With the introduction of four new university teaching prizes, the Novo Nordisk Foundation seeks to promote and highlight the importance of engaging science teaching at university level.

Four teaching teams from the universities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and the Faroe Islands have been awarded the Foundation’s Prizes for Excellence in University Teaching for 2025. With these prizes, which will be awarded annually to educators at Danish universities, the Foundation wishes to acknowledge and support excellent university teaching within the natural sciences.

“High-quality teaching is crucial when it comes to engaging university students and preparing them for careers in science, technology, and healthcare. With these prizes, we hope to raise awareness of the importance of outstanding teaching and inspire continued innovation in higher education,” says Berith Bjørnholm, Senior Vice President for Education & Outreach at Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Three of the teaching prizes are given within the areas of natural, technical and health science, while the fourth prize recognises interdisciplinary teaching that combines disciplines from the above areas. All four prizes are given to teams of two to three teachers to highlight the relevance of collaborative teaching in creating an innovative and engaging learning environment.

2025 prize recipients

The 2025 recipients represent institutions across the Danish Realm, and their teams have demonstrated exceptional dedication to enhancing the quality of university education.

• Prize for Excellence in Natural Science Teaching: Magnus Kjærgaard, Gregers Rom Andersen and Ditlev Egeskov Brodersen, Aarhus University.
• Prize for Excellence in Health Science Teaching: Ása Róin, Marin Strøm and Anna Sofía Veyhe, University of the Faroe Islands.
• Prize for Excellence in Technical Science Teaching: Jens Dalsgaard, Simon Bøgh, Israel Mayorga, Aalborg University.
• Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Teaching: Liza Rosenbaum Nielsen, Nathalia Brichet, University of Copenhagen.

Each of these teams has excelled in creating engaging learning, developing innovative teaching methods and fostering collaboration to lift the general subject knowledge.

“This year’s prize recipients are being honoured as educators who impact their students and institutions through dedicated teaching that engages and fosters creative thinking. Their efforts serve as inspiration, also at an international level,” says Berith Bjørnholm.

Support for further development of teaching activities

Each university teaching prize consists of a sum of DKK 1,500,000, including a personal honorarium of DKK 25,000 for each educator. The remaining amount will go to the university as an educational funding grant, to be used by the team for further development of the teaching in their given area (e.g. through the purchase of equipment, upgrading of teaching facilities, or other activities).

It is the universities, which have welcomed this initiative to honour and acknowledge excellent university teaching and highlight its importance for high-quality science education, that nominate educators for the prizes. The prize winners are selected by the Committee on the Novo Nordisk Foundation Teaching Prizes.

Read more about the four prize-winning teams and their teaching activities here (in Danish only).

The Prizes for Excellence in University Teaching are an addition to the Foundation’s existing teaching prizes. You can read about all the prizes here.