved with the police in 2002 and 2003, either as 

victims, perpetrators or otherwise in police-related incidents. A total 

of 1,075 children were registered during the two years. 

3.5% of the registered children and youth are estimated to have suf- 

fered severe neglect and social and psychological distress, while 8% of 

the children were exposed to a lesser degree of neglect. This group of 

children is Mælkebøtten’s primary target group. Based on the study 

and on meetings and theme days held with professionals in Nuuk, the 

idea for a children’s house took form, and the 4 partners joined forces 

to raise capital for a child and youth house in Nuuk. In March 2006 

Mælkebøtten became a reality. 

The purpose 

Housed in a 510m 2 , two-storey building in Nuuk, Mælkebøtten is 

an independent institution and development project, where research- 

based knowledge is applied. Mælkebøtten is a combination of a crea- 

tive activity centre for all children in Nuuk and a shelter for socially 

disadvantaged children, where help is available around the clock. By 

arrangement with the Welfare Administration, the centre can take 

nine children for overnight stays. The children may turn up at the 

centre themselves, or may be referred by the Administration. The 

placements may be arranged as emergencies or in connection with 

social welfare investigations in cooperation with the child’s network. 

Together, we aim for holistic solutions, which give the children and 

adolescents opportunities to move on to a life that is better than the 

one they came from. One important mission is to help break negative 

Mælkebøtten is situated near the Colonial Habour – one of the oldest 

parts of Nuuk. Photo: Jens-Jørgen Pedersen 

98 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN GREENLAND VILLUM FOUNDATION 99 

SOCIAL PROJECTS

TRH The Crown Prince and Crown Princess contributed financially to the project, and in 2009 they visited Mælkebøtten. 

Photo: Kirsten Ørgaard 

social and psychological legacies by creating ‘pattern 

breakers’ and preventing suicide, sexual abuse and 

crime. The children who attend the creative work- 

shops are both resourceful and vulnerable. All the 

children are part of the community. The resourceful 

children achieve social insights that not all children 

are well adjusted, and come to understand that dis- 

advantaged children also have rights, and the im- 

portance of being a good friend. Based on evalua- 

tion of the experiences from Mælkebøtten, we have 

found that there is a great need for more residential 

care for children who cannot be returned to their 

parents due to social problems at home. Because of 

this, Mælkebøtten had a long-held ambition to ex- 

pand the centre with a housing unit, which has now 

been realised. The housing unit is located in a large 

house that is leased for the purpose and the 24-hour 

care concept at Mælkebøtten has been extended to 

the housing unit, which can take 6 children. 

Visions and values 

Key words at Mælkebøtten and the housing unit 

are dialogue, mutual respect and problem-solving. 

Children learn to use language rather than resort- 

ing to violence. Bullying is forbidden at Mælkebøt- 

ten and we pay great attention to conflict resolu- 

tion, as there must be room for everyone. The 

adults can be relied on and have time to talk, listen 

and have fun. The content takes into account the 

special needs of neglected children and adolescents 

in terms of closeness, caring, structure, predictabil- 

ity, trust and credibility. It was important to create 

space for fun and enjoying life, but also for immer- 

sion and reflection. The paedagogical aim is - in 

a structured environment - to help each child to 

achieve optimal physical and mental wellbeing in 

order to thrive and develop his or her own poten- 

tials. The kids are empowered, and so better able 

to cope with their lives and break former patterns. 

They learn that frustrations and barriers can be 

overcome, that problems can be solved and that 

if there are difficult problems in life one should 

not choose suicide as the solution. We strive to 

encourage, praise and motivate, so that the chil- 

dren themselves experience the victory of solving a 

problem or overcoming everyday challenges such 

The activities in Mælkebøtten are planned according to the seasons – in the summertime the children will often go on 

fishing trips. Photo: Mælkebøtten 

as attending school, doing homework, preparing 

food, tidying their room. The mission is for the 

children to enjoy a full life, in which self-esteem 

and confidence are achievable. 

Cooperation with the Municipality of Serm- 

ersooq 

Mælkebøtten and the Municipality of Sermersooq 

have entered into a cooperation agreement con- 

cerning children who are undergoing social welfare 

assessment. We cooperate with the child’s network, 

school, parents and the Welfare Administration to 

find the best overall solution for the child, not least 

with regard to encouraging pattern-breaking. 

Budget 

The establishment of Mælkebøtten - the purchase 

and refurbishment of the centre - was funded en- 

tirely by money raised from foundations, businesses 

and private contributors. The budget is covered by 

donations, grants from the Government of Green- 

land, Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq and day-rate re- 

imbursements for children in care. The VILLUM 

FOUNDATION has allocated funds for the hous- 

ing unit to cover both construction and half of the 

running costs for the first two years. 

“The Mælkebøtten child” – from being margin- 

alised to becoming a pattern breaker 

In order to maintain a continuous evaluation pro- 

cess, cooperation with senior researcher Else Chris- 

tensen, from “SFI” – The National Centre for So- 

cial Research – has begun on: “Implementation 

of the research study: “The Mælkebøtten-child” 

– from being marginalised to becoming a pattern 

breaker” 

The study will follow the development and wellbe- 

ing of the children who have undergone social wel- 

fare assessment at Mælkebøtten. The aim is to find 

positive or negative causal relations regarding the 

development of the children and their conditions 

of life, while concurrently obtaining knowledge 

about who are pattern breakers, and who are not. 

It is the first time a study of this kind has been con- 

ducted in Greenland. The study will run for 9 years 

and the first report is due to be published in 2013. 

100 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN GREENLAND VILLUM FOUNDATION 101 

SOCIAL PROJECTS

The Louisiana 

Museum of 

Modern Art’s 

new art stores 

BY POUL ERIK TØJNER 

Poul Erik Tøjner (born 1959). Di- 

rector of the Louisiana Museum of 

Modern Art since 2000. Tøjner is 

Chairman of the Board of Gylden- 

dal Publishers, Member of the Board 

of The C. L. David Foundation and 

Museum and of the Board of The 

Queen’s Foundation. 1997-2000 Culture Editor at 

Weekendavisen. Tøjner has written extensively on 

culture, art history, literature, design and aesthetics. 

In 2010 a grant totalling DKK 26,900,000 

was made evenly by the VILLUM FOUNDA- 

TION, the VELUX FOUNDATION and the 

Augustinus Foundation to the Louisiana Mu- 

seum of Modern Art towards the construction 

of new state-of-the-art storage facilities and 

conservation technology. The art stores will 

not only be used to store already-purchased 

art – that is, to secure an irreplaceable part of 

the international and Danish cultural herit- 

age – they will also extend capacity for future 

acquisitions for the Louisiana Collection. The 

construction of the approx. 1,914 m2 build- 

ing more than meets the requirements for 

energy-efficient design, and the art stores will 

thus serve as a paradigm for future sustainable 

management of modern heritage. 

Louisiana is situated in the northern part of Zealand with a panoramic view of Øresund. The museum encircles the sculpture 

park facing the sea, and the interplay between art, nature and architecture is unique. This is The Calder Terrace in 

front of the museum café. Photo: Louisiana 

Museum people think a lot about the past. It comes 

with the job – with the very word ‘museum’ – that 

we are duty bound to rescue by whatever means 

what once was for the here-and-now, and all the 

while keeping it in the public eye. But the here- 

and-now is always moving on, and the past keeps 

getting bigger as time goes by. So past and present 

together can easily take up every working hour for 

museum curators and directors. Now and again we 

might give some thought to the future, but not 

too much. Because the thought of having to ex- 

tend the past into the present, and not only that, 

but of launching the whole shebang into the future 

is not a little daunting. Busy as we are amassing 

items, representing our world with infinite care, 

working out where to display or store each item, 

we are only too well aware that our job is not to 

make things disappear, but the exact opposite – to 

preserve them. 

New works of art for the collection 

But to be more specific: for many years as the di- 

rector of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 

the generosity of Danish foundations and certain 

private collectors has allowed me to rejoice in the 

timely growth in our financial capacity to acquire 

new works for the collection. It is absolutely cru- 

cial for a museum to be able to keep up with the 

acquisitions side, for at least two reasons: first, we 

do not want to end up as a ‘period museum’; we 

do not want to be the Hirschsprung Collection of 

Modernism (and not a word against that splen- 

did collection!); what we do want is to be a living 

home for the contemporary; that is, permanently 

in contact with the layers of interpretation in which 

our life and world may be rendered visible. Col- 

lecting contemporary art is one way of doing this; 

making the museum a setting for relevant cultural 

events, as the Louisiana also does, is another. And 

102 THE LOUISIANA MUSEUM OF MODERN ART’S NEW ART STORES VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 103 

CULTURE

The old villa seen from the 

street – the museum entrance. 

With 3,000 works of art, the 

collection is among the largest 

in Scandinavia. Photo: Jens 

Frederiksen / Louisiana 

second, nowadays, a strong collection is the key to loans between museums, 

so without continuous updating of its collection an international museum 

loses mobility. If that sounds like mutual back-scratching, make no mistake: 

that is exactly what it is. Because every time the Louisiana can lend out 

works from the collection, we can justifiably hope for a quid pro quo at 

some time. This argument may sound shockingly pragmatic, but that hap- 

pens to be how it works – the culture industry of which Denmark’s most- 

visited museum of art is also a part. 

Lack of space 

To return to the introduction’s little analysis of the parameters of museo- 

logical behaviour – past, present, future – there have been limits to how 

long the undersigned has been able to ignore the fact that if you project just 

a little, the Louisiana simply has no room for the art the museum acquires. 

And since it cannot all be on the walls or the floors all at the same time – and 

because dynamic work with the collection in a variety of configurations is 

always going on – some of it has to be kept elsewhere, secured, under lock 

and key in a suitable indoor climate. The Louisiana has been a building in 

progress for more than the first forty years of its existence – but anything as 

tiresome as storage facilities was hardly at the centre of the founder Knud 

W. Jensen’s world-picture. And who can blame him when you see what a 

magnificent setting for modern art he was able to create? But the rest of us 

are now left with the problem; and – fortunately, as it has turned out – the 

solution too. 

The path towards the project has been part of an overall professionalisa- 

tion strategy for the museum, partly necessitated by outside events, but also 

driven by ever greater demands from our international partners. Since we 

began the major modernisation of the buildings of the Louisiana Museum 

in 2003, which took four years and cost some DKK 220 million, we have 

continued with this strategy – from internal routines to external commit- 

ments. Today, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is equipped for the 

future with a good grasp of the present. In 2008 we renewed the museum 

decisively by introducing four days of evening opening a week all year round 

– Tuesday to Friday 11 a.m.-10 p.m. – which has created a platform for 

all sorts of activities and enabled working people to visit the museum on 

weekdays. 

Something that has been exceptionally successful, as pointed out, is kick- 

starting the museum’s acquisitions of new art for the collection. And we see 

At the time of writing construction 

of the new 1914 m 2 

storage facility had just got 

underway. This sketch illustrates 

the planned result. 


CULTURE

Northern wing. Glass hallways create an interplay between architecture, art and nature. Photo: Hans Ole Madsen / 

Louisiana 

this too as a professionalisation of the Louisiana. 

The professionalisation of the collection is a story 

in its own right: the first phase has been a complete 

barcode registration of everything that has super- 

seded the less precise registration of former times. 

The second phase has been the lending out of 

masterworks from the original Danish part of the 

collection to the Danish museums that have been 

interested in supplementing their own collections: 

17 museums have received a total of 115 works on 

loan, provisionally for ten years, since we want the 

art to be shown as far as possible. The third phase, 

as mentioned above, has been a focus on financ- 

ing the acquisition of art – a fundraising perspec- 

tive; and the fourth phase is the procurement of 

adequate storage facilities for securing the cultural 

heritage, which ultimately belongs to Danish socie- 

ty, insofar as the works, according to the Museums 

Act, can never be sold, although they have partly 

been acquired with private funding. Then there is 

the fifth and last phase – digitisation of the collec- 

tion with a view to increased accessibility beyond 

the purely physical kind. 

A long-term solution 

And now to be even more specific. You have to 

think big and think along new lines in such a situ- 

ation; that is, no more patching-up and tinkering, 

no lumber rooms here and there or premises out 

in town. The Louisiana’s volume and international 

standing, and Denmark’s museum tradition, dic- 

tate that we must mount a proper project that 

might even serve in future as a paradigm for the 

challenge of safeguarding cultural heritage, which 

as a result of the above factors does not seem to be 

getting any smaller. In other words, the Louisiana 

wanted its storage problems solved once and for all 

– that is, for the next generation – and the solution 

had to provide the following: a storage building 

relatively close to the museum to minimise trans- 

port, a storage facility that is state-of-the-art in 

terms of security, climatic and energy criteria; and 

finally a storage building that allows for acquisi- 

tions for many years to come. 

A dialogue with the VILLUM FOUNDATION 

and the VELUX FOUNDATION revealed on 

the one hand a willingness to consider support- 

ing such a project, and, most importantly, a clear 

involvement from the foundations – including the 

Augustinus Foundation, which is the third party 

in the funding – in the technical execution of the 

building. The ‘Zephyr principle’ has been made 

the basis of this building, which means it should 

be a model of passive climate control. This means 

that you make the building itself – the thickness 

and permeability of the body of the building – the 

productive element in the maintenance of humid- 

ity and temperature levels, instead of, as happened 

not so long ago, investing in energy- and space-in- 

tensive ventilation and air-conditioning. The new 

building, which is located in the municipality’s for- 

mer storage yard in Humlebæk, is in other words a 

low-tech building, but its realisation grows out of 

progressive, sophisticated, innovative thinking, for 

example about the approach to the energy issue. 

The consultants to the project, who developed the 

Zephyr concept, have also been consultants to pro- 

jects in Vejle, Ribe, Stockholm and Berlin, and we 

have benchmarked the project against the stores 

of the Kungliga Husgerådskammare (Royal Col- 

lections) at the Royal Palace of Stockholm, Swe- 

den. We have attempted in our project to achieve 

the ultimate in energy-conscious fixtures with re- 

spect for the specific requirements of this calibre of 

building. The choice of materials is in other words 

determined by the nature of the task, but we have 

wished to go as far as we can within the given con- 

straints. 

The VILLUM FOUNDATION, the VELUX 

FOUNDATION and the Augustinus Foundation, 

with one third of the construction costs coming 

from each, have agreed to solve an urgent problem 

for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, agreed 

to think long-term in collaboration with a Dan- 

ish cultural institution – there is storage capacity 

for thirty years – and, finally, have agreed to con- 

tribute to a new generation of sustainable, energy- 

conscious museum construction. The foundations 

have thus demonstrated responsibility for the quite 

fundamental, basic care of the artworks, of the cul- 

tural heritage; which means that the museum staff 

of yet another future will be able to make the art- 

works of our present and future the object of new 

presentations. 

I believe I speak on behalf of all museum staff 

when I say that this is a dream one rarely sees come 

true. There is not much to boast about in the first 

round as a donor – in practice a windowless cel- 

lar above ground; but in the second round I think 

the laurels will grow in a profusion worthy of a 

Danish August with record rainfall. Support for 

the Louisiana’s new art stores is due diligence in 

the most literal sense, social responsibility and true 

cultural commitment all rolled into one. And now 

the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art can put its 

back into building up the other interfaces that ben- 

efit the general public, which, without this basis, 

would all be in vain. 


CULTURE

The 

Royal Theatre’s 

past 

digitised 

Martin Thaarup Larsen 

(born 1973) graduated 

from the Royal Danish 

Academy of Music in 1999. 

Since 2000 he has worked 

at the Royal Theatre, first 

as a music archivist and 

from 2009 as project man- 

ager for digitisation and 

digital archiving. 

BY MARTIN THAARUP LARSEN 


ed DKK 2,200,000 for the digitisation of the 

Royal Theatre’s video archive. The archive 

holds thousands of recordings of the theatre’s 

performances and is an important source of 

documentation in relation to restaging and 

often serves as inspiration for new produc- 

tions. A large part of the archive is in an out- 

dated format, and this grant has made it pos- 

sible to secure an invaluable archive of unique 

cultural historical material. 

History of the video archive 

The performing arts are by their very nature ephemeral. 

After the curtain falls, the ballet, opera or play is stored 

only in the mind of the spectator and it is difficult to de- 

scribe to one who has not experienced it. Often there is 

a need to represent the performance, for example to the 

singer who is unfamiliar with the staging and who must 

replace a sick colleague, or for the dancer who needs to 

learn the choreography of a ballet that has not been staged 

in 25 years. 

Manuscripts and sheet music are good starting points for 

learning new text or music, but information about move- 

ment on stage is difficult to reproduce in print. Where 

does the actor move after his line, and how and how 

fast? Video recordings of performances are a great help 

in preserving movements on stage, and in particular in 

capturing choreography. This is probably why the ballet 

has been especially keen to make video recordings of its 

performances. 

In the 1950s and 60s, Artistic Director Niels Bjørn Larsen 

(1913-2003) filmed the Royal Ballet with a 16 mm cam- 

era (often without sound), and Flemming Flindt (1936- 

2009) had as artistic director in the 1970s acquired an 

IVC camera. The IVC format was a magnetic tape format 

like VHS, but the tape was twice as wide and on open 

reels. It was difficult to handle, and the equipment took 

up so much space that it was not possible to record with 

an audience present. 

In the late 1990s, on the initiative of former principal 

dancer Kirsten Simone and designer Mia Okkels, the old 

ballet footage was transferred to digital tapes. 

From around 1980, the Royal Theatre systematically re- 

corded all premieres and revivals of plays, ballet and op- 

era. In the beginning, performances were recorded using 

a fixed camera mounted on the balcony which shot the 

whole scene, but later two or more cameras were used 

which also made it possible to get close-up shots of the 

performers. For the first 20 years or so the shows were 

IVC video tape recorder (International Video 

Corporation) 

U-matic cassette 

Plastic base 

Glue 

Oxide coating 

Schematic drawing of the structure of a 

magnetic tape 

108 THE ROYAL THEATRE’S PAST DIGITISED VELUX FOUNDATION 109 

CULTURE

Flemming Ryberg and Anna Lærkesen in A Folk Tale 

(1977). Photo: John R. Johnsen 

recorded in U-matic format which is also a mag- 

netic tape format, but on cassettes. From around 

2000, performances were recorded digitally. 

Video recordings are frequently used by perform- 

ers as described above, but also by students and 

researchers who can use them to study for exam- 

ple production design, costumes or performance 

practice. 

Digitisation 

The digital recordings are in good condition, but 

time is running out for the old U-matic tapes. 

The tapes have to be played on machines that 

went out of production in the late 1990s, and it is 

difficult to maintain the equipment and to obtain 

spare parts. Besides which, the tapes themselves 

are degrading. 

A video tape basically consists of a base and mag- 

Caroline Cavallo and Peter Bo Bendixen in A Folk Tale 

(1996). Photo: Martin Mydtskov Rønne 

netic particles which are glued on the base. These 

basic components (base, glue and magnetic parti- 

cles) are all potential weaknesses of the tape. The 

base may lose its flexibility so the tape breaks, 

the glue may degrade so the magnetic layer peels 

off, or it may absorb moisture causing the tape 

to become sticky, or the magnetic particles may 

become unstable resulting in a poor video signal. 

The Royal Theatre consulted the Danish Broad- 

casting Corporation, which has substantial experi- 

ence in digitising audio and video in-house, and 

two specialists were hired to perform the digitisa- 

tion. 

The actual digitisation work is being done in a 

studio in Copenhagen, and a large number of the 

theatre’s video machines have been transported 

to this studio. Most of the machines serve as a 

spare parts pool for keeping a few machines in the 

best possible condition. The old tapes challenge 

the two digitisation specialists almost daily with 

new problems which require skill and ingenuity 

to solve. Some tapes break, some disintegrate and 

others just will not ‘behave’. 

While the tapes are being digitised, the theatre’s 

IT infrastructure is being expanded to handle the 

large amount of data the digitised video files rep- 

resent. Backup procedures are being established 

as well as platforms for granting access to the 

archive from all theatre locations. The tapes are 

viewed by (retired) employees who can still re- 

member details about the performances and the 

performers, and all this information is entered 

along with the recordings to provide an unprec- 

edented means of searching the entire collection 

of video recordings. 

The future 

The total collection of 2,600 U-matic tapes is ex- 

pected to be fully digitised within two years when 

the digital footage will be transferred to the new 

video servers. The theatre is also working on get- 

ting both audio recordings and paper documents 

digitised to provide a digital performance archive 

for employers and researchers seeking knowledge 

and inspiration. The grant from the VELUX 

FOUNDATION has made it possible to launch 

this great and important project in time, and the 

theatre is working to clarify the many complex 

rights issues associated with the recordings, so 

audiences worldwide can enjoy this huge archival 

treasure. 

Hilary Guswiler in A Folk Tale (2011). Photo: Per Morten 

Abrahamsen 

110 THE ROYAL THEATRE’S PAST DIGITISED VELUX FOUNDATION 111 

CULTURE

Jørgen Wadum (born 1951), MSc, PhD 

in fine art conservation. Chief Conserva- 

tor at Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, 

The Hague, the Netherlands 1990; Keeper 

of Conservation, National Gallery of Den- 

mark 2005. Has specialised in scientific art 

history, notably from the Dutch Golden Age, 

with a specific focus on the painting tech- 

niques of Rembrandt, Dou and Vermeer. 

Exploring 

the science 

of art history 

Science moves into the 

National Gallery of Denmark 

BY JØRGEN WADUM 

In 2011 the VILLUM FOUNDATION and the VE- 

LUX FOUNDATION donated DKK 20,000,000 for 

the establishment of the Centre for Art Technologi- 

cal Studies and Conservation (CATS). The centre is 

unique in being a joint undertaking between the Na- 

tional Gallery of Denmark, the National Museum of 

Denmark and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, 

Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation. 

As indicated by the name, the centre will be devoted 

to technology-based studies of art and art conserva- 

tion in which conservators, scientists, art and cultural 

historians engage in multidisciplinary research in the 

painting techniques and media employed in the crea- 

tion of works of art. Decoding the artistic processes 

will provide new and surprising art history revelations 

for our public. But above all, CATS will improve our 

ability to determine the diverse and often complex 

ageing processes that affect the visual arts. The aim is 

to develop new and more precise methods for diagnos- 

ing, handling and conserving our visual art heritage. 

How costly were the robes of the Apostles? 

From Afghanistan to Northern Europe – via Venice. In 

the 16th-17th centuries, transport along the trade routes 

from Central Asia was so time-consuming and trouble- 

some that the price of ultramarine, a natural blue pigment 

derived from lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone, exceeded 

that of gold by the time it reached its final destination: the 

Northern European apothecary shops, where many artists 

purchased the pigment for their paints. Since the Middle 

Ages, natural ultramarine had been used to paint the blue 

capes on the most notable Biblical figures, although its cost 

was beyond the means of many artists. Instead, they had to 

make do with cheaper blue pigments such as azurite and 

crushed glass containing cobalt, called smalt. 

Studies of the layers of pigment and other media in paint- 

ings give us fascinating insights into the past, while sources 

of information about trade routes, artists’ media and tech- 

niques are vital in the techno-historical studies undertak- 

en by conservators. Exploring the material attributes of a 

work of art, allied with art history, allows us to piece to- 

gether new insights into a given work; with the odd as- 

tonishing revelation along the way, as was the case with 

the pioneering international research collaboration on the 

Rembrandt paintings at the National Gallery of Denmark 

in 2006 before CATS was established. Besides the many 

valuable discoveries that emerged from exhaustive analysis 

of the paintings, which are variably claimed to be the work 

of Rembrandt, one of the conclusions of the research was 

that two of the works are indubitably attributable to the 

Dutch master. 

Can a dead artist paint a picture? 

The extraordinary imagery teaming with people and activ- 

ity in the Bosch-Bruegel project’s painting at the National 

Gallery is matched by the complexity surrounding its con- 

servation, as revealed by technical conservation and art his- 

tory studies. Investigation of the narratives in the work is 

undertaken at several levels in this project, which under the 

The detail shows a blue robe and white undergarment 

from a 15th-century painting of “Madonna 

with Child”. The blue colour is painted 

using the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli, also 

known as natural ultramarine. Photo: Troels 

Filtenborg 

This cross-section of the paint layer shows 

that the 15th century artist made do by painting 

only the uppermost, darker blue layer in 

the costly lapis lazuli. Heavy underpainting using 

the less costly blue pigment called azurite, 

which is seen as paler-coloured blue blocks under 

the dark blue, was an economical means 

of achieving a convincing deep blue effect. 

Photo: Troels Filtenborg 

112 EXPLORING THE SCIENCE OF ART HISTORY VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 113 

CULTURE

A conservator employing a mixture 

of solvents to remove old yellowed 

varnish from a painting from the late 

16th century. Photo: Riccardo Buccarella 

The painting “Christ Driving the Money-lenders 

from the Temple”, formerly 

attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder 

(1525-1569), is seen here after removal 

of yellowed varnish and overpainting. 

The white sections are 

where the original paint has deteriorated 

over the last 500 years. All the 

damaged areas are retouched to restore 

the integrity of the work. Photo: 

Riccardo Buccarella 

title of “Four Paintings Magnified – Tracing Bosch and 

Bruegel” is the first international research partnership to 

be launched under the aegis of CATS. 

The painting at the National Gallery is one of four known 

works on wood from the 16th century; a second is in pri- 

vate ownership and the other two belong to Kadriorg Art 

Museum in Tallinn and Glasgow Museums, respectively. 

These museums, in association with the Royal Danish 

Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design 

and Conservation, the National Museum of Denmark’s 

conservation department and University of Glasgow, are 

collaborating closely with CATS on the Bosch-Bruegel 

research and conservation project. The four paintings all 

portray the same Biblical motif of “Christ Driving the 

Money-lenders from the Temple” – and there has been 

much to suggest that these works were painted by artists 

such as Bosch (circa 1450-1516) and Bruegel (1525- 

1569). 

However, initial analysis based on the dating and origin 

of the wood the pictures are painted on, turned up some 

surprises. The so-called dendrochronological analyses in- 

dicate that the oakwood came from trees that were still 

growing deep in what is now Polish forest as late as in 

1560-1570 and could not have been ready to receive 

paint within the lifetime of either Bosch or Bruegel. A 

real piece of detective work has now been launched be- 

tween CATS and the institutional partners to shed light 

on aspects such as the origin of the paintings. 

How does ox bone glue react to water-based clean- 

ing fluid? 

The detective work surrounding Henri Matisse’s myste- 

rious image of bathing girls, Le Luxe II, from 1907-1908 

is an altogether different story. In this case, ox bone glue 

emerged as the answer to the question of how surface 

staining and soiling could be removed without damaging 

the painting. If Matisse – as is claimed by the historical 

sources – had in fact used the highly insoluble substance 

known as casein in his paints, a water-based cleaning fluid would 

then have been ideal for the job. However, the pigment layer was 

extremely sensitive to the effects of moisture, and a research alli- 

ance with Professor Ole Nørregaard Jensen, MSC, PhD, of the 

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Uni- 

versity of Southern Denmark established that the artist had in fact 

used animal-based distemper. This insight into Matisse’s choice of 

materials and method meant that original plans for water-based 

cleaning had to be rejected in favour of a treatment favouring the 

medium. 

How to do puncture repair on modern sculpture? 

If we move on in time and place to later works and contempo- 

rary art, we find ourselves surrounded by media as diverse as plas- 

tic, rubber, lead, pigment and textiles in the series of pneumatic 

sculptures by Willy Ørskov from the period 1975-1985 entitled 

Bøjninger (“Inflexions”). Here, the challenge for the conserva- 

tor lay in the very substance of the products themselves, where 

deterioration of the plastic medium was causing the sculptures to 

deflate. The problem is typical of various types of plastic and may 

result in the impaired durability of contemporary art compared to 

the more traditional materials of earlier artworks. Contemporary 

artworks tend therefore to age rapidly unless the deterioration can 

be halted. 

Studies devoted to the prevention and remediation of the dete- 

rioration of the media are now in progress under the innovative 

PRIMI (Plastics Research and Innovation for Museums and In- 

dustry) research project, which bridges the traditional divide be- 

tween arts and science: an ambitious and innovative partnership 

between the plastics industry, artists, designers, researchers and art 

conservators. The project is unique in that it establishes the sci- 

ence of modern art media; a science which will be channelled from 

the art world to an agreed commercial application in the plastics 

industry. The contribution by the National Gallery to the PRIMI 

project sorts naturally under CATS, given that the multidiscipli- 

nary structure, expertise, new analytical tools and methods and 

professional networks of this new research centre embody both 

exploration and discoveries in the science of art history. 

Studies of sample media using a stereo polarisation 

microscope. Photo: Riccardo Buccarella 

Oil paint and varnish, urine, foam rubber and 

thick grease are among the media used by 

Claus Carstensen (born 1957) in his monumental 

work Æterlegeme (“Ether Body”) from 1986 

(400 x 300 cm on canvas). The close-up shows 

sections of the heavily-deteriorated foam rubber 

elements that were respectively blue and 

white originally. Photo: Louise Cone 

114 EXPLORING THE SCIENCE OF ART HISTORY VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 115 

CULTURE

Climate 

policy: 

perhaps the most 

important indicator 

of sustainable 

development? 

BY THOMAS FÆRGEMAN 

Thomas Færgeman (born 1965) holds degrees 

in agronomy and journalism, and has devoted 

his entire career to the environmental field: 

initially at Novo Nordisk A/S, then as an en- 

vironmental consultant to Deloitte, followed 

by 10 years as assistant general manager of the 

Danish Society for Nature Conservation, where 

he was responsible for nature and environment 

policy development and lobbying, until he be- 

came head of department at the Danish Minis- 

try of the Environment. Since 2008 he has been 

the managing director of CONCITO. 

In 2010, the VELUX FOUNDATION granted DKK 5,460,000 to 

the CONCITO think tank, for the completion of its “Annual Climate 

Outlook 2010-2011” project, and in 2011 the VILLUM FOUNDA- 

TION granted DKK 4,978,000 for a project on a green tax reform. 

The VELUX FOUNDATION granted additionally DKK 6,646,667 

for ‘Climate Outresch’ in 2012 and 2013. CONCITO is a Danish cli- 

mate network with 100 members, one third of which are businesses, 

one third scientists, and one third organisations and individuals re- 

presenting a broad segment of civil society. “Annual Climate Outlook 

2010-2011” consists of an annual analysis of Danish climate policies 

in the areas of transportation, buildings, agriculture, and energy. On 

the basis of this analysis, CONCITO’s members draft a number of 

concrete recommendations for the Danish Parliament. CONCITO 

also conducts analyses of the environmental impact of Danish con- 

sumer behaviour, as well as maintaining a focus on the availability 

of sustainable biomass, and the possibility of calculating the climate 

impact of individual products. 

In late May 2011, the International Energy Agency announced that global 

CO 2 emissions had never been higher, and that they were rising at a steadily 

increasing pace. According to the IEA’s senior economist, this was the worst 

possible news that the world could have received. 

A week earlier, 17 Nobel Prize laureates made an urgent appeal to the poli- 

ticians of the world to take action now, because they, based on their sci- 

entific knowledge, feared immeasurable and irreversible consequences for 

the Earth and mankind. This was not an appeal from an environmental 

organisation or a political interest group, but from people whose knowledge 

is universally admired and appreciated. 

A few weeks prior to this appeal, the Arctic Council published a report on 

sea level rises in this century, concluding that these had in all likelihood been 

grossly underestimated, and might be considerably greater than previously 

assumed. And a few weeks before the publication of that report, it was an- 

nounced that, globally, 2010 had been the warmest year on record. 

2010 also saw climate change manifest itself in floods in Australia and Pa- 

kistan, hurricanes in the United States, droughts in Russia with subsequent 

forest fires, and rising food prices. Food prices which led to rebellion and 

revolution, but which frail new democracies have no chance of addressing 

without resolute efforts to stem the worst consequences of climate change. 

116 CLIMATE POLICY Foto: Ojbyrne 

VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 117 

ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY

But the climate changes responsible for the current situ- 

ation are nothing compared to the human and economic 

costs to come, even if we fulfil the goal of a maximum glob- 

al temperature rise of two degrees Celsius. 

Nevertheless, it has been extraordinarily difficult to reach 

international agreements with binding targets for the re- 

duction of greenhouse gases, just as very little is happening 

at the national level in Denmark. 

Every year in May with funding from the VELUX FOUN- 

DATION, CONCITO publishes an analytical situation 

report for Denmark, of the preceding year’s political initia- 

tives aimed at responding to the warning lights which could 

not be blinking any more brightly, rapidly, and alarmingly 

than they are at present. The analysis is called the Annual 

Climate Outlook, and was first published in 2010. In 2011 

it was published in both Danish and English. 

The conclusion of the 2011 report is crystal clear: there is 

much talk and drafting of visions and plans of action, but 

absolutely nothing is actually happening. The government 

and the opposition have both presented proposals for strat- 

egies, but nothing has been ratified. It is difficult to point 

to a year with less activity on Denmark’s part, even though 

the scientific community is becoming increasingly certain 

and increasingly sharp in its warnings and statements. 

To be fair, Danish greenhouse gas emissions are falling, but 

not nearly to the extent necessary in order for Denmark to 

meet its obligations for 2020 and 2050. And with regard 

to Danish consumption and its climate impacts, things are 

moving in the wrong direction: an adverse trend which re- 

flects the fact that the bulk of the world’s heavy industry 

has been relocated to developing economies – even though 

the West still has the largest consumption per capita. In 

other words, emissions have been exported to other coun- 

tries – without the climate benefiting in the slightest. 

The primary purpose of CONCITO is to change these 

conditions. 

Pushing the boundaries of realpolitik 

It all started in November 2007. The general election had just been held, and 

the last ballots were being counted. Martin Lidegaard, who at the time had been 

a member of Parliament for six years, had not been reelected. Over the follow- 

ing days, he was approached by a number of businesses and NGOs, encouraging 

him to start a new, green think tank in Denmark. The reasoning was straight- 

forward: the climate challenge is here to stay – and there is a pressing need for 

businesses, civil society, and the scientific community to join forces to come up 

with concrete options for moving society in a more sustainable direction. 

Together with the author of this article, Martin Lidegaard set to work on build- 

ing a new think tank from the ground up. The goal was – and is – to gather the 

best and most influential businesses, organisations, scientists, and individuals in a 

network, which is independent of party politics and independent of commercial 

interests. The former was ensured by a broad membership, the latter by the bulk 

of the think tank’s funding being comprised of grants from non-profit founda- 

tions. 

The network outputs scientifically-founded scenarios, which identify ways in 

which the transport sector, the agricultural sector, energy production, construc- 

tion, and consumption may be developed in a way that is actually sustainable, 

i.e. that contributes to the prosperity of society without destroying the resources 

upon which that prosperity is based. 

No sooner said than done: in September 2008, the first 90 members were in 

place, and a founding board of directors had already drafted articles of associa- 

tion for the think tank over the summer. A grant from the Tryg Foundation 

and the initial membership fees made possible the hiring of a managing director 

and a project manager, as well as a salary for the chairman of the board. The 

first chairman was Martin Lidegaard, until he was elected Minister of Climate, 

Energy and Building in October 2011. 

Since then things have been progressing rapidly: new projects have been com- 

pleted with funding from Realdania, the Nordea Foundation, the Roskilde 

Foundation, the Percentage Tax Foundation – and especially the VELUX 

FOUNDATION. Today the secretariat employs eight people. Funding from 

the VELUX FOUNDATION has been of primary importance to CONCITO 

in 2010 and 2011, since it is due to this grant that CONCITO has been able to 

conduct thorough, interdisciplinary analyses of Danish climate policies, just as 

it has been possible to develop separate analyses of Danish consumer habits. In 

other words, the VELUX FOUNDATION is funding CONCITO’s main raison 

d’être, and has decided to continue until end of 2013. 

118 CLIMATE POLICY VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 119 


Tons of CO2e/capita 

25 

20 

15 

10 

5 

0 

1980 

1981 

1982 

1983 

1984 

1985 

1986 

1987 

1988 

1989 

1990 

1991 

1992 

Annual greenhouse gas emissions measured in carbon dioxide equivalents per Dane. The “national emissions” label refers 

to the official emissions originating from within Denmark, i.e. from the Danish production of energy and goods, 

heating, electricity production, agriculture, transportation, etc. The “consumer emissions” label refers to those emissions 

which result from the Danish consumption of goods, travel, food, etc., including imported goods. Graphic: CONCITO 

18% 

1993 

1994 

Simplified summary of the sources of Danish consumer emissions. It is evident that the areas on which energy conservation 

efforts have focused over the past many years, i.e. consumption of electricity, heating, oil, and car fuels, account for 

less than a fifth of the combined Danish consumer emissions. Graphic: CONCITO 

1995 

1996 

Year 

65% 

Consumer emissions/capita 

National emissions/capita 

1997 

1998 

1999 

17% 

2000 

2001 

2002 

2003 

2004 

2005 

2006 

2007 

2008 

2009 

2010 

Food 

Electricity, district heating, oil and gasoline 

Products, travel and services 

The outcome of the project has been that two an- 

nual reports now exist, both containing a situation 

report and a recommendation report, which have 

been presented directly to the political parties in 

Denmark. In addition, the hosting of a 24-hour 

‘camp’ has been instrumental in focusing media at- 

tention on Danish consumer habits, and CONCI- 

TO has succeeded in collaborating with the Danish 

Energy Association and the Danish Agriculture and 

Food Council to introduce the need for sustainable 

biomass policies to the political agenda. 

And that is the core of CONCITO’s political work: 

to unite the relevant stakeholders, most of which 

are members of CONCITO, and convene them 

four times a year for meetings in specialised work- 

ing groups on issues surrounding transportation, 

agriculture, energy, consumption, etc., and – based 

on solid technical expertise – to identify ways in 

which the boundaries of realpolitik may be pushed. 

CONCITO may not be able to get Greenpeace 

and DSV (both members of CONCITO’s trans- 

portation group) to see eye to eye on transporta- 

tion policies, but when challenged to come up with 

ways in which Denmark might reduce CO 2 emis- 

sions relating to transportation by 20% in 10 years, 

both organisations are able and willing to discuss 

road-pricing versus toll roads versus higher fuel 

prices, and to come up with a number of political 

scenarios, each with their pros and cons. 

Danish consumption not sustainable 

Danish greenhouse gas emissions are falling slight- 

ly, primarily as a result of an ongoing transition 

from coal-powered power plants to sustainable en- 

ergy. On the other hand, things in the transport 

and agricultural sectors are progressing very slowly. 

And with regard to Danish consumption and its 

carbon footprint, things are going entirely in the 

wrong direction. 

Consumption of electronics produced in Asia, con- 

sumption of air travel, and consumption of meat all 

contribute to raising emission averages. And this 

may well be the core of the issue: if the world is 

to have any hope of avoiding climate change of a 

magnitude which would drastically change settle- 

ment patterns and result in international wars and 

conflicts, it is crucial that citizens in the ‘old’ econ- 

omies as well as the new, developing economies do 

not persist in their current habits. 

For such a goal to be met, there is only one realistic 

way forward, and that is for the West to take the 

lead with regard to altered consumption patterns, 

in order to show the rest of the world that it is 

possible to live a good and fulfilling life without 

destroying the Earth’s resources in the process. 

The climate is therefore an issue involving much 

more than energy policies. The climate is basically 

the most important indicator of our ability to re- 

structure our economy and our society in a more 

sustainable direction, for there is an indisputable 

link between climate, consumption, biodiversity, 

and our utilisation of the Earth’s scarce natural 

resources. And only fundamentally new political 

concepts will be able to lay the groundwork for the 

necessary changes. 

It is therefore very positive that the VILLUM 

FOUNDATION decided to donate just under 

DKK 5 million to CONCITO in the spring of 

2011, for a green tax reform project to be realised 

over two and a half years. A project which will grap- 

ple with the fundamentals of our entire tax system, 

and investigate ways in which scarce resources and 

environmental impact may be taxed more heavily, 

while lowering business and income taxes, in re- 

cognition of the fact that it makes the most long- 

term sense to tax what you burn, not what you earn. 

120 CLIMATE POLICY VILLUM FOUNDATION AND VELUX FOUNDATION 121 


Focused bird protection 

to save vulnerable 

species 

BY TINE STAMPE, HENNING HELDBJERG AND MICHAEL BORCH GRELL Over the last 36 years, the Danish Ornithological Society has carried out a Adult Montagu’s harrier be- 

great many surveillance projects which now constitute a solid body of sciing tagged with a satellite 

Tine Stampe (born 1963) holds an MA in 

communication studies, and has worked 

In 2011, the VILLUM FOUNDATION donated DKK 

4,983,000 to the Danish Ornithological Society’s proentific 

data on the state of the population of all breeding birds in Denmark. 

These data reveal the stark reality that the populations of a large number of 

transmitter in Southwest Jutland 

(2010). Photo: Michael 

Grell 

as a public relations officer for the Danish ject ‘Focused Bird Protection’. The project is designed 

breeding birds are in rapid decline. Numerous international reports confirm 

Ornithological Society for seven years. 

Henning Heldbjerg (born 1966) is a bio 

logist and project manager with the Dan 

ish Ornithological Society. He is the senior 

manager of PFF, the project for focused 

bird protection. 

Michael Borch Grell (born 1961) has led 

the Danish Ornithological Society’s Natu 

ral Science Department since 2003, which 

deals with the Society’s scientific, nature 

policy and international nature conserva 

tion work. 

to increase the breeding population of the common 

merganser, red kite, white-tailed eagle, Montagu’s har- 

rier, peregrine falcon, Kentish plover, little owl and 

Tengmalm’s owl. These species make up a carefully 

selected group of vulnerable and threatened breeding 

birds in Denmark. There is a great need to develop fo- 

cused methods for protecting individual species in the 

interests of maintaining a high level of biodiversity in 

Denmark. Focused Bird Protection will employ GPS 

transmitters and webcams to map the birds’ foraging 

areas and their production of chicks. In the future, 

these methods will be in high demand among Danish 

local authorities and among private and public sector 

nature management bodies once EU nature conserva- 

tion requirements come to be implemented. 

that the same is true of biodiversity as a whole in Denmark (and in Europe), 

and in many cases, extensive political intervention and management of bird 

habitats is required to reverse this adverse trend. 

The Danish Ornithological Society however holds that the populations of a 

small group of bird species, given the existing pressure on natural habitats, 

can only be boosted by means of a new type of measure consisting of a 

targeted intervention for a single, specific species. We call this ‘focused bird 

protection’. Many of our most vulnerable and threatened species are de- 

pendent on specific protection and surveillance at nesting and foraging sites. 

There is a pressing need for more precise information as to the cause of the 

decline in the populations, and what it would take to reverse the situation. 

The Focused Bird Protection project will take the Danish Ornithologi- 

cal Society’s nature protection to a whole new level. We will be able to 

make use of the huge volume of existing data and try out different protec- 

tion methods directly on the affected species. This will enable us to record 

Photo: Justin Carr 

122 FOCUSED BIRD PROTECTION VILLUM FOUNDATION 123 


successful results in the efforts to stabilise or in- 

crease the populations of the selected species. 

The Focused Bird Protection project incorporates 

five main elements: 

• Selection of species that stand to benefit from 

focused protection. 

• Data analysis and enhancement of surveillance 

methods. 

• Surveillance of the species – with the assistance 

of the Society’s large network of trained, vol- 

untary ornithologists and others. 

• Focused interventions to increase the popula- 

tion of the selected species. 

• Dissemination to scientific, governmental and 

lay target audiences via nest cameras, websites 

and public events etc. 

The eight selected species are all vulnerable and de- 

pendent on protection measures for their survival 

as Danish breeding birds. The project will largely 

be carried out in partnership with the Danish Or- 

nithological Society’s members, local chapters and 

active volunteers who will receive skills upgrades 

through courses, workshops and seminars. The 

Danish Nature Agency and University of Copen- 

hagen are national partners, and the Society is also 

collaborating with international experts. 

Example: Poor breeding performance of Mon- 

tagu’s harriers 

The Montagu’s harrier is a rare Danish breed- 

ing bird, which has been under the Danish Or- 

nithological Society’s watch programme since the 

mid-1990s. Through a productive partnership 

The Kentish plover is one of Denmark’s rarest wading 

birds and is currently breeding only on islands in the 

Wadden Sea. Photo: Helge Sørensen 

A large Tengmalm’s owl chick being ringed on Danish breeding grounds. Photo: Johanna M. Hartmann 

with other actors in the Montagu harrier’s Danish 

main range in the southwest of Southern Jutland, 

we have gathered data on the size of the popula- 

tion and production of young from year to year. 

This observation programme has been carried out 

as part of a dedicated ‘Montagu’s harrier project’ 

in partnership with the Danish Nature Agency 

(Danish Ministry of the Environment), farmers, 

local authorities and the Danish Ornithological 

Society. We have found chicks in the nests, which 

commonly occur in arable farmland, and have 

protected them against destruction by harvesting 

machines and predation by foxes. We have also 

recorded data on the biological conditions of the 

nests. In addition, in partnership with Zoological 

Museum in Copenhagen and Dutch Montagu’s 

harrier researchers from Groningen University, 

we have investigated the migration routes and 

wintering quarters of Danish breeding birds by 

tagging them with satellite transmitters. 

In spite of this extensive intervention, the Danish 

population is in continual decline, and we can see 

that Danish breeding pairs are not producing suf- 

ficient chicks for the population to be conserved, 

or, ideally, increased. It is estimated that at least 

1.5 chicks must be bred per pair per year in order 

to conserve the population, and this level has only 

been achieved in 2 of the last 10 years. This makes 

it crucial to investigate what the birds forage for, 

and where, and this is exactly what will be done in 

the Danish Ornithological Society’s project funded 

by the VILLUM FOUNDATION. 

The project will capture a number of Danish breed- 

ing birds, which will be tagged with GPS transmit- 

ters, weighing just 14 grams and mounted on the 

bird as a small, flat backpack. This will enable us to 

track the movements of the breeding birds in great 

detail and to calculate their home range, i.e. the 

area they use for foraging in the breeding period. 

At the same time, cameras will be set up by selected 

nests to study the type of food the adult birds bring 

back to the chicks in the nests. 

From these activities, we expect to obtain sufficient 

insights to enable us to provide recommenda- 

tions for management of the Montagu’s harrier’s 

breeding area so that we may ultimately improve 

the chances of conserving this species as a Danish 

breeding bird. 

124 FOCUSED BIRD PROTECTION VILLUM FOUNDATION 125 


2011

Home to the skylark - The Velux Foundations

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?