The Board of the Novo Nordisk Foundation has decided to award an additional grant of DKK 180 million (€24.2 million) to the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research of the University of Copenhagen.
The funds are awarded to the University over 5 years to extend and further strengthen the activities of the Center through 2019. The grant is also intended to sustain the Center’s leading technological prowess and enable novel scientific collaborations – both within the Center and with national and international partners, including universities, hospitals and industry.
The decision follows a unanimous recommendation by a group of leading international and independent experts evaluating an application from the Center.
In their evaluation, the experts concluded that the Center has been “an outstanding success during its brief lifespan”; has assembled a “world-class faculty”; and is solidly on track to become a “world-leading institution specializing in protein research”.
Birgitte Nauntofte, CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, says:
“Under the skilled leadership of Professor Jiri Lukas, the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research has rapidly developed into a world-class research centre. With its impressive productivity, excellent research results and ambitious vision for the future, the Center has a strong basis for maintaining and further developing its leading position within protein research and education. In this way, the Center is contributing to making Greater Copenhagen an international beacon within bioscience.”
Ralf Hemmingsen, Rector at the University of Copenhagen, says:
“The Novo Nordisk Foundation’s long-term support of protein research has generated a positive spiral, whereby the University of Copenhagen has been able to manifest itself among the international elite and has managed to attract numerous top-scientists and new talents. This internationalization provides enormous inspiration and is of great value to the university, the clinical and business environment as well as the entire region.”
In 2007, the Novo Nordisk Foundation awarded a 10-year grant of DKK 600 million (€80.7 million) to the University to establish the Center, which today has 140 employees. The vision of the Center is to be world leading in integrative protein technologies and their application and to accelerate the understanding of the biological processes underlying health and disease.
The Center is part of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Research Center Cluster, which includes two other centres at the University of Copenhagen, a centre at the Technical University of Denmark and the Danish National Biobank at Statens Serum Institut. The purpose of establishing the cluster is to develop and strengthen the region’s scientific competencies, attract leading researchers, promote national and international collaboration, educate the next generation of talents, achieve world-class scientific results and encourage collaboration with industry.
Read the University press release here.
