Talent recruitment

New original recruitment initiatives aimed at the DNRF’s centers

In 2007 and 2008, the DNRF launched a special talent-recruitment initiative targeted to the DNRF’s existing Centers of Excellence. Recognizing the increased competition for the best international research talents, the foundation wished to strengthen the centers’ international recruitment efforts.

The purpose of the initiative is to give Centers of Excellence the possibility of developing and testing new recruitment efforts that will make it easier to reach those top foreign researchers and talents who are especially attractive.

Funds are provided as supplemental grants to the DNRF Centers of Excellence between 500,000 and 5 mil. DKK. In total, the foundation has spent 38 mil. DKK on this initiative, and of these, 13 mil. DKK were distributed in 2009.

Many initiatives have resulted from the talent-recruitment effort, but two programs, the MOBIL program and the Brahe program, stand out as examples of new and original efforts to make research stays in Denmark attractive to foreign scientists.

The MOBIL program

The MOBIL program is a collaboration between five DNRF centers at Aarhus University involving a targeted effort to attract especially talented students within the area of molecular and chemical biosciences to a research education at one of the centers. The five centers involved are:

  • CARB – Center for Carbohydrate Recognition and Signaling, center leader Jens Stougaard
  • CDNA – Center for DNA Nanotechnology, center leader Kurt Gothelf
  • inSPIN – Center for Insoluble Protein Structures, center leader Niels Christian Nielsen
  • mRNP – Center for mRNP Biogenesis and Metabolism, center leader Torben Heick
  • PUMPKIN – Center for Membrane Pumps in Cells and Disease, center leader Poul Nissen

Read the article about the MOBIL program from the DNRF’s 2008 annual report

The Brahe program

The Brahe program consists of the Sophie and Tycho Brahe Prize Fellowship in Astrophysics, which is awarded once annually to an independent and autonomous research project within the Dark Cosmology Center’s (DARK) overall research area.

The fellowship focuses on a two-year course at DARK, and the following one to two years are spent at and financed by the foreign collaborative partner. The entire process is characterized by a close cooperation between the two host institutions.

Read the article on the Brahe program from the DNRF’s 2008 annual report

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