Grant Policy of the VILLUM FOUNDATION
In recent years, the Foundation has chiefly supported research activities in science and technology. The Foundation does not support research areas in health science, medicine and biomedicine. Grants are made for pioneering research to cover salaries, running costs and the purchase of major equipment of particular importance for the research.
The Foundation makes large grants to research centres without walls – the VKR Centres of Excellence. The process of inviting proposals for VKR Centres of Excellence is performed in dialogue with science and technology research environments. The Foundation investigates potential themes for centre formations on its own initiative, while the research environments are also welcome to submit proposals to the Foundation.
The Foundation has established a visiting professor programme, which offers Danish research institutions a means of attracting foreign researchers for periods of 2-6 months’ duration. Grants made under the programme are awarded following the Foundation’s invitation to the research institutions.
Since 2001, the Foundation has funded a postdoctoral programme in science and technology. This programme comprises individual scholarships, which are awarded to junior Danish researchers after PhD level, and so-called block scholarships, which are awarded to research managers at Danish universities for recruitment of postdoctoral scholars in Denmark and from abroad. The programme is administrated by a committee of deans from faculties of science and technology.
The Foundation also supports the dissemination of scientific and technical research. Among the projects supported, the focus is on projects to promote an interest among young people in science and technology.
The Foundation makes donations for large-scale social programmes and cultural projects. These donations are made both in Denmark and abroard. Accordingly, from 2007, the Foundation has focused especially on increasing its donations to social projects in Eastern and Central Europe (in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania, Czech Republic and Slovakia ) and projects in Greenland. In these countries, the Foundation gives priority to innovative projects aimed at improving conditions of life and prospects in adulthood for socially at-risk children and adolescents. The Foundation’s donations are made on the basis of local experiences, priorities and traditions.