New Prorector pledges innovative, value-creating and internationally leading university
On 1 July, Professor Eva Hoffmann from UCPH Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine joins senior management at Innovation District Copenhagen-partner University of Copenhagen as Prorector for Research and Innovation. Apart from a glorious academic career, Hoffmann is also co-founder of the biotech company OvartiX.
Leading researcher with entrepreneurship experience
The new Prorector for Research and Innovation is an internationally recognised researcher at the highest level. Eva Hoffmann earned her DPhil/PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford in 2002. She worked for more than 10 years in the UK before returning to Denmark to take up a professorship on an NNF Young Investigator Award. She replaces David Dreyer Lassen who ascended to the position as Rector of the University on 1 March 2025.
Eva has a keen eye for both strategy and how cultural aspects come into play in different contexts. She is a top researcher with a passion for innovation, and throughout her career, she has demonstrated the ability to deliver excellent results by involving and engaging people. Eva will complement the Rectorate and the University Leadership in the best possible way. With Eva as Prorector, we will have even stronger capabilities championing the University’s necessary and strategic ambition to be solution-oriented, innovative and the best place for the best ideas”: David Dreyer Lassen, Rector, University of Copenhagen and chair of the Innovation District Copenhagen Development Council.
Top-tier publications and university leadership skills
Eva Hoffmann comes straight from a position as professor of molecular genetics at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at UCPH, where she has been acting head of department since 2022. She has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant and in the past five years alone has been senior author on several research articles in Nature and Science. With her start-up, she completed a programme at the Innovation district located incubator BioInnovation Institute. On top of that, she has extensive experience in university leadership. Not least from her current position as acting head of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine over the past three years, with 45 group leaders and approximately 300 staff members.
Responsibility for core-management forums
Reporting to the Rector, Eva Hoffmann will chair the University’s two core academic management forums, Research Management and Innovation Management. Together with the University Director, she will also have management responsibility for the deputy directors of two group units within the University Administration: UCPH Research and Information Security, and UCPH Innovation and External Partnerships.
I look forward immensely to taking on the job as Prorector and to bringing my knowledge of Danish and international research and research politics into play. As part of the University Leadership, I will make every effort to make research and innovation at UCPH ever more value-creating and internationally leading. At the same time, I will work to ensure it’s embedded in Danish research culture”: Eva Hoffmann, Professor, University of Copenhagen.
Vital partner in innovation district project
Eva Hoffmann is appointed for a five-year term, running until the end of June 2030, with the possibility of a three-year extension. University of Copenhagen is one of three academic partners in Innovation District Copenhagen, the others being University Hospital Rigshospitalet and University College Copenhagen.
About Innovation District Copenhagen
A world-class innovation district where you can transform your bright ideas into growth, jobs, and global solutions.
- Co-locate with University of Copenhagen, University Hospital Rigshospitalet, University College Copenhagen (KP) and 500 innovative companies.
- Co-create with 40,000 researchers, staff and students.
- Collaborate to develop new solutions to societal challenges.
- Find a job with leading academic institutions and deep-tech companies.
Learn more about the Innovation District Copenhagen organisation.