Denmark: Project Grants in the Natural and Technical Sciences 2023

Areas of Support

• The call supports fundamental research within the natural and technical sciences, including, e.g., physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, and technical sciences.
• In alignment with the 2030 Strategy for the Novo Nordisk Foundation, applications for Project Grants in the Natural and Technical Sciences must describe how the outcome of the project may have potential future applications within life science, health science, or sustainability. Such potential applications may be within the project period but could also be on timescales longer than the project period.
• Not Within the Scope of this Call
  • The Novo Nordisk Foundation offers similar calls for project grants within the five areas listed. Projects focused on these five areas are not eligible for the Project Grants in the Natural and Technical Sciences call:
    • Bioscience and basic biomedicine
    • Endocrinology and metabolism
    • Industrial and environmental biotechnology
    • Plant science, agriculture, and food science
    • Clinical and translational medicine
  • Other areas which are not within the scope of the call (the list is not exhaustive):
    • Cosmology
    • Zoology
    • Biotechnology
    • Projects that are primarily retrospective or primarily of historical value.

Funding Information

• The grant budget for this call is up to DKK 60 million annually.
• Applicants may apply for between DKK 300,000 and DKK 1 million per budget year for projects with a grant period of 1–3 years. Funds can be unevenly distributed over the project period; however, the total budget frame must be within DKK 300,000 – 3 million, correlating with the number of project years.
• If the project includes a PhD stipend following a 4+4 scheme, the project period can be extended to 4 years, but with a maximum total budget of DKK 3 million.

Types of Expenses

• Applicants may apply for funding for the following types of expenses if directly related to the execution of the project (see further details and restrictions in section 3.4):
  • Salary for employees
  • Tuition fee for PhD students
  • Operating expenses
  • Equipment
  • Conference participation
  • Travel
  • Publication costs
  • Bench fee
  • Direct administrative expenses (maximum 5%)

Eligibility Criteria

• Who
  • Principal investigators are eligible to apply, i.e., experienced independent researchers who have already established their own line of research or researchers who are in the process of establishing themselves as independent researchers.
  • The applicant must be at least 80% affiliated with the administering Danish research institution.
  • As this grant cannot cover salary of the grantee, the applicant must be guaranteed his or her own salary for the entire project period from other sources.
  • Applications from PhD students will not be taken into consideration.
• Where
  • The research activities applied for must be anchored at a university or other non-profit research institution in Denmark.
  • A signed hosting letter from the administering Danish research institution must be provided.
• What
  • The application must describe a clearly defined research project with an appropriate budget. The project can be an independent project, a delimited project, or a clearly defined part of a larger, running project. In the latter case, the large project must be briefly described.
  • Project grants in natural and technical sciences are individual grants at the disposal of the applicant. If the applied project involves collaboration, the collaboration must be described in the project description, however, the applicant must be the clear driver of the project and the applicant’s research must be central to the project. Invitation of co-applicants is not possible within this call.

Ineligible

• NNF will not award funding for:
  • Own salary for principal investigator/applicant
  • Commercial activities
  • Overhead
  • Double funding of projects:
    • The applicant cannot apply for projects or expenses already funded by other parties.
    • The project applied for may be partially funded by other parties, but such funding must be clearly detailed in the application.
    • If the applicant receives funding for the project, or for parts of the project, from other sources following submission of the NNF application, NNF must be contacted immediately.

For more information, visit Novo Nordisk Fonden.