Our aims

This makes it possible for everyone, companies and organisations, to support our aim and help our many activities for children and young people. The park is a not-for-profit organisation. This means that instead of any profits going to shareholders or owners, they are all put back into the development of attractions and activities aimed at children and young people.

Since 2005 when Jørgen Mads Clausen opened the park under the name ‘Danfoss Universe’, with the support of his wife Annette Clausen, he has not only been the park’s founder but one of the primary driving forces behind Universe. The park also receives financial support from the Bitten and Mads Clausen Foundation (also known as the Danfoss Foundation). The dream was (and continues to be) to help the new generation derive pleasure from nature and technology and inspire more people to become entrepreneurs.

Our history

Since 2005 when Jørgen Mads Clausen opened the park under the name ‘Danfoss Universe’, with the support of his wife Annette Clausen, he has not only been the park’s founder but one of the primary driving forces behind Universe. The park also receives financial support from the Bitten and Mads Clausen Foundation (also known as the Danfoss Foundation). The dream was (and continues to be) to help the new generation derive pleasure from nature and technology and inspire more people to become entrepreneurs.

“The problem today is that people are not interested in nature and technology, because they cannot see how things work,” says Jørgen Mads Clausen.

“It was completely different in my childhood. I could take apart an alarm clock to see its mechanism and how it got the clock to make regular movements. Looking inside was a real experience, and when I figured out how it worked, I thought ‘wow’ and was able to remember.  But who knows how a discman works? Very few people because you can’t take one apart, or if you do then it will be broken – and inside there are just several black bits which don’t help you find out how it works anyway.”

“I truly believe that it is a real problem to not be able to see how technology works. As a result, fewer people are being trained as engineers. The park was therefore devised as a place where technology could be illustrated. We have to give young people lots of ‘aha’ and ‘wow’ experiences as these are the best way to learn. We all know that ‘wow’ feeling when you can suddenly understand something or do something new. It sticks with you and shapes the rest of your life. Maybe you will feel like taking natural sciences further – or perhaps you will invent something yourself and start your own business in a few years”.

Is it a park for the class geniuses and geeks?

“No, it is for everybody." It is not an amusement park, but it must be interesting, so has to be fun. We have emphasised that it is hands-on and does not need you to read signs with lots of explanations. We know that young people do not want to stand around reading signs. They want to run about and try one thing after another. It is not a systematic form of education and there is none of the drudgery of school. The idea is to whet their appetite and hopefully inspire them to experiment further at home or school.”

“We also make a systematic effort to get school classes to visit us. We offer a school programme where classes can solve particular problems while in the park. There are also things that they can prepare before they get here and projects they can complete afterwards.”

What was the aim of building the park?

“Apart from giving young people the ‘aha’ and ‘wow’ experiences, it should lead to development in the surrounding area. It is part of the tourist effort in Southern Jutland. We would like it to be a business, and it should have some knock-on effects in the local area, for example, accommodation providers should be able to earn money from the visitors. It should also help the Danfoss brand. Not only through displaying logos in the park, but also by showing that we think about creating an interest in natural science. I don't know of any other industrial companies in the world that are doing this.”

Why is it important to create interest in natural science?

“We all want a welfare state, but this is based on the fact that we have a thriving industry that creates the background for this. And this demands that we are able to survive globalisation. Our products need lots of science input and we need more technologists. By this I mean engineers and natural scientists who can develop new products that we can use and survive on. If not enough engineers are being educated, this could go the wrong way. We cannot live without high technology – our society is based on this.”

Have you considered situating the park in a more central location than North Als?

“At one point, we worked out that we could double our visitor numbers if we situated the park in Kliplev, by the E45 motorway, and that was interesting to consider. But there is only one place where Danfoss was started, and that is here. If you built a copy of my father’s office in Kliplev, it would not be the same. We have heard from other museums that copies do not have the same attraction as the real deal. So it is very important that we stay here.”