LEO Foundation: Dr Abildgaard Fellowship Program – Denmark

The proposed research activities should be ambitious, creative, and hold a potential for high impact. The aim is to offer stable funding over a five-year period to allow the Fellow the freedom to adjust the scientific course as needed during the grant period and thus establish a clear and competitive research profile.

Aim

• The LEO Foundation welcomes applications that aim to, e.g.:
  • Improve the understanding of skin biology, as well as the underlying medicinal, biological, chemical, or pharmacological mechanisms of skin diseases and their symptoms.
  • Address clinical issues among people who are at risk of developing, or have developed, a skin disease, including how it impacts their quality of life, and the societal costs involved.
  • Develop novel and improved methodologies and technologies for diagnostics, disease prevention, and treatments, including personalized medicine, for people with skin diseases.
  • Integrate elements of complementary research fields, e.g., data science, to enable a more comprehensive approach to skin science.

Areas of Research 

• The proposed skin research activities can be of a basic, translational, epidemiological, and/or clinical nature.

Funding Information

• Grant amount: DKK 12 million over 5 years.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must be full-time employed at a Danish university, hospital, or other non-profit research institution during the grant period. Only minor or temporary affiliations with other institutions are allowed, and the necessity and synergy effects for the proposed Fellowship project should be argued in the application.
• Different eligibility criteria apply for different types of applicants:
  • Applicants within basic science: must have between two and eight years of research experience since completing their PhD degree, i.e., be at the career stage of senior postdoc, assistant professor, or a recently appointed associate professor/senior researcher.
  • Applicants within clinical science: must be MDs, must have between two and eight years of research experience since completing their PhD degree, and must be able to commit 20-50% of their time to research. The research commitment may vary over the course of the grant period for applicants who are also under medical specialist training but should always be sufficient to be a present and active group leader/supervisor and cannot be less than 20% on average.

Ineligibility Criteria

• The LEO Foundation does not support research into aesthetic dermatology.

Evaluation Criteria

• The proposed research and the applicant are weighted equally in the evaluation.
• The proposed research is evaluated based on quality, novelty, potential impact on skin health, and feasibility.
• The applicant is evaluated based on scientific merits relative to PhD age and career stage, creativity, potential as research leader, and level of experience within independent research activities.
• Furthermore, the hosting research environment is considered, including the synergies between the applicant and the host institution, and the commitment of the host institution as stated in the Letter of support and Letter of intent included in the application.

For more information, visit LEO Foundation.