The Lundbeck Foundation supports young biomedical scientists by regularly awarding a number of postdoc grants.

These grants are given to particularly talented scientists, most of whom have a PhD, are hoping to specialise further and are aiming for a long research career.

The Lundbeck Foundation recently awarded the 2021 postdoc grants, and they attracted great interest:

252 young scientists applied for a grant, and all applications that met the criteria were evaluated by the Foundation’s Talent Panel, consisting of 15 leading international scientists from a wide range of countries, including Denmark.

33 of the applicants were awarded a grant – 14 women and 19 men.

An international perspective is a high priority when the Lundbeck Foundation allocates postdoc grants.

This is why we allow scientists from abroad to apply for postdoc funding to conduct research at Danish universities, hospitals or specialised institutions. Similarly, Danish applicants can apply to conduct research at an overseas academic institution with the funding provided by a Lundbeck Foundation postdoc grant.

Thus, 15 of this year’s 33 postdoc grants go to researchers from abroad who will move to work in Denmark, and nine researchers currently based in Denmark will spend their grant on moving from a Danish to an overseas research institution.

Anette Høye, scientific project manager at the Lundbeck Foundation and one of the key people behind the postdoc programme, stresses that, in many respects, mobility is an extremely important factor when it comes to developing research talent:

‘Quite literally, this means being willing to move to where there are opportunities for learning and developing, and where there are exciting challenges. But mobility is also about being prepared to make a shift in topic – to be ready to tackle a new field of research if it gives you potential to develop. Basically, the idea behind the postdoc programme is to support people with great talent and to enable them to develop into eminent researchers, so that they can eventually head their own scientific groups. And in order to achieve this goal, you need to be mobile in every sense of the word,’ says Anette Høye. She adds:

‘The many applications we received for the Lundbeck Foundation postdoc programme this year were generally of an exceedingly high professional and academic standard – and this made the Talent Panel’s process of selecting the very best projects to receive funding both difficult and time-consuming.’

These projects receive just over DKK 2 million on average, to be paid out over a two- to three-year period. This covers the recipient’s salary and funding for their research.

The Lundbeck Foundation will disburse a total of DKK 69 million to the 33 postdoc projects receiving a 2021 grant.

15 of the projects relate to neuroscience research, which is the Lundbeck Foundation’s special focus area.

The following young scientists have received a Lundbeck Foundation 2021 postdoc grant: