Call for Proposals: Emerging Investigator Grants 2025

The intention of the Emerging Investigator grant is to enable excellent scientists to establish their own research group or to further strengthen their recently started group.

Scope 

• The proposed research must address major challenges within Industrial Biotechnology and Environmental Biotechnology. The research should be fundamental in character but have a strategic outlook to scaling potential(s), contribute to sustainability and, if relevant, increase productivity. The proposed research must involve a clear element of biotechnology. One or more of the following topics should preferably be included in the research:
  • Use or engineering of biological/biotechnological tools, systems or microorganisms for synthesis and production of valuable products (e.g., energy, fuels, chemicals, proteins, and materials)
  • Development of technologies and processes for bioproduction
  • Improvement of the efficiency and/or sustainability of biomanufacturing
  • Use or engineering of biological/biotechnological tools, systems, or microorganisms to protect or improve the environment
  • Understanding, protection, or manipulation of natural or industrial ecosystems in relation to application of biotechnology
  • Data science to advance research within industrial or environmental biotechnology, including related ecosystems research.

Funding Information

• A total of up to DKK 22.5 million is available for grants. If the IEB committee receives a large number of high-quality applications for the Emerging Investigator call, the committee may allocate up to DKK 11.25 million from the Ascending Investigator call to support an additional Emerging Investigator project within Industrial Biotechnology and Environmental Biotechnology.
• Each grant be up to DKK 11.25 million over a 5-year grant period.

Eligible Expenses

• Applicants may apply for funding for the following types of expenses:
  • Salary: for the applicant for all or part of the project period in case the applicant is not tenured or guaranteed her or his own salary.
  • Salary for employees: e.g., PhD students, postdoc and/or for research or technical assistance. Salary for employees can only be applied for if they are employed at a lower job structure/salary level than the applicant.
  • PhD tuition fee: up to DKK 80,000 per student per budget year (must be included separately in the budget).
  • Operating expenses: such as lab consumables, chemicals and reagents, computing resources or software, sequencing/omics-analyses and other chemical analyses directly associated with the project.
  • Equipment: required for the project. The costs may not exceed 20% of the total budget.
  • Conference participation: up to DKK 50,000 per budget year.
  • Travel: expenses directly related to the project, for example, to perform experiments or analysis in another lab for a limited period. Up to DKK 30,000 per budget year.
  • Publication costs: of results originating from the research project, up to DKK 25,000 per year.
  • Project Supplement: only available for Danish Universities.
  • Bench fee: (not applicable Danish Universities.
  • Administrative expenses: not applicable Danish Universities.

Ineligible Expenses

• The Foundation will not award funding for:
  • Commercial activities
  • Overhead/indirect costs (such as rent, electricity, water and maintenance)
  • Double funding of projects

Eligibility Criteria

• The applicant must at the time of application be at the level of senior postdoc, senior researcher, assistant professor, or newly employed associate professor (or any level equivalent to one of these positions). Ideally, applicants should have 4-8 years of research experience after having received their PhD degree (leave of absence not included). Minor deviations will be tolerated if they can be justified.
• Applicants should have a strong track record within their field of research relative to their career stage, which will typically include primary or senior authorships on high-impact research publications, contributions to key conferences in the field, important technology developments etc.
• Applicants who are already established independent group leaders with more than two years of group leader experience are only exceptionally considered `Emerging Investigators´. Instead, they would typically fit into the ´Ascending Investigator´ category.
• Applicants who, at the time of application, have already secured a `starting grant´ with similar scope (e.g., Villum Young Investigator, DFF – Sapere Aude, ERC starting grant, etc.) are only considered eligible if they in the application can argue how management of two large and clearly non-overlapping projects is feasible.
• Importantly, applicants should have a clear goal and strong motivation for starting their own independent research group, or further strengthening their newly started research group.

For more information, visit Novo Nordisk Foundation.