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2022 Impact Report: For the first time, grants from the Novo Nordisk Foundation fund more women than men in scientific positions

For the eighth year running, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has published its annual Impact Report.

The Foundation deploys a wide range of parameters in measuring the impact of its activities on society. The impact is not only measured from year to year but typically also over several years. The reason for this is that creating measurable results often takes time, especially in research, education and innovation.

The 2022 Impact Report documents the following outputs and outcomes.

  • The Foundation’s grants have fully or partly financed more than 8,000 positions with scientific activities (the majority of these are in Denmark, and 10–15% are positions abroad).
  • Of the more than 8,000 people working in science based on funding from the Foundation, 52% were women and 48% were men. This is the first time the gender balance among our grant recipients has tipped in favour of women.
  • In addition, 3,300 of these positions were PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. This is a new all-time high.
  • 14% of all public research and 23% of all private research in Denmark is now funded by the Foundation and Novo Holdings’ life-science portfolio of companies (including Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S).
  • The number of patents and patent applications reported by the Foundation’s grant recipients increased by 35 during 2022, reaching a total of 178 since 2018.
  • The number of spinouts from public research activities funded by the Foundation increased by 13 during 2022, reaching a total of 153 since 2007.

Thomas Alslev Christensen, Senior Vice President of the Foundation’s Impact department notes: “Measuring the impact of our activities has high priority at the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and in the coming years we will continue to develop our methods for collecting and analysing data, including through data mining and the use of artificial intelligence.”

Read the report
Read more about the societal impact of the Foundation’s philanthropic and commercial activities in 2022 in the full report here.

Further information

Thomas Alslev Christensen
Senior Vice President, Impact, PhD
+45 3067 4826 [email protected]