The Committee implements the Board of the Foundation’s granting decision for awarding the Foundation’s Pioneer Innovator Grants (former Exploratory Pre-Seed Grants) and Distinguished Innovator Grants (former Innovation Fellowship Program). These initiatives are targeted at the research communities and aims to accelerate the commercialization of application-oriented research findings and ideas within biomedicine and biotechnology that have the potential to be turned into new diagnostic methods, therapies, medical devices and technologies.

The Board has established an annual grant budget of DKK 65 million. The awards are made for the two Grant types twice a year based on applications in open competition. See calls for proposals below.

The Board of the Foundation established the Committee in 2012. It comprises professors with commercial experience and experts from the Seed Investments department of Novo Holdings A/S, which has experience in establishing small early-phase life-science companies. The Board selects the committee members in accordance with the general rules covering the Foundation’s committees.

The current members of the committee are listed below.