The Novo Nordisk Foundation today announced the latest edition of its annual Challenge Programme, where for the first time it is inviting researchers from outside Denmark, in the European Schengen area, Cyprus, Ireland and the UK, to lead collaborations applying for grants to study four major themes. The expansion of the Programme is part of the ongoing internationalisation of the Foundation’s activities.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation Challenge Programme is the Foundation’s largest open competition grant programme and supports ambitious research projects that focus on creating new knowledge on major global challenges based on annually selected themes.
This year, the budget for each grant has been increased by 25% to up to DKK 75 million (€10 million) over six years, bringing the overall budget to DKK 600 million (€80 million).
Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, CEO, Novo Nordisk Foundation, says: “The Novo Nordisk Foundation wants to contribute to finding innovative solutions to major global challenges within health and sustainability. The increased grants and expansion of the Challenge Programme to include researchers outside of Denmark is part of our increased international focus. Through the Programme, we wish to support projects that have the potential to create new valuable knowledge and results that can make a difference for public health and for our planet both now and in the long term.”
The aim of the Challenge Programme’s substantial and long-term funding is to enable scientific depth and focus and to facilitate synergy between the research partners. The four themes for the 2026 edition are:
- Harnessing biology for climate-resilient and healthy soils
- Unravelling the pathways of human invasive fungal diseases
- Modelling human cardiometabolic disease
- Biological systems under non-equilibrium conditions
The Challenge Programme calls for applications in open competition. Expressions of interest are invited by 8 October 2025, with the final awards announcement expected in May 2026.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation established the Challenge Programme in 2014.Since then, the Foundation has awarded close to DKK 2.8 billion (€375 million) for close to 50 different projects through the Programme.
More information on the 2024 grant recipients can be found on the Novo Nordisk Foundation website: Challenge Programme 2024.
