VILLUM FONDEN has the ambition to fund excellent research in the technical and natural sciences. Research powered by the ideas that engage the researchers the most.
Talented investigators conduct research at the highest international level. VILLUM FONDEN is one of Denmark's largest research funding foundations with annual grants of approx. DKK 500 million. The aim is to foster research at the highest international level platformed at Danish universities and research institutions.
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Download our Impact Report 2022.
We fund groundbreaking research in several areas:
The young
Villum Young Investigator (YIP)
DKK 6-8 million for younger researchers setting up their first own research team. The grants can be applied for once a year. The programme is announced once a year in open competition with a deadline in June.
The programme has from 2021 been supplemented with YIP extension grants aka. YIP+ to secure a steady research career for the most talented Villum Young Investigators.
The experienced
Villum Investigator
Up to DKK 40 million for experienced and internationally recognised researchers who will continue to be at the forefront of world-class research. The programme is announced every two years in open competition.
Villum Experiment
Up to DKK 2 million for the unorthodox research idea in its early phase, which will be assessed in an anonymous process. The programme is announced once a year in open competition with a deadline in March.
The interdisciplinary collaboration
Villum Synergy
DKK 2-3 million for new collaborations or DKK 10-20 million for established collaborations. Projects should involve two PIs (Principal Investigators). One should be from computer science, statistics or applied mathematics. The other a from a field that may be broadly chosen. The programme is announced once a year in open competition with a deadline in March.
The exceptional professor
Professorships
Villum Kann Rasmussen Professor - for a Danish university that wish to recruit an exceptional international top researcher.
The excellent female scientist with a PhD
Villum International Postdoc
DKK 1-2.5 million for female scientists within the technical and natural sciences wishing to pursue a university career. A stay abroad is required. Applicants must be recommended by their university. The programme is announced once a year from 2019-2023.
The excellent, distinctive and long-lasting contribution
The Annual Award
Villum Kann Rasmussen's annual award is presented to an excellent researcher in recognition of a particularly valuable contribution to fields of science and technology in Denmark. The annual award grant is DKK 5 million. Applications are not accepted.
Researcher mobility and recruitment
Villum Family and Onboarding
Offers Danish universities grants for family and welcome packages for selected researchers.
Scaling of technology
Grants for initiatives that support the journey from research to technology. For example, the following projects:
- Spin-outs Denmark to create more research-based companies and strengthen Danish universities' tech trans.
- GreenLabSkive that strengthens collaboration with the Danish university to develop and demonstrate the energy systems of the future.
- ATV - The Academy of Technical Sciences which with a focus on Science & Engineering as an engine for growth and welfare in Denmark helps to strengthen and make visible the Danish innovation ecosystem.
Diversity in technical and natural sciences
Research talent is distributed equally across gender, and it is a benefit for the Danish society that research is carried out by a diverse group including both women and men.
Our goal is that the gender distribution among applicants and grantees within our programmes matches the gender distribution in the pool of overall potential applicants.
Gender policy for technical and natural sciences
Trust, freedom and flexibility
We aim to meet the researchers with trust, freedom and flexibility - in close cooperation with the universities. This is to give them confidence and the most optimal creative research environments that allow new ideas to be conceived and nurtured.
Our programmes are open to all researchers regardless of nationality, if the research is anchored at a Danish research institution.
Researchers become part of a community
If you receive a grant from VILLUM FONDEN, you will be invited to participate in targeted seminars, workshops, management courses and to join a social network. Read more under the different programmes.
Guidelines for applications and reporting
Indirect costs
Indirect costs may not exceed 15% of the project's direct costs.
We do not support
Health or veterinary research, i.e. research focused on the health of humans and animals, including nutrition, medicine, biomedicine, pharmacology and research within diagnostics and methods for examination and treatment.
Furthermore, applicants affiliated with centres, sections, units or groups whose main scientific focus is within these areas (including university health departments, hospitals, the Danish Cancer Society, DTU Health Tech and SDU Health Informatics and Technology) are not eligible to apply and will receive an administrative rejection.
Register your research
We ask all applicants to create an ORCID.
Reporting
We expect that grant recipients regularly report on their research through Researchfish.
Research Integrity
VILLUM FONDEN abides by the principles of The Danish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. Applications to VILLUM FONDEN for research funding are scientific products in the sense of the Danish Law on Scientific Misconduct (Lov om videnskabelig uredelighed). For this reason, we ask you to confirm that the proposal you submit fairly acknowledge all significant intellectual contributions from others.
Working group
VILLUM FONDEN and VELUX FONDEN have set up a number of working groups mainly for the purpose of contributing to the allocation activities of the foundations taking place on a professional, sound and in other respects exemplary basis. The object of the working groups is to assist the board of trustees with strategic development as well as with the handling and recommendations to decide on applications and projects within selected areas, presently the individual allocation areas as well as the asset management.
See video animation of our key results 2022.
For further information, please contact:
Professor Thomas Bjørnholm is responsible for the foundation’s research programmes in technical and natural sciences.
Previously Thomas Bjørnholm was Prorector for Research and Innovation and Deputy Rector at the University of Copenhagen with overall responsibility for research and innovation across all disciplines at the university.
He is a professor of Materials Chemistry and the founding director of the Nano-Science Center at the University of Copenhagen.
Thomas Bjørnholm is a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences and he has served on numerous boards and committees.
As a scientist, he has published more than 200 articles in scientific journals and books including contributions to the highly-recognized journals Nature and Science. He has given more than 150 invited talks at conferences and research institutes around the world and received research awards, including the Ole Rømer Foundation Award, the Ellen & Niels Bjerrum Award and gold medal, and the Director Ib Henriksen Award.
