Deadline: 29-Jan-2026
Applications are now open for the Tandem Programme to strengthen and support Danish translational health research of high international quality.
The initiative encourages meaningful collaboration between basic and clinical scientists to bridge the gap between laboratory research and patient care, fostering innovation in diagnostics, treatment methods, and disease understanding. Applicants must demonstrate a sustained connection with clinical work and responsibility while contributing to a cross-disciplinary project with translational impact.
A total of up to DKK 52 million is available for grants between DKK 11,000,000 and DKK 13,000,000 for projects lasting four years, with up to four grants to be awarded. Applicants can request funding to cover various project-related expenses, including salaries for research and technical staff such as postdoctoral researchers, PhD students (with tuition fees up to DKK 80,000 per budget year per student), technicians, and research-year students.
Eligible costs also include operating expenses like laboratory consumables, chemicals, reagents, research animals, and analysis services such as sequencing or proteomics. Funding may be used for necessary equipment, provided it does not exceed 20% of the total budget. Travel expenses related to conferences, workshops, and research collaborations in other laboratories are supported up to DKK 50,000 per budget year, as are publication costs for disseminating research findings.
The Foundation will not award funding for own salary for the main and co-applicant, commercial activities, overhead or indirect costs such as rent, electricity, water, and maintenance, or double funding of projects. Applicants must account for any funding already received for the proposed project from other sources and disclose any identical or overlapping proposals submitted elsewhere. If additional funding is obtained after submission, applicants are required to notify the Foundation immediately.
To be eligible, the project must be based at a university, hospital, or other non-profit research institution in Denmark. The main applicant must have at least 75% of their primary employment at one of these institutions in Denmark, while the co-applicant may be based either in Denmark or abroad. Only applications that establish a cross-disciplinary collaboration between one basic researcher and one clinical researcher (who must see patients) will be considered.
It is essential that the collaboration between the main and co-applicant is clearly demonstrated in both the application and the budget, which must be evenly divided (a 60/40% split is acceptable). The main applicant may be either the basic or the clinical researcher, but the clinical researcher must have active clinical duties and cannot hold a full-time research position.
The grant does not cover the salaries of the main or co-applicant, so both must have secured funding for their salaries throughout the project period. Each applicant must receive a defined share of the grant budget, which should be detailed in the application along with a clear description of how the collaboration will function and how the work will be divided.
The project must have a duration of four years. Applications submitted by PhD students or postdoctoral researchers conducting supervised research, or where PhD students or postdocs are listed as co-applicants, will not be considered.
The deadline for applications is 29 January 2026.
For more information, visit Novo Nordisk Foundation.
