After 4 years of operation, some internal reflection, a steering commitee meeting, and following evaluation rounds from our external and internal members in the Fall, the CDW management have decided to rethink and reiterate the CDW concept to fit the needs and ressources of it's members, researchers and also daily management and administration of the center. Therefore, the CDW has implemented 2 major organizational changes:
1) CDW management model: From a hierarchical management model to a distributed management model governed by a management team that distributes the strategic decision-making and management of the center between the former working group leaders: Irina, Sisse, Louise & Cancan, who are now "co-leads" of the CDW. The management team is assisted by a Strategic Project Manager who oversees the daily operations, and a Center Representative role, that secures the daily management and sparring with the Strategic Project Manager and represents the center outwards. The intention is to circulate the Center Representative role between the members of the management team to equally distribute the ressources needed in this position. This means that Irina Papazu is stepping down as Head of Center, but will continue as part of the management team. Irina is passing on the baton to
Cancan Wang, who is stepping in as the CDW Center Representative. Cancan is Associate Professor the at ITU Business IT department, where her research focuses on management of societal transformations, incl. digital transformation of the public sector, ESG and sustainable transition of industry and public procurement. She has also been the developer of the CDW masterclass concept. Very warm welcome to Cancan!
2) From closed working groups to open 'emerging themes' and activities:
The managament team has decided to close down the working group structure and replace it with thematic activities open to all members. This change is also motivated by the evaluations performed in the Fall, where the working group structure was deemed too inflexible and not adaptable to the ongoing research. As of January 2024, the center will replace this structure with a thematic approach organized around ‘emerging themes’ that represent more dynamic, emerging research topics in a field that is constantly developing. This thematic approach has been tested especially in Sisse Finken’s working group, Digital Citizenship, as well as the Center's focus on Youth & Inclusion. The center will therefore adopt this approach as a center-wide structure and organize center activities around themes instead of working groups. As with the working groups, there will be 2 activities pr. theme pr. semester and they run for 1 year at a time. The CDW will also host Center-wide events (e.g. conferences, research workshops, etc.) that transcend the more thematic focus and which are intended to be co-created with the wider ecosystem, researchers and external stakeholders/members. These will be arranged 1-2 times pr. semester. The ambition is to enhance co-creation with our members in the development and design of activities and events, as well as communication and policy initiatives, and in this way ensure that the CDW delivers on its mission of being a prime research center within its field and to actively contribute excellent research to academia, public debate, and decision-makers. Here, it is important to emphasize CDW as being a mutual knowledge-sharing hub and that showing up for thematic activities, engaging with the CDW researchers and other members on common projects, sharing experiences, insights and critique are essential in making the CDW a success. On behalf of the management team, we hope that this more flexible and open structure will increase knowledge-sharing and research collaboration across sectors, so no one is confined to a specific working group, but can pursue new ideas, research proposals and collaborations within the knowledge and practice network that is CDW.
You can read more about the 'emerging themes' of 2024 on CDWs website here. 
