Jesper Svejstrup is the first to receive the Danish National Research Foundation’s latest funding instrument: the DNRF Chair
The DNRF Chair is the Danish National Research Foundation’s latest funding instrument. This new funding instrument was launched at the beginning of 2020 with the overall purpose of strengthening Danish research communities with top international researchers from abroad, including Danes wishing to return to Denmark from an international position. Professor Jesper Svejstrup, from the Francis Crick Institute in London, is the first to receive a DNRF Chair grant to study the molecular mechanisms of transcription.
Professor Jesper Svejstrup from the Francis Crick Institute in London is the first recipient of a DNRF Chair grant. The DNRF Chair was launched by the foundation earlier this year and is given to support and boost start-up research activities, with the overall purpose of strengthening and enriching Danish research environments with outstanding international researchers from abroad, including Danes with an international position who wish to return to Denmark.
“It is a great honor to be among the first recipients of the Danish National Research Foundation’s new Chair grants. I have been doing research abroad for more than 25 years now and it is a huge challenge to move, a challenge that can simply only be met through large grants such as this one,” said Professor Svejstrup.
The DNRF plans to continue the DNRF Chair instrument through December 2024. The foundation expects to fund a total of DKK 200 million, equaling approximately DKK 40 million a year. The foundation foresees awarding about three DNRF Chair grants annually.
The grants may cover expenses to implement start-up research activities such as equipment, salaries of young researchers and Ph.D. students, seminars, travel costs, consumables, etc.
With the DNRF Chair grant, Professor Svejstrup will be moving his relatively large research group from the Francis Crick Institute in London to the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen.
“We are extremely pleased that Jesper Svejstrup has chosen to continue his fantastic research at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. At the Faculty of Health Sciences, we have great ambitions to be part of the research front on understanding basic cell biological mechanisms in health and disease. We are very proud to be able to attract a researcher like Jesper in this particular area,” said Ulla Wewer, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.
The grants will be awarded by the board of the DNRF following one public call annually. Each call consists of three rounds per year. Normally, only one or two grants per round will be awarded.