The Novo Nordisk Foundation supports fundamental research within the natural and technical sciences, including physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering and data science, with potential interdisciplinary application within biomedicine or the life sciences.

In the 2019-2023 strategy period, we have four strategic focus areas:

• Interdisciplinary research: Creating synergies across the classical disciplines to enable breakthroughs in understanding the mechanisms governing life, health and biotechnology
• Quantum technologies applied in the life sciences: Solving complex and important problems in biology, chemistry and medicine through the development and realization of quantum technologies
• Data Science: Developing tomorrow’s ground-breaking algorithms and technologies for understanding and handling big data with application in artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology or biomedicine
• Technical research with potential application within medicine: Transforming tomorrow’s therapies and diagnostics and advancing human health by developing technologies for potential use in the medical sciences

Within our grant awarding scope, we enable research, establish research environments, develop research talent, establish international and interdisciplinary collaboration, and develop cutting-edge infrastructure.

Examples of research areas that fall outside the awarding scope of Natural and technical science research and interdisciplinarity at the Novo Nordisk Foundation: areas covered by other NNF grant-giving areas, such as biotechnology, bioscience and biomedicine, endocrinology and metabolism, clinical and translational medicine. Also, cosmology, zoology and projects that are primarily retrospective or primarily of historical value fall outside the awarding scope.