Four more years

D2i has secured funding for the design cluster until 2019. Four more years, as they say. Four more years to continue, elaborate and develop their great work of creating innovation, growth and jobs through design in the Region of Southern Denmark and the rest of the country. D2i will do this in collaboration with companies, partners and the strong design professional setting that surrounds Design School Kolding and the University of Southern Denmark.

- We will focus on how design is able to support the region's positions of strength when it comes to play, welfare and green transition. We do this in order to contribute to the realisation of the business potential of the region, but also because the themes and the challenges and the potential solutions they entail have international relevance, says Secretariat Director Thit Juul Madsen, who can look back on four eventful years.

Since 2011, 574 companies and 1609 persons have participated in D2i activities focusing on growth and value creation through design. And in those three years, the number of regional companies using design has increased by 25 per cent. Several of the companies have experienced anything from double-digit growth to being able to move their production out of low-paying countries and back to Denmark.

- We are well on our way to fulfilling the long-term ambition of D2i: to turn the Triangle Region and the Region of Southern Denmark into Northern Europe's hub for design and design application – a place that will foster change. A place where new design knowledge can be created and brought into play in collaboration with companies and public players with the aim to create new and better solutions, says Thit Juul Madsen.