Responsible
Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Senior Vice President Marianne Thellersen has the overall responsibility for DTU Blue Dot.
How to create a Blue Dot project
The project manager or student organizes a meeting with Marianne Thellersen, who formally approves the project.
The project will be added to the DTU Blue Dot website, including a photo and description as well as contact person and instructions on how interested parties can become part of the project.
The project must meet the Blue Dot characteristics:
- They exceed the normal scope of project work by putting learning into a new context and by involving real-life and relevant engineering projects
- They extend beyond a single student, semester, and department
- They have a clear purpose. Students test their skills in practice. It must also be possible to use the result in practice and, for example, present it at an engineering competition or the like
- The projects involve close contact with the business sector or other relevant external and internal stakeholders
- They are academically very demanding and require a commitment out of the ordinary in relation to the theoretical and practical challenges of the project
- They are interdisciplinary and require intensive teamwork between the various engineering domains with a view to finding the best solution to specific engineering problems or challenges
- They have open problems that require creative solutions, which the students have to work out and describe, plan and implement as well as complete (parts of)
- In their structure (and organization), they reflect how an engineer actually works in practice
- They create identity and strengthen students’ academic and personal development
- They result in sustainable solutions
DTU’s students are generally allocated to a Blue Dot project via an ECTS-based element (an ordinary course, a special course, a final project, a BSc project, an MSc thesis, etc.), but the students’ involvement, effort, and time consumption regarding the element in question are usually far beyond expectations. In other words, credit may be granted for the Blue Dot projects, as participation counts as part of the study programme and qualifies a student for ECTS credits. The student will also be awarded a separate diploma for participation in a DTU Blue Dot project.
Blue Dot funds
Every autumn, Blue Dot projects can apply for funds from the Executive Board’s special Blue Dot pool.
Pool details
Every third year, DTU’s Executive Board allocates a special funding pool for the Blue Dot projects.
However, the majority of projects are expected to be funded through external sources.
Purpose
The purpose of the pool is to support the Blue Dot projects in areas difficult to fundraise for.
The following purposes and activities are eligible for funding:
- Transport of students/faculty staff to events and competitions
- Student accommodation in connection with events and competitions
- Transport of physical projects to competitions
- Recruitment events
- Catering for workshops/competitions at DTU
- Fundraising events
- T-shirts and similar equipment
Purposes not listed here could also be eligible for funding, but it is emphasized that purposes that are difficult to fundraise in other ways will be prioritized.
Conditions
The following conditions must be met for a project to apply for funds from the pool:
- A minimum of 10 students must be active participants in the project
- A course for which ECTS credits are awarded is included in the project
- The project allows students to use their knowledge from classes in practice
- A competition against other similar projects is included/incorporated in the process.
- The project must on the whole comply with the Blue Dot characteristics (see above).
The application
The application must contain:
- A brief project description, including information on the expected number of participants, courses with ECTS specifications, the project’s practicability, competition elements, etc.
- Specification of the amount to be applied for
- Specification of how the funds are intended to be used
- Project budget
- Any appendices relevant to the application.
The application must not exceed 2400 characters, including spaces – excl. budget and any appendices.