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Rules for Grant Eligibility and Assessment

1. INELIGIBILITY FOR APPLYING FOR OR RECEIVING GRANTS FROM THE NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION

The following shall be considered ineligible to apply for or receive grants from the Novo Nordisk Foundation:

Employees
a) Employees of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Novo Holdings A/S, Novo Nordisk A/S, Novonesis A/S and other companies in which the Novo Nordisk Foundation has a controlling interest.

Grant-awarding bodies
b) Members of the Board of Directors of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and members of the Registered Officers in the Novo Nordisk Foundation acting on mandate from the Board of Directors, their spouses and children residing in the family home.

Committees
c) Members of the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s committees, their spouses and children residing in the family home. However, committee members may serve as collaborative partners or advisers on an application. Committee members may also be an applicant or co-applicant on an application submitted to a committee other than the one or ones on which they serve.

Former committee members
d) If a former member of one of the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s committees applies for a grant from the committee in which they have served within two years following their resignation from the committee, the Novo Nordisk Foundation must appoint external assessors to review the application. The external assessors will review and score the application which will then be ranked along the other applications assessed by the committee.

2. INELIGIBILITY TO ASSESS APPLICATIONS

a) Members of the Board of Directors of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, members of the Registered Officers of the Novo Nordisk Foundation acting on mandate from the Board of Directors, members of committees and external assessors (“members”) shall be considered disqualified if a member has a:

i. personal;
ii. professional; or
iii. financial

interest in the outcome of an application: for example, if the member supervises the applicant; is employed in the scientific unit of which the applicant is a leader; or if the member has a family relationship to the applicant. In this context, family relationships are defined as:

iv. children, grandchildren, etc.;
v. parents, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, etc.;
vi. grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.; and
vii. spouses, partners, cohabitants and their parents, brothers, sisters, children, etc.

b) A member shall be prohibited from participating in assessing any application from an applicant with whom the member has collaborated on research or has co-published a book, scientific article, report or the like within the previous 5 years. Nevertheless, the type and closeness of the collaboration shall determine whether this collaboration is deemed a conflict of interest.

c) A member who is ineligible in relation to an application shall also be ineligible in relation to other applications that compete with the application in question. This shall not apply in situations covered by item 1.d) (Former committee members) above. Further, this shall only apply in situations in which the pool of applications amounts to five or less. If a final decision is made on the application or applications to which the member’s ineligibility is linked and this application or these applications are thereby no longer being assessed, the member in question may participate in assessing the remaining applications.

3. PROCEDURE IN CASE OF INELIGIBILITY

a) Members shall notify the Chair of the committee and the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Secretariat of any ineligibility or potential conflict of interest within 10 working days after receiving the applications to be assessed. In case of doubt, the Chair of the committee shall consult with representatives of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

b) If a member has a potential conflict of interest in connection with an application that is to be assessed, the committee shall decide by simple majority whether the conflict of interest disqualifies the member. A member to whom this applies may not participate in assessing the question of ineligibility and shall leave the room during the assessment and voting on the question of ineligibility. In case of a parity of votes, the Chair shall hold the casting vote.

c) In cases of ineligibility, members shall be prohibited from participating in assessing an application, including any interviews, and shall leave the room in which the assessment is taking place.

d) If a committee is not quorate or if the composition of a committee and its ability to assess applications may give rise to serious misgivings, the committee shall refer the assessment to the Board of Directors of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

***

Approved by the Board of Directors of the Novo Nordisk Foundation on 24 September 2024

 

Novo Nordisk Fonden

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2900 Hellerup
Denmark

+ 45 35 27 66 00
[email protected]

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India

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