The new Natural History Museum of Denmark will bring together the four university museums, Botanical Museum, Zoological Museum, Geological Museum and Botanical Garden, in a modern setting.
Today, the Natural History Museum has one of the world’s largest and most important collections in the field, with a total of 14 million objects. This extensive collection has made it possible for the museum to build a strong research environment, with four basic research centres affiliated with the museum. Like the exhibitions, these research centres will also be brought together in the new museum, thereby creating new opportunities for both innovative interdisciplinary research and the dissemination of natural science to children and adults.
The purpose of the Foundation’s support for a new Natural History Museum is to contribute to creating new opportunities for research and dissemination of natural science to children and adults. At the same time, the Foundation wants to contribute to stimulating and increasing interest in and knowledge of the natural sciences, which will strengthen Danish research in the long term.
The new museum is expected to increase the annual number of visitors from 130,000 to more than 400,000, including 55,000 from schools and colleges.
The new museum is being constructed in a series of new and existing buildings at the current Botanical Garden in Copenhagen. The creation of the new museum was tendered in international competition and the winning project was revealed in 2012.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation granted DKK 100 million to co-finance the establishment of the museum, which is also supported by the Villum Foundation, the Obel Family Foundation and the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation, the University of Copenhagen and the Danish state.
The Foundation’s contribution was made due to 2013 being the 90th anniversary of the production of the first insulin in Denmark. The grant was given on the condition that the overall financing needs were met.
