Nykredit Center for Database Research was established at the beginning of 1998 as a five-year research center in the Faculty of Engineering and Science at Aalborg University. The center's mission is to intensify the research in database technology at Danish universities and business schools offering higher-education programs in computer science and engineering.

Background

The database software market is among the largest markets for software, and several of the world's ten largest software companies are database companies. It is then not surprising that database software and underlying technologies experience constant change and improvement. At the same time, Danish companies and institutions make widespread use of database software, which today typically is part of any larger software system.

The ability to make effective use of the newest database technologies is essential for ensuring the competitiveness of companies and institutions, thus rendering it of strategic national importance to establish and maintain a solid and up-to-date competence in databases in the nation's higher-education programs in computer science and engineering.

Two reports from 1997 identify a mismatch. The report Evaluation of the higher education programs in computer science from the Danish Centre for Quality Assurance and Evaluation of Higher Education under the Ministry of Education and the report IT Research - A National Strategy (in Danish: IT-forskning - oplæg til national delstrategi) from the Ministry of Research and Information Technology conclude that Danish computer science and engineering candidates are only moderately qualified in database technology and that the existing competence in database technology at the higher educations is divided among few researchers and is sparse and vulnerable in a national perspective.

Focus on Research and Research Training

Nykredit Center for Database Research has as its objective to contribute to increasing the competence in database technology in Denmark in the near and longer terms.

	The center is responsible for conducting database research at a high international level.
	The center is responsible for offering internationally-oriented research training in database technology with the longer-term objective of contributing to the establishment of new database research groups at institutions offering higher-education programs in computer science in Denmark.
	To meet short-term demands, the center offers courses and collaboration in database technologies to the higher-education programs in computer science as well as to other institutions and companies.

The researchers in the center focus on the research areas of temporal databases, data warehousing, spatio-temporal databases, and world-wide-web data management. To maintain a high quality and relevance of the research activities, the researchers collaborate intensively with leading international researchers in each of these areas.

In temporal databases, the center's researchers collaborate with researchers from five countries, primarily USA; in data warehousing, researchers from the center participate in a project with companies from seven European countries; and with nine other European research groups, the researchers take part in a project on spatio-temporal databases. A visiting faculty program in the center makes it possible to invite guest researchers for shorter stays.

Researchers from the center currently collaborate with a number of companies and institutions in Denmark, including EUMAN, Informix, Kort-og Matrikelstyrelsen, MindPass, Novo Nordisk, Nykredit, Oracle, and TeleDanmark, as well as The Danish Defense Research Establishment and The National Forest and Nature Agency.

Organization and Sponsorship

The center is located physically at Aalborg University and is built around the database research group in Department of Computer Science. In addition, database researchers from other Danish institutions participate.

The center is governed by a steering committee with two representatives from each of the Nykredit corporation, Center for IT Research, and the researchers associated with the center. The initial members of the committee encompass IT-president Carsten Christensen, methods engineer Jens Gadgård, president Morten Kyng, department director Lars Mathiassen, Leo Mark and Christian S. Jensen, Christian S. Jensen is the center's director and holds the responsibility for its daily management. Kristian Torp is the center's administrator.

The Nykredit corporation is the main sponsor of the center. In addition, the center's activities are supported by Center for IT Research, the Faculty of Engineering and Science at Aalborg University, and by Aalborg University.