Villum Experiment Call 2023

• The topic of the research must be in line with VILLUM FONDEN’s definition of technical and natural sciences (please see below).
• The applicant must hold a PhD degree or similar at the application deadline.
• Researchers who already hold a grant from VILLUM FONDEN ending later than 31 December 2023 are not eligible to apply.
• Researchers can apply for up to DKK 2 million (incl. 15% indirect costs) for up to two years to explore the breakthrough potential of their idea. The budget can cover all project-related expenses such as salary, travel, running costs, etc. However, please note that salary of permanently employed scientific staff is not covered.
• PhD students are not eligible for support under the programme.      
• The grant must be hosted by a Danish university or research institution as indicated by a letter of support. If necessary, the research or part of it can take place at universities and research institutions abroad.
• If granted a project can start 1 October 2023 at the earliest and no later than 1 March 2024.
• Each application may only have a single applicant (i.e. no co-applicants).
• Each researcher may only submit one single application.
• Researchers who applied for a Villum Experiment grant in 2022 are not eligible to apply in 2023.
• Researchers applying in 2023 will not be eligible to apply in 2024.
   

Definition of technical and natural sciences

VILLUM FONDEN supports technical and natural sciences embedded in Danish universities and research institutions. The research can be curiosity-driven or aiming at societal challenges. In all cases, it must have a clear scientific objective.

In relation to ERC’s evaluation panels VILLUM FONDEN supports as a rule ”Physical Sciences and Engineering” (PE1-PE10) and parts of “Life Sciences” (LS1-LS3, LS8). Cases may occur where the research falls partly outside the categories.

VILLUM FONDEN is positive towards interdisciplinary initiatives with a core in technical and natural sciences.

Projects with a purely commercial focus are not supported.

We do not support

Health or veterinary research, i.e. research focused on the health of humans and animals, including nutrition, medicine, biomedicine, pharmacology and research within diagnostics and methods for examination and treatment.

Furthermore, applicants affiliated with departments whose main scientific focus is within these areas (including university health departments, hospitals, the Danish Cancer Society, DTU Health Tech and SDU Health Informatics and Technology) are not eligible to apply and will receive an administrative rejection.

The proposals are pre-screened by VILLUM FONDEN’s secretariat and the working group for technical and natural science to check that they comply with the conditions stated above. The anonymous proposals which pass the pre-screening are distributed among the four scientific review sub-panels according to the proposal’s research area as indicated by the applicant. The terms of reference of the panel can be found below along with the review sheet and an overview of the assessment and selection process. The panel members do not see the CVs or support letters and do not know the identities of the applicants.

To increase diversity and respect the uniqueness of outliers, each panel member is provided with a decisive vote which she/he can use only once. The panel member has the option to cast the decisive vote for an application which he/she finds to be particularly promising/valuable and therefore deserves the highest priority.

The reviewers pass their evaluations on to the foundation and the applications are ranked according to their scores, taking the decisive votes into account.

As a final step, the CVs of the highest ranking applications are screened by VILLUM FONDEN’s working group for technical and natural science and the foundation’s secretariat. The screening team checks the researcher's level of expertise within the area of the proposed project. The panel’s ranking is maintained, but applications that fail the screening test are disqualified. A final list of fundable applications is recommended to the board who makes the grant decision. 

Note: In previous rounds of funding, all applicants put forward by the review panel passed the final screening process.

• 15 March 2023 at 14:00: Deadline for application.
• June 2023: Rejection of applications which do not meet the general conditions.
• September 2023: Approval of grant or rejection of application based on the review panel’s assessment.

The application must contain the following four documents:

• Proposal. Max. 10,000 characters incl. spaces (about three pages). The proposal guidelines can be found below.
• Budget. The budget template can be found below.
• CV.
• Letter of support from the host institution.

The documents above must be submitted as four separate pdf files. To preserve anonymity, it is important that you remove all personal information from the file names and metadata of the proposal and the budget. Any additional documents submitted will not be taken into consideration.

You will be asked to select your field(s) of research from a pick list in the application system. The field categories and a description of each category can be found here. You can select up to three fields of research or optionally type in a new category.    

It is mandatory that you provide us with your ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) which ensures that you have a unique ID in our application system. You can obtain your ORCID here. Your ORCID must be entered along with your contact information in the application system.