Funder: Novo Nordisk Foundation
Due Dates: January 13, 2027, 14:00 CET (Application deadline) | April 1, 2027 (Invited interviews) | April 2027 (Results) | May 1, 2027–April 1, 2028 (Project start window)
Funding Amounts: Up to DKK 12.50 million per grant over five years; up to DKK 25 million available
Summary: Supports emerging Nordic research leaders establishing independent groups through fundamental industrial and environmental biotechnology research advancing sustainability.
Key Information: Applicants worldwide may apply, but the recipient and group must be employed at a university or nonprofit research institution in an eligible Nordic country.
Description
The Novo Nordisk Foundation supports promising research leaders ready to establish an independent group or strengthen a recently started group. Projects must address major industrial or environmental biotechnology challenges through fundamental research with a strategic outlook toward sustainability, large-scale solutions and, where relevant, increased productivity. A clear biotechnology component is required, assessed using the OECD definition.
Priority topics include sustainable production of chemicals, proteins and materials; monitoring microbes, microbial activity and metabolites; bioproduction technologies; efficient biomanufacturing; environmental protection; natural or engineered ecosystems; and supporting data science, including digitalisation and data quality and accessibility. Proposals focused on plant science, agriculture or food biotechnology belong with the Foundation’s corresponding committee. Pharmaceutical and therapeutic proposals belong with its Bioscience and Basic Biomedicine committee.
