In response to the global environmental and climate challenges, the Novo Nordisk Foundation wishes to inspire the development of a more sustainable world and support work towards this goal. Thus, we support life science research within biotechnology that concerns itself with the development of new products and solutions that can improve the sustainability of society and contribute to reducing our impact on the environment.

Among other things, we want to support research, education and innovation within industrial biotechnology, plant and food biotechnology and environmental biotechnology, including the development of solutions that help to mitigate climate change. We support basic research with a strategic focus and a solution-oriented approach to tackling specific problems and challenges.

The issues that the Foundation would like to address are: How to develop our production of plant-based food in order to be able to feed a growing world population, how to develop and create a more sustainable agriculture and how to capture and store CO₂, for instance through biotechnology.

Thus, this funding area is concerned with activities that focus on the societal transition towards sustainable production, energy and food supply, rather than medical/pharmacological topics.

Based on the Foundation’s strategy for 2019–2023, we plan to significantly increase our support for life science research that focuses on sustainable development and applications in industry, agriculture and food production.

The Foundation’s activities will focus on:

• Industrial biotechnology and bio-based production
• Plant and food biotechnology
• Environmental biotechnology
• Basic research and platforms and technologies supporting research on sustainability
• Training programmes and methods related to life science research and industrial applications promoting research on sustainability