Every year, in the morning before the official DNRF annual meetings begin, DNRF center leaders hold their own annual meeting to discuss matters of common interest. At the annual center leader meeting in 2023, the center leaders discussed the fast-spreading practice of preprint publishing.

Discussions at annual follow-up meetings with all DNRF centers during 2022-23 had revealed that while preprint publishing had become standard long ago in fields such as physics and economics, other fields were hesitant to follow suit. However, the center leader meeting left the impression that preprint publication is gaining ground quickly even in fields such as medicine, even as the pros and cons are still being weighed up, where preprint servers are now growing in number.

The pace of publication and the possibility of “‘open review” are especially considered to be substantial benefits. On the other hand, the preprint culture still struggles with challenges such as ensuring that inexperienced scientists and journalists do not mistake preprints for peer-reviewed publications. The DNRF has now started monitoring grant holders’ production of preprints.

Jens Kehlet Nørskov has been chair of the DNRF for five years, and during that time, he has helped to ensure that the foundation continuously supports the best Danish research and the development of future research talents. Kehlet Nørskov said that he has been incredibly happy to be able to participate in the development of one of the cornerstones of Denmark’s research structure. The Minister for Higher Education and Science is expected to appoint a new chair at the beginning of 2024.

The four new board members of the DNRF board are:

The research backgrounds of the four board members cover economics, the humanities, and the technical and natural sciences.

They joined the board on January 1, 2024, replacing Professor Morten Ravn, Professor Minik Thorleif Rosing, Professor Anne Scott Sørensen, and Professor Vigdis Broch-Due.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Science requires that the candidates have insight into research at an international level and that the entire board has competencies in all main scientific areas as well as financial matters.

Read more at dg.dk.

For the second time, DNRF grant holders were given the chance to send young aspiring leaders to the DNRF’s Young Academic Leaders retreat to learn about the path to becoming research leaders and to share challenges and experiences.

Leaders of the DNRF Centers of Excellence and Pioneer Centers gather once a year to share experiences and discuss topics of importance to the successful operation of the centers. In 2023, the topics discussed were “Transformative moments and how to deal with them” and “Balancing risk taking and results in different fields of science.” Traditionally, six center leaders also present their research.

“I noticed that image among the pile of images that we got from our fieldwork in Vietnam. It really got to me. It was this expression in her eyes,” explained Professor Tine Mette Gammeltoft about her photo with the title “Perseverance,” which won 2023’s photo competition. The picture was taken by Tine Gammeltoft’s Vietnamese colleague Doctor Dung Vũ a few days after Bà Son had one of her legs amputated. Gammeltoft’s research has shown that there is a massive need for knowledge and a vast uncertainty in the field of diabetes. The disease is still taboo, and there is a tendency for patients to not want to be a burden to their families.

For the first time, in 2023, the winners of the competition were exhibited at the DNRF annual meeting. In 2024, the winners will also be announced on this occasion.

Read more: https://dg.dk/en/winners-dnrf-photocompetition-2023/

The appearance of the DNRF’s website (dg.dk) has changed. The site has been redesigned. Among other things, the DNRF has added a new color and changed the navigation to make it more user-friendly.

“We have wanted for a long time to make it easier for our users to navigate on dg.dk with a more logical structure. And I hope we have succeeded with this new version of the site,” said the DNRF’s head of communications, Lotte Ladegaard Zeuthen.