Purpose
NB: Guidelines available from 12 December 2025 (call opening date).
RECRUIT is a mobility grant aiming to strengthen Danish universities in the international competition for top researchers and talents and to build strong ecosystems within the areas of support.
The grants support the recruitment of researchers at the assistant-, associate-, or full-professor level. All candidates for the RECRUIT programme must be nominated by a Danish university. A nomination quota for RECRUIT is allocated to each Danish university.
Candidates for RECRUIT must be considered excellent at their career level.
The candidate’s research focus must lie within the strategic research areas of the Natural and Technical Sciences or Biotechnology and Sustainability of the Novo Nordisk Foundation (see Areas of Support in the Guidelines (when available)).
Grant types
The RECRUIT programme contains several open competition grant types:
- RECRUIT grants: Up to DKK 22 – 55 million over up to 7 years
- RECRUIT Sabbatical grants: Up to DKK 1 million over up to 1 year. This grant is both available for researchers in Denmark going abroad and international researchers coming to Denmark (the RECRUIT Sabbatical call can be found separately on NNF’s website)
- RECRUIT Extension grants: Up to DKK 10 million over up to 5 years (the call and guidelines for RECRUIT Extension grants will be made available in due time)
Application process
The application process consists of two phases, where the first phase is undertaken prior to submission deadline by the universities and the second phase by the Foundation after submission deadline.
The recruiting university conducts an evaluation of relevant candidates selects which candidates to nominate. This process is organised by the university. A nomination list must be submitted to the Foundation by the university before the application deadline. The university cannot prioritise among the nominated candidates. Only candidates nominated by the university will be considered for funding.
Nominated candidates should prepare and submit an application using the Foundation’s application and grant management system, NORMA.
For more detailed information, please read the guidelines carefully (available from 12 December 2025).
