Purpose
The Novo Nordisk Foundation wishes to make significant contributions to the sustainability of society and the environment, including research in sustainable food and biomass. Grants within Plant Science, Agriculture and Food Biotechnology support excellent fundamental research with a strategic perspective addressing the major questions and challenges within these fields.
The proposed research must involve a clear element of biotechnology, have an outlook to scaling potential(s) while contributing to productivity and sustainability. The research projects should preferably include one or more of the following topics:
- Plants with increased productivity, resiliency and/or nutritional content
- Development of plants for food, materials, chemicals and fuels
- Biological approaches to reduce greenhouse gases from agriculture
- Biological approaches supporting productivity and resiliency of agricultural production
- Fundamental research within sustainable foods and food processing
- Functionality and the associated structures of food components
- Data science promoting research within plant science, agriculture and food biotechnology
The program does not support:
Research with main component within livestock and livestock commodities.
Research with main component within nutritional uptake and metabolic effects of specific foods.
For the biotechnology requirement, the OECD short definition of biotechnology will be used as a reference for assessments. The OECD single definition of biotechnology is: the application of science and technology to living organisms, as well as parts, products and models thereof, to alter living or non-living materials for the production of knowledge, goods and services.
