Plans for the Future
Dorthe Dahl-Jensen has been a member of the foundation’s board of directors since January 2024 and has been looking forward to becoming chair since she was appointed by the Minister for Higher Education and Science Christina Egelund in June.
“It is fantastic to be allowed to have this role,” said Dahl-Jensen. She continued:
“The DNRF is very important to Denmark, and I am incredibly proud that we have a foundation that focuses directly on basic research.”
Initially, Dahl-Jensen will use her time to familiarize herself with the foundation’s work and to support and develop the foundation’s many projects:
“The secretariat here is already fantastically well-functioning. I will work to ensure that we continue to act as an independent foundation and continue to support the establishment of new basic research centers. We have many private foundations that give a lot of money to research, and that is a blessing, but it also means that we must make sure that we place our instruments correctly, so that we, together with the other actors, cover a wide range of the Danish research landscape.”
Dahl-Jensen added that the DNRF has a strong position with the basic research centers. But if she were to reveal what the foundation should look into in the future, it would perhaps be to focus on researchers who are in the middle of their careers and who are on their way to positioning themselves to lead a DNRF center. Dahl-Jensen explained that there are funds for young researchers, but there aren’t any programs that you can apply to for research funding in mid-career. And talented researchers on the way up risk getting stuck along the way, because they do not have the opportunity to continue working and to become skilled enough to apply to lead a basic research center.
“There is a gap in Denmark that we can consider whether we can fill, maybe through a Consolidator Grant , which is intended for people who may not have a very impressive CV, but who have excellent research ideas. This is something I would like the DNRF to look at,” she concluded.
“In the secretariat, we are very much looking forward to working with Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, and we welcome her as our new chairman. We are confident that she will contribute to developing us in the right direction and secure the important funding for basic research for many years to come,” said DNRF CEO, Søren-Peter Olesen.
Read also the Ministry of Higher Education and Science’s press release ( In Danish).