New Exploratory Research and Discovery (NERD) Programme 2024

Deadline: 28 February 2024

The Novo Nordisk Foundation is seeking applications for the NERD programme to support creative, daring, and ambitious researchers within the natural and technical sciences, at any career stage after obtaining the PhD degree.

The grant is aimed at supporting a single principal investigator (PI) with ample funding and a long time horizon, providing the required long-term stability and continuity to explore truly exceptional ideas with potential application within the life sciences, health sciences, or sustainability.

The NERD programme uses a two-stage evaluation procedure. At the first stage, applicants will remain anonymous to the evaluation committee, ensuring that emphasis is put on the suggested scientific ideas. The top evaluated applications will proceed to the second stage, where the CVs and publication lists of the applicants will be included to assess the feasibility of the proposed projects.

Areas of Support

The overall goal of the NERD programme is to support fundamental research within the natural and technical sciences, including, e.g., physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, and technical sciences. Projects focused on areas covered by other calls from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, or which fall outside the current scope of the Foundation, are not eligible for the NERD programme.
The application must describe how the outcome of the project may have potential future applications in the life sciences, health sciences, or sustainability.

Funding Information

The expected awarding budget for the 2024 call is DKK 98 million.
The timeframe of a NERD project is up to 7 years, with a total grant size of up to DKK 14 million (pro rata for shorter projects). Projects with a duration of less than 5 years will not be taken into consideration.

Eligibility Criteria

Researchers at any career stage after obtaining the PhD degree are eligible to apply. This includes for example independent researchers who have already established their own line of research, and researchers who are in the process of establishing themselves as independent researchers. Applications from PhD students will not be taken into consideration.
Other important criteria:
- The research project must be anchored at a university or other non-profit research institution in Denmark.
- The applicant must be at least 80% affiliated with a university or other non-profit research institution in Denmark.
- A hosting letter signed by the head of department must be provided, confirming the following:
  - That the institution will provide the required infrastructure, laboratory, and office facilities, as well as administration of the grant.
  - That the applicant does not have a grant portfolio exceeding an annual total of DKK 4.0 million (including possible overhead) in the year of commencing the project.
- A NERD grant cannot be used to cover a teaching substitute for the applicant.
- NERD grants are individual grants at the disposal of the grant recipient, and the grant recipient must be the clear driver of the project. However, if the applied project involves collaboration, the nature of this collaboration should be described in the project description, in an anonymous fashion. Invitation of co-applicants is not possible in this call.
- The NERD programme is intended for ‘full-time’ researchers who may have teaching obligations at a normal level for university faculty.
Important restrictions regarding NNF grants and proposals:
- An applicant may submit only one application to the Novo Nordisk Foundation for a grant of the NERD or NNF Investigator types (across all funding areas) and cannot submit another application for NERD/Investigator while the application is under review. If an applicant submits more than one NERD/Investigator application for simultaneously review, only the first application submitted will be evaluated, while the subsequent applications will receive administrative rejections.
- If an applicant holds an active NERD or Investigator grant, the applicant may apply for a new grant of this type during the final year of the existing grant, however, the grant periods cannot overlap.