For the eighth year running, the Otto Mønsted Foundation is presenting the ‘Den Lyse Idé’ award to talented students from the country’s universities and business academies. The event will take place during the Digital Tech Summit on 4–5 November at Øksnehallen in Copenhagen, where 4,000 professionals, 1,000 students, universities and exhibitors will gather to discuss AI and digital transformation.
The ‘Den Lyse Idé’ award ceremony is scheduled for 4 November, when this year’s winners will be announced at 4 pm on the Startup stage. Afterwards, the Otto Mønsted Foundation and the country’s universities will be hosting drinks at the bar, where you can meet existing and new partners from businesses, investors and universities. You can also visit the Otto Mønsted Foundation at stand number 1106, where we hope many of you will drop by again this year.
The prize fund has grown to 680,000 kroner
This year, the ‘Den Lyse Idé’ prize fund is larger than ever.
‘Den Lyse Idé 2026’ will be awarded in two categories: early-stage and late-stage. The winners will each receive 250,000 Danish kroner as the main prize for ideas which, in the jury’s opinion, are particularly innovative and have significant commercial potential.
The other finalists who do not win the main prize will each receive 20,000 kroner.
As a new feature this year, the jury will also award the ‘Den Lyse Idé’ Fast-track Prize. This recognises an idea that makes original use of existing technologies. The winner will receive 100,000 kroner along with the diploma.
The jury has assessed this year’s submitted ideas on the basis of excellence in concept, communication, analysis and documentation. Emphasis has also been placed on business vision and understanding, as well as the ideas’ contribution to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The jury for the ‘Den Lyse Idé’ Award:
Kigge Hvid, partner, JA studio
Ole Kring, former partner, EIFO
Bjarne Kjær Ersbøll, professor at DTU Compute and board member of the Otto Mønsted Foundation
Nis Alstrup, chair of the board of the Otto Mønsted Foundation
Karina Bergstrøm Larsen, director at Q-Consulting
Christian Brix Tillegreen, Senior Business Developer, Bioinnovation Institute
Nigel Edmondson, Managing Director, MADE
Vibeke Svendsen, Board Member of the Otto Mønsted Foundation