Staffan Persson is the third researcher 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 by bringing international, as well as Danish, researchers to Denmark. Professor Staffan Persson from Melbourne University is the third researcher to receive a DNRF Chair grant to study the intersection between biology and physics.
Professor Staffan Persson from Melbourne University is the third researcher to receive the Danish National Research Foundation’s latest funding instrument, the DNRF Chair, to study the intersection between biology and physics. The new funding instrument from the DNRF was launched at the beginning of 2020 with the overall purpose of strengthening Danish research communities by bringing international and Danish researchers to Denmark.
“The funds will be used to establish close collaborations between the field of biophysics at the Niels-Bohr Institute and plant biology at the Department of Plant and Environmental Science at the University of Copenhagen. While my group largely does research in cell biology, I have had several people with physics/biophysics backgrounds in the lab in the past. This has led to new types of research projects and questions in the lab, and I am therefore very excited about the DNRF Chair grant to build new capacity at the intersection between biology and physics,” said Professor Persson.
The DNRF plans to continue the DNRF Chair instrument through December 2024, and the foundation foresees awarding about three DNRF Chair grants annually. Starting in 2021, each Danish university can submit two applications for each of the three annual application rounds. This means that each university can submit a total of six applications in 2021.
“The DNRF Chair offers some exciting opportunities, and we welcome the collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute, as it is through collaboration and interdisciplinarity that we achieve new, exciting results. Furthermore, it is a benefit for the collaboration that it is led by Prof. Staffan Persson. His experience working in the cross-field between biology and physics, combined with his international experience, helps to strengthen the research,” said Svend Christensen, Head of Department at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.
The grants will be awarded by the DNRF board following one public call annually. Each call consists of three rounds per year. Normally, only one or two grants per round will be awarded.