Purpose
With this call, the Novo Nordisk Foundation wishes to strengthen the collaboration between the Steno Diabetes Centres and the research environments related to the Centres. The foundation will support research projects with a unifying mission to develop knowledge, to exchange experience across the research institutions and to facilitate synergy between the research environments around the Steno Diabetes Centres including collaborations from hospitals, universities and other non-profit institutions in Denmark and/or internationally.
AIM
The Steno National Collaborative Grant aims to:
- Strengthen clinical research between all Danish Steno Diabetes Centres.
- Ensure large-scale, long-term, patient-centred clinical research projects involving a national cohort of diabetes patients or people at risk of diabetes.
- Position Denmark at an international level in improving prevention and care for persons with diabetes or at risk of diabetes.
FOCUS ON COLLABORATION
Collaborative projects are essential for obtaining the grant. For this specific call the collaboration must include partners from the five Danish Steno Diabetes Centres. The application must describe how the collaboration is pivotal in addressing the challenge, as well as how each applicant contributes to the research project. This collaborative nature should be evident in the description of the project.
Areas of Support
The research projects must be collaborative and focus on diabetes within the area of:
- Clinical research translating promising strategies, methods and treatments for diabetes and/or prevention of diabetes into large-scale protocols.
- Research within the characteristics of the Steno Diabetes Centres, including digital health and diabetes, continuity in patient care, type-2 diabetes, health promotion research, education, and vulnerable diabetes patients.
Eligibility
The research project should be collaborative with a unifying vision and focus on solving a challenge within the area of clinical diabetes research.
The grant requires the research project to include researchers from all five Danish Steno Diabetes Centres. This must be accomplished by establishing and/or using national cohorts with patients/persons at risk from all regions.
International collaborations are strongly encouraged.
THE MAIN APPLICANT
- The main (the PI) applicant must be anchored at a Danish Steno Diabetes Centre.
- The main applicant must have documented experience leading large-scale clinical research projects.
CO-APPLICANTS
- It is required that co-applicants from the four additional Danish Steno Diabetes Centres participate substantially in the project.
- Additional co-applicants from Steno Diabetes Centre Greenland, Steno Diabetes Centre Faroe Islands, a Steno Partner institution or from a university, hospital, municipality or other non-profit research or diabetes care institutions in Denmark or abroad can be part of the project.
For Steno Diabetes Centre Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Nordjylland, Steno Partner institutions are defined as hospitals with a cooperation agreement with the local Steno Diabetes Centre. In Region Zealand, the PI/main applicant should be from one of the region’s hospitals.
Funding
A total of up to DKK 28 million is available for one grant for a five-year project.
Application process
There are two stages in the application process.
Stage 1: The project description for Stage 1 consists of a brief Expression of Interest of the proposed research project, addressing the aim and hypotheses.
Please note! A budget is not required for Stage 1.
Stage 2: Up to three research projects will be invited to proceed to Stage 2, in which the main applicant will be asked to submit a comprehensive application with a detailed project proposal of up to 30,000 characters. As part of the Stage 2 evaluation, the main applicant will be invited to present and discuss their proposed research project with the review committee on 25 August 2026.
Please make sure to read the Application Guidelines thoroughly before sending your application. The Guidelines provide crucial information about the grant, application content and process.
