The purpose of the Distinguished Innovator Grant is to accelerate comercialisation of research findings and the development of novel technologies within the health sciences, sustainability, and quantum technologies (with a clear application within health and/or sustainability).
The Distinguished Innovator Grant is aimed at supporting senior faculty members and researchers with a proven track record in innovation, including experience with academic innovation projects and with establishing patents and spin-outs from academia. The Grant is intended to enable the main applicant to act as an ambassador for innovation in academia by driving cultural change and serving as a role model for translating research into innovations.
Areas of support
The Distinguished Innovator Grant within Sustainability supports innovative research within agriculture, food, industrial and environmental biotech*, carbon capture utilisation and storage technologies, and technologies addressing nitrous oxide and methane emissions. The aim is to stimulate the evaluation of ideas that may lead to the development of new products, systems, devices and technological platforms. Particular focus will be placed on projects addressing sustainable and high-yielding agriculture, sustainable food for healthy diets, and climate change mitigation technologies supporting the green transition.
The Distinguished Innovator Grant within Health supports innovative research projects within pharma, medtech, and industrial biotech*. The aim is to stimulate the evaluation of ideas that may lead to (but are not limited to) the development of new medical treatments, disease prevention, diagnostic methods, health technologies, devices and technological platforms. Particular focus is placed on projects addressing cardiometabolic diseases** as well as infectious diseases, stem cell-based medicine, and related preventive solutions. Please read the guidelines for further specifications of the call scope.
Projects involving Quantum technologies (e.g. sensing, imaging, communication and computation) are eligible to apply provided the proposed quantum technology has a clear and credible application within health and/or sustainability and is aligned with the respective track’s focus and eligibility criteria.
The projects described must have a clear outlook to scaling potentials and later commercialization possibilities.
The projects cannot directly benefit an established company (CVR number, organisational number, or Business Identity Code) but can in principle be at any TRL level.
*According to the OECD definition of biotechnology: the application of science and technology to living organisms, as well as parts, products and models thereof, to alter living or non-living materials for the production of knowledge, goods and services.
** Cardiometabolic diseases includes: Type 1/Type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease (CKD) associated with CMD, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).
Eligibility
The research project must comprise a main applicant and has the option of including co-applicant(s) when deemed relevant. Rules of eligibility are outlined in more detail below but always refer to the call guidelines linked on this page for the full set of criteria:
The Main Applicant:
- The main applicant must be a senior faculty member or researcher employed at a research institution or hospital/clinic in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, or Sweden).
- It is required that the main applicant has a personal proven track record within innovation, i.e., previous experience of academic innovation projects and experience of establishing patents and spinouts from the academia.
- It is required that the main applicant is willing to act as an ambassador for innovation within academia and engage younger researchers and the surrounding innovation ecosystem.
Co-applicant(s):
- Co-applicants can be included in the project but are not required.
- Co-applicants may come from the same hosting institution as the main applicant or from a different university, hospitals, or research institutions locally and abroad.
Hosting Institution:
- A Distinguished Innovator Grant must be administered by a non-profit organisation.
- A Distinguished Innovator Grant cannot be given to a company, or be directly linked to an established company (CVR number).
- Projects from incubator development programs and projects where IPR is owned by a university’s holding institution, are eligible to apply if:
- The administrating institution is the university
- The project and its findings are anchored in academia
- The project has not resulted in the establishment of a company (given company has not established a CVR/company number)
Project scope:
The Distinguished Innovator project idea and focus must be directly linked to sustainability or to improving the lives of patients and health of people. Applications in which the project idea is not directly linked to such scope will receive an administrative rejection during the initial screening process of applications.
The grant is pre-CVR. Hence, if a company is established during the grant period, Novo Nordisk Foundation shall be informed so the funding for the remaining grant period can be directed back to the Foundation after the CVR number has been established.
The total granting budget for the Pioneer and Distinguished Innovator Grants is DKK 190 million per year, to cover both the Health and the Sustainability areas.
Each Distinguished Innovator Grant can be of maximum DKK 7.6 million for a period of 3 years.
The application should be completed and submitted using the Foundation’s application system.
It is important to carefully read the call guidelines for applicants, accessed via the ‘Application Guidelines’ button above, before initiating the application process, as this document contains the complete call description, as well as detailed instructions for the application process.
For questions addressed in previous years regarding the call, please refer to the FAQ.
