Exploratory Interdisciplinary Synergy Programme 2024 (Denmark)

Goals

• The goals of the Exploratory Interdisciplinary Synergy Programme are to:
  • Enable creative, novel, high-risk/high-gain interdisciplinary research
  • Support early-stage research that requires interdisciplinary collaboration and solutions
  • Stimulate emerging research that spans across scientific disciplines and techniques
  • Break down or overcome the barriers that hamper collaboration across disciplines
  • Strengthen Danish research through internationalisation
• The Exploratory Interdisciplinary Synergy Programme is designed to fund the exploration of untested research areas that demonstrate the potential to have a high level of impact, i.e. high risk/high-gain.

Areas Of Support

• Funding from the Exploratory Interdisciplinary Synergy programme will generate novel, interdisciplinary approaches driven by research that aligns with NNF’s strategic focus areas of Medical Sciences, Biotechnology, and Natural and Technical Sciences, with potential applicability in health or sustainability.
• Proposals should be based on novel research ideas that require an interdisciplinary approach and can be characterised as high-risk/high-gain. Interdisciplinary research is defined by NNF as collaboration between scientific or technical disciplines that each offer unique, field specific perspective to the larger challenge. The collaboration should provide more than just a compounding of individual skills, but rather strive to synergistically combine perspectives, theories, and concepts across fields to generate novel results with broad appeal. Successful proposals will clearly demonstrate the potential for disruptive science that could lead to the development of entirely new research areas.

Funding

• Up to DKK 5 million can be requested for a project running up to 3 years. The total annual budget for this call is DKK 53.75 million.

Eligibility

• The programme supports collaborations between 2-4 research groups (the main applicant plus 1-3 co-applicants). Proposals must demonstrate interdisciplinarity by including co-applicants from different disciplines or institutional departments. Disciplines does not refer to the education or formal position of the applicants, but rather their ongoing work expertise. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary consortium forming the application does not have to be new; applicants may have previously established interdisciplinary research collaborations. Guiding principles on eligibility include:
  • The main applicant must have a minimum affiliation of 70% with a Danish university, hospital, or other non-profit research organisation (verified by the hosting letter). Coapplicants and their research groups can be based either in Denmark or internationally.
  • Co-applicants should significantly contribute to the scientific advancement of the project and receive part of the funding (administered by the host institution). Ideally, all applicants should have the same level of obligation and commitment to the project.
  • Collaboration with researchers in non-academic sectors is allowed, however industrial partner(s) cannot receive direct funding through this programme.
  • Receiving the Exploratory Interdisciplinary Synergy Programme grant does not confer advantage in competing for the Interdisciplinary Synergy Programme.
  • Applicants who currently hold NNF research grants are eligible. However, the new grant period cannot overlap with the previous award for the same or similar research idea.
  • A researcher may only submit one application per call as the main applicant. The researcher may participate as “co-applicant” on other applications within the same call, as long as the proposed research does not overlap.
  • NNF prohibits duplication of funding for project-specific expenses. Applicants must provide a comprehensive account of any funding applied for or received for the project, or any component thereof, in the budget of the application.
  • If the applicant receives partial or full funding for the project from other sources following submission of the NNF application, NNF must be contacted immediately.

For more information, visit Novo Nordisk Fonden.