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Informing humanitarian response through research, learning and innovation

Call opens
17 January 2025
Call closes
16 April 2025 2:00pm (CET)
Announcement of results
September 2025
Application guidelines Send ansøgning

Purpose

Humanitarian needs may arise from several, interrelated factors, including extreme poverty and the effects of climate change, conflict, disaster, and displacement. The purpose of the open call is to support humanitarian actors and the humanitarian system in identifying, adapting, or integrating research, learning, and innovative approaches to improve the quality of humanitarian response and deliver better outcomes for people affected by crisis. This open call will focus on improving health outcomes and food security. 

About the grants

Amount

Between DKK 1 million and DKK 5 million per grant.
Total grant capital DKK 35 million.

Contact

Due to the high volume of requests we are currently receiving, our response time may be longer than usual. For questions relating to budgets or Norma, please reach out to Jamie Batchelor.
Jamie Batchelor
Grant Manager
[email protected]
Emma Blix Hagemann
Student Assistant, Social & Humanitarian
[email protected]

Areas of support

With this call, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is looking for applications focusing on research, learning, and/or innovative approaches in humanitarian settings.
Applications should fall within one or more of the below sub-themes. Applicants are encouraged to submit applications that focus on both food security and health. 

Food security: 

  • Improving food security in crises 
  • Strengthening the climate resilience of food systems in humanitarian operations 

Health 

  • Improving cardiometabolic disease prevention and management in crises including its comorbidities, such as infectious diseases and mental health 
  • Strengthening the climate resilience of health systems in humanitarian operations 

Applicants are encouraged to submit applications for projects with strategic relevance for the applicant and within their area of expertise. Applicants with a documented and existing capacity to reach people affected by crisis will be given preference. 

The focus of the call is limited to the OECD DAC List of ODA Recipients in the following geographies: sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, South Asia, and Ukraine. For the categories Lower Middle Income Countries, the applicant must describe how the project will specifically focus on people in vulnerable situations or affected by crises from one or more of these geographies. Please see the Application guidelines for details on geographical scope. 

The open call understands research and learning, and innovative approaches in the following way: 

Research and learning: 

  • In this call, research is understood as the systematic effort to generate new knowledge, concepts, or intervention approaches to improve the outcomes for people affected by crisis. 
  • The research may include any suitable design, including operational and implementation sciences, and any appropriate methods. Data can be generated from any relevant source including the use of secondary and existing data and literature. 
  • Learning is understood as documentation and evaluation of humanitarian approaches and responses and must be shared across partners and sectors beyond the individual organisation or project. 
  • If an application falls within the research and learning category, the main applicant is expected to partner with a research or knowledge institution or document its own capacity. 
  • Regular monitoring and evaluation activities do not qualify as research nor learning. 

Innovation: 

  • In this call, innovation is understood as an iterative process that identifies, adjusts, and diffuses ideas for improving humanitarian response. 
  • Innovation may include developing and piloting new concepts and approaches. 
  • If an application falls within the innovation category, the applicant(s) must describe the intended innovation and innovation process, and not merely state that the innovation and innovation process will be identified and developed during the project. 
  • Innovative financing will not be covered by this call. 

Preference will be given to applications containing one or more of the following approaches: 

  • Nexus approach 
  • Localization approach i.e. strengthening the capacity and involvement of local organizations and communities in affected countries and furthering more equal partnerships 
  • Approaches to promote inclusion, including gender mainstreaming 

Eligibility

Proposed projects must directly relate to the provision of humanitarian assistance in emergencies, disaster prevention and preparedness, or recovery. It may also pertain to the provision of assistance to people affected by protracted and complex crises. 

International humanitarian organizations are eligible to apply. An international humanitarian organization is understood as an organization with engagements in humanitarian settings in more than one country. Main applicants are encouraged to engage research or knowledge institutions, local organizations, regional networks or similar as co-applicants. Only main applicants and co-applicants that are not-for-profit are eligible to apply. 

A main applicant may submit a maximum of one application. If further applications are submitted, they will be disregarded. 

Sub-offices of the same organization may not submit more than one application in total. “An organization” is defined as an entity with separate legal personality.2 We urge sub-offices and sub-entities of the same organization to coordinate with their HQ or their Nordic Office (if they have one), such that only one application is submitted. 

The Novo Nordisk Foundation will only accept applications from highly transparent organizations and institutions, whose annual reports and annual audited financial reports are publicly available. 

The Foundation also expects main applicants to have implemented a code of conduct, or similar, by which they are guided and with which they comply in accordance with ethical humanitarian and development guidelines and standards, e.g., the Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability (CHS). CHS certification is not a requirement for submitting an application. This is not a requirement for co-applicants. 

The main applicant must adhere to Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Partner Code of Conduct. This includes following all applicable laws on sanctions, export control, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism and when appropriate, perform due diligence to ensure partners and any other third-parties don’t knowingly or unwittingly support financial crime or unauthorized knowledge transfer. This might render specific countries ineligible for funding at the time of application, even though they appear on the list of countries in item 1.2 in the above. 

Funding

A total of up to DKK35 million is available for grants between DKK1 million and DKK5 million for projects lasting up to 2 years.  

The project can be an independent, delimited project or part of a larger project that receives support from other sources. If the applicant has applied for or been awarded co-funding from other sources for the project, the applicant must always state this in the budget. 

Applicants may apply for funding for direct cost functions which are the costs of all necessary and reasonable inputs associated with functions which are directly necessary to deliver a programme or project. These functions include: 

  • Project and grant management 
  • Technical delivery 
  • Quality control functions 
  • Visibility and communications 
  • Human resources and security 
  • Compliance 
  • Finance, procurement, payroll, information technology and administration 
  • External audit and evaluation 

Indirect costs may account for a maximum of 7% of the direct sub-total costs. The indirect costs may be used to cover the costs of all necessary and reasonable inputs associated with functions which are necessary to manage the applicant as a whole, provide oversight over all its activities and put into place the overarching policies, frameworks and systems that enable it to operate.  

NNF will not award funding for commercial activities. 

Language 

The application and any additional uploads must be written in English. 

Application process

The application must be completed and submitted using NNF’s online application and grant management system, NORMA. 

Please limit the number of appendices to an absolute minimum. 

Applicants are requested to read the application guidelines, ‘Information and Guidelines for Applicants’, thoroughly before initiating the application process. 

Please note that only organizational applicants are eligible for this call, which is of particular importance when creating a profile in the online application system, NORMA.  

If you experience technical issues, please contact the NORMA support team on [email protected]. 

FAQ and projects awarded in the open call 2023 and 2024

Please find a link to the FAQ here. 

Please find a link to recipients of the open call 2024 here. 

Please find a link to recipients of the open call 2023 here.