The starting point for the Nordic Process Control (NPC) Working group and the NPC Workshop was the "Nordisk Destillasjonsregulerings Forskning" (NDF) project which started in 1988. 
It was funded by Nordisk Industrifond and initially involved Chemical Engineering Departments at  DTH (now DTU) in Denmark, NTH (now NTNU) in Norway and Åbo Akademi in Finland. 

The three professors involved were Sten bay Jørgensen (DTH), Sigurd Skogestad (NTH) and Kurt Waller (Åbo Akademi). Sten Bay Jørgensen had the main role in the startup of the project. 

In the spring of 1989 also Sweden joined the project through the Control department at Chalmers Institute of Technology  (CTH) with Claes Breitholtz as the responsible person.

The original NDF Project Industrial Sponsors were:
Denmark: De Danske Spritfabrikker A/S, Kuwait Petroleum Refining A/S
Finland: Neste OY
Norway: Norsk Hydro A/S, Nycomed
Sweden: Statoil AB,