The Committee on International Research Leader Grants implements the Board of the Foundation’s granting decision for awarding the Foundation’s Laureate Research Grants and Young Investigator Awards. These grants are aimed at excellent research leaders who wish to establish their research group in Denmark to carry out visionary research within biomedicine or biotechnology. The scientists must be employed outside Denmark at the time of application.

The Board has established an annual grant budget of DKK 200 million, allocated between two Laureate Research Grants of DKK 50 million each, and four Young Investigator Awards of DKK 25 million each.

The grants are awarded once annually based on applications.

The Committee assesses the applications received and then refers selected applications for international peer review. The Committee submits its recommendations together with the rationale for awarding the grants to the Board of the Foundation, which is responsible for the grant decision.

Established in 2012, the Committee consists of a Chairperson and eight members appointed by the Board in accordance with the general rules covering the Foundation’s committees.