Novo Nordisk Foundation expands Challenge Programme outside of Denmark for the first time and significantly increases grants

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, April 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Novo Nordisk Foundation today announced the latest edition of its annual Challenge Programme, where for the first time it is inviting researchers from outside Denmark, in the European Schengen area, Ireland and the UK, to lead collaborations applying for grants to study four major themes.

As part of its ongoing internationalisation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is now expanding its Challenge Programme, the Foundation's largest open competition grant programme. The Programme supports ambitious research projects that focus on creating new knowledge on major global challenges based on annually selected themes.

This year, the budget for each grant has been increased by 25% to up to DKK 75 million (€10 million) over six years, bringing the overall budget to DKK 600 million (€80 million).

Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, CEO, Novo Nordisk Foundation, says: "The Novo Nordisk Foundation is dedicated to help solving some of the major health and planetary challenges facing the world. The expansion of the Challenge Programme outside Denmark demonstrates that we are deepening our commitment to this global mission."

With themes changing every year, the Challenge Programme provides substantial, long-term funding to enable scientific depth and focus and to facilitate synergy between the research partners. The four themes for the 2026 edition are:

• Harnessing biology for climate-resilient and healthy soils
• Unravelling the pathways of human invasive fungal diseases
• Modelling human cardiometabolic disease
• Biological systems under non-equilibrium conditions

The Challenge Programme calls for applications in open competition. Expressions of interest are invited by 8 October 2025, with the final awards announcement expected in May 2026.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation established the Challenge Programme in 2014. Since then, the Foundation has awarded close to DKK 2.8 billion (€375 million) for close to 50 different projects through the Programme.

More information on the 2024 grant recipients can be found on the Novo Nordisk Foundation website: Challenge Programme 2024.

About the Novo Nordisk Foundation

Established in Denmark in 1924, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is an enterprise foundation with philanthropic objectives. The vision of the Foundation is to improve people's health and the sustainability of society and the planet. The Foundation's mission is to progress research and innovation in the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic and infectious diseases as well as to advance knowledge and solutions to support a green transformation of society.

In recent years, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has significantly increased its grants both in Denmark and internationally. In 2024, on its 100th anniversary, the Foundation reached a new milestone, awarding close to DKK 10.1 billion (€1.35 billion) in grants and philanthropic investments to support nearly 1,800 new projects, aimed at improving people's health and the sustainability of society and the planet.

https://novonordiskfonden.dk/

About the Challenge Programme

The Programme targets ambitious research projects to give leading researchers the opportunity to assemble a strong team that can collaborate to address some of the major societal and planetary challenges. Every year, new themes are defined that comprise the framework for calls for applications in open competition within that one year. For the first time, applications are invited from researchers based outside Denmark, in the European Schengen area, Ireland and the UK, to lead collaborations applying for grants, provided a co-applicant is from Denmark.

In 2026, the Novo Nordisk Foundation will award up to DKK 600 million (€80 million) through the Challenge Programme in total. Each project can receive up to DKK 75 million (€10 million) for a six-year period.

https://novonordiskfonden.dk/en/challenge-programme/