Vestas Technology R&D launches a Global University Programme

Vestas sponsors a global university programme promoting greater cooperation with leading universities worldwide.

Through the coming years, Vestas Technology R&D will sponsor an increasing number of professors, PhDs, and master's thesis students from leading universities worldwide as part of this programme.

The purpose of the Global University Programme is to expand Vestas' cooperation with universities and thus accelerate its global innovative wind power research. Thereby, Vestas strives to obtain the most recent knowledge within wind power technology and the most qualified manpower in the future.

Vestas Technology R&D, the wind industry's largest research and development unit, is experiencing a rapid growth. In addition to the expansion of the Technology Research Centre's headquarters in Denmark, Vestas Technology R&D is also expanding internationally. Vestas has already research centres located in Singapore, India, UK and Germany, and in 2009, a new research centre will be established in the USA.

It is Vestas' experience that independent university wind power research can positively contribute to Vestas' development of highly innovative new wind power solutions. Finn Strøm Madsen, President of Vestas Technology R&D, says: “Increased cooperation with universities worldwide is a natural consequence of our growth. We are highly interested in working closely with leading researchers worldwide in order to ensure that we maintain our position as the leading supplier of wind energy solutions and reinforce the recruitment of the brightest students from these universities.”

Vestas is currently cooperating with several universities worldwide, including the Technical University of Denmark/RISOE and Aalborg University in Denmark, Cambridge University and Imperial College London in the UK, Delft University of Technology in Holland, Tsinghua University in China and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

For the last decades, Vestas Technology R&D has worked closely together with Danish universities, which have some of the world's leading wind power research groups. Frede Blaabjerg, Dean, Aalborg University, says: “Cooperation with the business sector enables us to work with relevant issues that can be used in practice. Together with Vestas Technology R&D, we are able to develop the best high-tech wind power solutions of the future.”

Following Vestas Technology R&D's international expansion, the company is continuously developing new cooperation agreements with international university partners. As an example, Vestas has recently started to work with the School of Materials Science and Engineering of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.

Professor Freddy Boey Yin Chiang, Dean, NTU, says: “Vestas is a world leader in wind energy solutions and we are glad they have found it compelling to work with NTU, leveraging on NTU's strong research competencies in clean energy technology. Certainly, NTU is proud to be associated with a global player like Vestas, and we believe our partnership will provide timely technological solutions to today's urgent energy needs.”

The Global University Programme will sponsor professors, PhDs and master's thesis students from leading universities worldwide that Vestas wants to initiate and develop cooperation with. The programme will also intensify Vestas' cooperation with the already existing university partners.

Global calls for applications under Vestas Technology R&D's Global University Programme can be found at www.vestas.com / Jobs / Education and research / Global University Programme.

For further information, please contact Finn Strøm Madsen, President of Vestas Technology R&D, telephone +45 9730 0000, or visit Vestas' website: www.vestas.com.