All ODIN projects will share their data and findings with the public.

• Whom we share with: Data and findings from ODIN projects must be accessible to anyone, who is interested. This means that there are no access restrictions to the data.

• When we share: The projects will share their data as soon as possible – but no later than by the end of the project. Therefore, the grant holders will participate in knowledge sharing events organized by ODIN, where they must provide updates on the current progress of the projects.

• What we share: Our projects must share all foreground knowledge – that is, all the data and findings generated within the project period. Both academic and industrial participants may have background knowledge (that they bring into the project), which they do not wish to disclose. This is okay, as long as it does not affect the usefulness of the shared foreground knowledge. Examples of shared data includes indentified biomarkes, small programs, and large dataset. For this data to be useful, our projects must live up to the FAIR principles and the data must be shared under the CC BY license to ensure that everyone are allowed to use the data for their own purposes.

• Where we share: ODIN has a community at zenodo. Although the project participants are welcome to use any platform that they find appropriate for their data (as long as it is open to the public), they must also upload their data to zenodo. Therefore, you can access all the published data and findings from our projects on zenodo: https://zenodo.org/communities/odin_dk/

All open results from ODIN projects must be published under the Creative Commons CC BY option.

• Creative Commons: These types of licenses are used to provide a standardized way of granting the public permission to use the data under copyright law. This implies that everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions can use the published work for specific purposes as defined by the different CC ‘options’. Visit the Creative Commons website for more information.

• The CC BY option: There are several different options to choose from, when publishing your data. ODIN project must use the CC BY option, which allows everyone to “distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use” (source: Creative Commons website) This implies that everyone can use the open data from ODIN projects for downstream innovation.

The themes ‘biomarkers’ and ‘target validation’ were selected after close dialogue with industry partners, AU researchers and the AU Tech Transfer Office. As all parties deemed the areas “precompetitive”, they were selected as trial themes for the pilot project.

Both themes address key barriers to early drug discovery and they hold great potential for important pre-competitive research projects.

Future versions of ODIN may expand or focus the scientific scope.

Both academic researchers and representatives from industry can suggest ideas for ODIN projects.

• Who suggests ideas: Of the 11 funded ODIN project, most were based on ideas suggested by academic researchers – but adapted to industry needs and ideas through subsequent co-creation.  Smaller companies in particular prefer to suggest their own ideas, . Regardless of the origin, it is an important component of ODIN that the ideas are further developed in balanced collaboration between academic and industrial partners.
• How ODIN supports the process: Prior to the application deadline, network members can source input and partners via a matchmaking platform. ODIN also hosts events, where network members can pitch their (academic) ideas or (industrial) research needs. In the ODIN pilot project, a scientific facilitator provided hand-held matchmaking between network members.

The applications are evaluated in two steps: First the Project Review Committee nominates projects for funding with the aid of an international Peer Review Panel. The nominated projects are then assessed by our Steering Group, who decides which projects to fund.

• Peer Review Committee (PRC): The members of ODIN’s PRC equally represents academic researchers from Aarhus University and industry partners. They evaluate and nominate projects to ODIN’s SG with aid from the iPRP.
• International Peer Review Panel (iPRP): The iPRP members are international external experts with expertise within our two themes ‘biomarkers’ and ‘target validation’ as well as the open approach in general. They assess pseudonymized versions of the applications to ensure that the PRC is not unintentionally favoring projects based on the applicants’ identity
• Steering Group (SG): Based on the evaluations by the PRC and iPRP, the SG receives a list of nominated projects. The SG consists of the AU deans from NAT, TECH and HEALTH as well as industry representatives.

The projects range between 2 and 2.5 years length. It has not been possible to apply for longer project periods, because all projects must be closed by the end of the 3-year ODIN pilot.

The projects have received grants between 2.8M and 4.9M DKK and a total of almost 45.8M DKK has been allocated for the 11 funded ODIN projects.

Yes. Our project participants describe the ODIN collaborations as different than traditional projects: They are more balanced in terms of contribution and outputs, and tend to address more complex high-risk/high-gain problems.

The project participants (both academic and industrial) describe the ODIN projects as:

• Balanced: All parties contribute more equally because the project has not been dictated by a commissioning company. Everyone participates and gains knowledge from participating.
• Focused and agile: Because the projects are small, they are often more focused and agile, which reduces complexity and allows for the parties to collaborate closely and also (slightly) change focus during the project.

No. There are no membership fees for anyone, because we do not wish to exclude any participants from joining ODIN

In principle, the number of involved companies in a project is unlimited, but the current project each have between 1-4 companies involved, which makes them rather agile.

• In theory: Any company, who is interested in ODIN and its outputs can join and become part of research projects. There is no upper limit for how many companies can join a project.

• In practice: Of the 11 funded projects, most have one supporting company, who participates actively in the project. However, 4 projects have two to four supporting companies.

The participating companies in the funded ODIN projects must be actively engaged in the projects. They can contribute intellectually, practically and by supplying materials.

• Intellectual contributions: This kind of contribution includes expertise, experience and knowledge such as training of post docs and sharing of know-how. This includes co-creating the projects’ aim, assessing their results etc.

• Practical contributions: These contributions are more ‘active’ and includes being responsible for work packages, analysis and conducting research based on in-house know-how or technology, or even hosting academic researchers.

• Material contributions: Access to e.g. compound libraries, samples and infrastructure are examples of material contributions. It also includes the use of facilities or providing physical materials to be used in the academic laboratory.

Companies participate for many different reasons. The projects provide easy access to academic collaboration partners, new knowledge and opportunities to keep tabs on the latest technology developments in academia. Due to the unique set-up of ODIN, the platform de-risks the companies’ engagement in exploratory high-risk/high-gain projects.

Although all data will be shared openly with the public, there are many advantages to participating actively in the research projects. The participating companies will gain access to new partners and tacit knowledge, which is notoriously difficult to share via open publishing and databases.

Other advantages of participating in ODIN projects include:

• • Easy access to finding new academic partners and technologies.
  • Provides an opportunity to address complex unsolved challenges
  • Expands the company’s academic network and access to forefront academic knowledge
  • Is a fast and easy way of collaborating with academics and other companies (due to ODIN’s standard collaboration agreement that cuts “red tape”)
  • Is a possibility to engage in and de-risk promising, but underexplored research (with no requirement of cash contributions).
• • Showcasing the company
  • Access to a network of collaborators

No. The participating companies do not receive any funding from ODIN. Only academic participants based at Aarhus University can receive funding.

ODIN is sponsored by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, which only supports not-for-profit organizations. Because ODIN must follow the same terms as the Foundation, we can only support academic partners in our projects. Thus, companies participate without funding and must therefore allocate in-house funding for their participation in the project. On the other hand, there is no requirements for cash contributions or membership fees.

When joining the ODIN network, companies do not commit to anything. They can use the platform to browse. But when a company decides to become part of an ODIN application, it is expected to contribute to the writing of the application and contribute actively in the project, if it is funded.

• Joining the network: All interested companies can join the ODIN network. We focus on drug discovery, but companies from other areas are also welcome. It is non-committal to join and all you have to invest is time because it takes time to:
  • Participate in activities,
  • Suggest ideas and
  • Source input and partners from the network.

• Writing an application: If a company would like to become a supporting company for an application, it is expected of the company to actively contribute in development of the idea and the writing process. The project must always be headed by an academic researcher and therefore the company is not lead on the application writing.

• Project participation: In-kind contribution from the company is necessary for the participation in ODIN projects. Companies must contribute actively to the project for the project to succeed and to benefit from the knowledge exchange between partners.

Supporting companies participate actively in projects, whereas interested companies are interested in the project output but do not become active partners in the project.

ODIN projects are small agile projects where you have to opportunity to collaborate closely with (new) industry partners on projects that might not fit the scope of other funding bodies.

There are a number of different reasons why grant holders in ODIN describe our model as attractive:

• “Seed money”: ODIN projects may form the basis for future collaborations with industry or pave the way for other funding opportunities (for a downstream project) at a later stage.
• Close collaboration with industry: The ODIN network provides faster and easier access to new collaborators from industry. The projects also entails access to know-how, materials and models in the involved companies.

Yes. Partners from other universities are welcome to join ODIN projects, but only AU partners can apply for and receive funding.

During the ODIN pilot project, only AU-based researchers can apply for funding due to the legal framework. However, if ODIN continues after the pilot project, other universities will also become part of the project and their researchers can thus also apply for funding.

Yes, we certainly think so, but we'll let you decide for yourself. A team of independent researchers is evaluating ODIN, and the first assessment (the interrim or midterm assessment) was published in  the summer of 2022. You can find it below. The evaluation team has interviewed both academic and industrial participants and you can read more about the intersectoral collaborations and the participants' motivations and pespective on openness.

ODIN is a 3-year project. Within this period, we aim to find out if the Open Innovation in Science (in this format) is viable within the life science area. If the format is promising, the small-scale pilot can hopefully be transferred to other Danish universities.

The term “pre-competitive research” refers to the early-stage activities before the research becomes “business sensitive" and companies would need to lock down IP to protect their investments in a given research result and transform it into a product. In theory, the university could try to patent even early stage research in the precompetitive phase, but it would not make sense for us to do so from a commercial point of view. While the knowledge we produce is an important foundation for future drug development, it will not become an integral part of final products that the companies will need to protect intellectually. Therefore, they would have no interest in any patents or licence agreements we could offer them.

ODIN only accepts applications for projects that involve research at the pre-competitive stage.

• Definition: As the term implies, pre-competitive means before it involves any competition. That is, the knowledge generated does not make sense to patent as there will be no company takers. The knowledge is important for further innovation but it will not become an integral part of the final product that the company will need to exclusive use rights for.
• Advantages: Several companies may meet the same challenges in their research. If they team up at the pre-competitive stage, they can help each other solve the challenges. The generated knowledge can then be used for further innovation and products that the individual companies can patent. Through open crowdsourcing and collective problem-solving, we can create a solid (and faster validated) knowledge foundation for all to stand on and e.g. select the right candidates for the very competitive, costly and risky clinical trials downstream.

On the contrary. We like patents and see them as important tools in the innovation process. We encourage open collaboration at the pre-competitive state that can act as pipelines for more closed innovation (with patents) as companies will mature our open results towards mores specific commercial applications that can in fact be patented.