International cooperation

NordForsk is an independent Nordic research advisory and research funding organisation under the Nordic Council of Ministers for Education and Research (MR-U), which, among other things, aims to strengthen cooperation among central funding institutions, including the national research councils in the Nordic countries.

The fund (DFF) regularly participates in joint Nordic calls in collaboration with other Nordic research funds within the framework of NordForsk. The fund has, i.a., contributed to the following calls:

• The Nordic Programme for Interdisciplinary Research
• Sustainable Development of the Arctic
• The Nordic-Baltic initiative on responsible use of Artificial Intelligence.

Read more about NordForsk.

Independent Research Fund Denmark’s scientific research councils are members of the Nordic Cooperation Councils (NOS), which are networks between Nordic research funds within specific scientific fields.

Their overall aim is to promote and stimulate collaboration between Nordic researchers. Several of the NOS networks award funding for joint Nordic activities.

The councils DFF | Humanities and DFF | Social Sciences are members of The Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS).

Read more about NOS-HS here.

The council DFF | Medical Sciences is a member of The Joint Committee of the Nordic Medical Research Councils (NOS-M).

Read more about NOS-M here.

The councils DFF | Natural Sciences and DFF | Technology and Production Sciences are members of The Joint Committee of the Nordic Natural Science Research Councils in the Nordic Countries (NOS-N).

Read more about NOS-N here. 

About Horizon Europe Partnerships

Independent Research Fund Denmark participates in two Horizon Europe partnerships. This enables Danish researchers to apply for funding through the calls launched by these partnerships during their lifetime, expected to run from 2026 and 2027 respectively.

Horizon Europe is the EU’s framework programme for research and innovation for the period 2021–2027. It is organized into three main pillars, which consist of various programmes and initiatives. Pillar II (Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness) includes six thematic programmes, or “clusters,” and provides support for transnational projects through strategic work programmes and calls. One of the most important instruments under Pillar II is the partnerships.

The EU, together with its member states, is investing more than €20 billion in a range of different partnerships through Horizon Europe. These partnerships bring together the European Commission and public institutions in a joint effort to find solutions to Europe’s biggest challenges, including climate change, environmental pollution, biodiversity loss, and digital transformation, and they constitute a central element of Horizon Europe.

During the period 2025–2027, the partnerships Resilient Cultural Heritage (RCH) and Social Transformations and Resilience (STR) will be launched, with Independent Research Fund Denmark participating as the Danish partner. Both partnerships fall under Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society (Cluster 2).

Read more about Horizon Europe on the website of the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science.

Read more about the Horizon Europe partnerships here.

About Resilient Cultural Heritage

Independent Research Fund Denmark participates as a partner in the upcoming co-funded partnership Resilient Cultural Heritage under Horizon Europe, which is expected to be active during the period 2026–2032. Over the lifetime of the partnership, a number of calls for research funding will be launched within its thematic area. These will be relevant for researchers working with cultural heritage and climate and environmental change, including the role of cultural heritage for society, identity, and local communities.

The fund’s participation enables researchers in Denmark to apply for funding through the calls that the fund contributes to within the framework of the partnership. As the calls are announced, they will be available on the fund’s webpage for international funding opportunities.

The objective of the Resilient Cultural Heritage partnership is to safeguard our shared cultural heritage for future generations and to help make Europe more resilient and climate-neutral. The partnership will support development and coordination within the cultural heritage field, including through joint international calls for research funding, and will contribute to developing and promoting innovative solutions in the area through other activities.

The specific design of Resilient Cultural Heritage is based on a so-called Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), which the network ARCHE (Alliance for Research on Cultural Heritage in Europe) is responsible for developing.

Read more about Resilient Cultural Heritage and the SRIA’en on the ARCHE website.

Read more about the partnerships in Horizon Europe’s Cluster 2 here.

About Horizon Europe Partnerships

Independent Research Fund Denmark participates in two Horizon Europe partnerships. This enables Danish researchers to apply for funding through the calls launched by these partnerships during their lifetime, expected to run from 2026 and 2027 respectively.

Horizon Europe is the EU’s framework programme for research and innovation for the period 2021–2027. It is organized into three main pillars, which consist of various programmes and initiatives. Pillar II (Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness) includes six thematic programmes, or “clusters,” and provides support for transnational projects through strategic work programmes and calls. One of the most important instruments under Pillar II is the partnerships.

The EU, together with its member states, is investing more than €20 billion in a range of different partnerships through Horizon Europe. These partnerships bring together the European Commission and public institutions in a joint effort to find solutions to Europe’s biggest challenges, including climate change, environmental pollution, biodiversity loss, and digital transformation, and they constitute a central element of Horizon Europe.

During the period 2025–2027, the partnerships Resilient Cultural Heritage (RCH) and Social Transformations and Resilience (STR) will be launched, with Independent Research Fund Denmark participating as the Danish partner. Both partnerships fall under Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society (Cluster 2).

Read more about Horizon Europe on the website of the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science.

Read more about the Horizon Europe partnerships here.

About Social Transformations and Resilience

Independent Research Fund Denmark participates as a partner in the upcoming co-funded Horizon Europe partnership Social Transformations and Resilience (STR), which is expected to be active during the period 2027–2033. Over the lifetime of the partnership, a number of calls for research funding will be launched within its thematic areas, which include inclusion, resilience, social protection, the future of work, education, and the green transition. The partnership is coordinated by National Science Centre Poland (NCN).

The fund’s participation enables researchers in Denmark to apply for funding through the calls that the fund contributes to within the framework of the partnership. As the calls are announced, they will be available on the fund’s webpage for international funding opportunities.

The Social Transformations and Resilience partnership aims to strengthen resilience, ensure fairness and inclusion, and promote social cohesion. This includes addressing changes related to climate, the environment, technology, demographics, and unexpected crises such as COVID-19 and geopolitical conflicts. The partnership will contribute to the development of new knowledge, tools, and innovative solutions to address current social challenges, including through joint international calls for research funding. It will also support the development of new strategies and policy work at the European, national, and regional levels.

Read more about the development of the partnership’s SRIA on the ’Social Transformations and Resilience – Foresight Platform’.

Read more about the partnership on the NCN website here.

Read more about the partnerships in Horizon Europe’s Cluster 2 here.

Independent Research Fund Denmark has been a member of Science Europe since 2011. Science Europe is a cooperation organisation for European research funds and institutions that aim to strengthen the European research area through cooperation on policy, prioritisations and strategies on research.

The fund participates actively in Science Europe’s work through participation in working groups and contributions to surveys, knowledge-sharing, etc. Participation offers Independent Research Fund Denmark the opportunity to gain knowledge about current trends in the research area and other research funding organisations’ practices. At the same time, Independent Research Fund Denmark can share experiences and influence the future direction of research and research funding.

In addition, the fund participates regularly in the Global Research Council with the aim of ensurin0067 that the fund stays up to date on global development trends within research culture and research funding.

Read more about Science Europe here.
Read more about Global Research Council here.

The network HERA – Humanities in the European Research Area joins 26 humanities research councils across Europe and the European Commission. Independent Research Fund Denmark har participated in the collaboration since 2002.

The network aims to promote and strengthen the role of humanities within the European research landscape and in the European Commission Framework Programmes, e.g. by leading and developing funding opportunities for humanities researchers in Europe.

Independent Research Fund Denmark has participated in several joint research programmes through HERA, including:

• Public Spaces – Culture and Integration in Europe (2019-2022)
• Crisis – Perspectives from the Humanities (2024-2028)

Furthermore, HERA has developed the joint Horizon 2020 programme CHANSE – “Transformations: Social and cultural dynamics in the digital age” (2023-2026) in collaboration with the social sciences network NORFACE.

Read mora about HERA here.

NORFACE – New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe is a social science network of European research councils. Independent Research Fund Denmark has been a member of NORFACE since its establishment in 2004.

NORFACE aims to promote high quality research within the area of social and behavioural sciences through knowledge-sharing, international cooperation and joint research calls and programmes.

NORFACE is the result of a successful bid for funding to the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme within the ERA-NET scheme (Horizon 2020). Today, NORFACE is a self-financing network.

Independent Research Fund Denmark has participated as a partner in a number of previous NORFACE programmes, including:

• Democratic governance in a turbulent age (2019-2022)
• Dynamics of Inequality Across the Life-course: structures and processes (2016-2021)

Moreovere, NORACE has developed the joint Horizon 2020 programme CHANSE – “Transformations: Social and cultural dynamics in the digital age” (2023-2026) in collaboration with the humanities network HERA.

Read more about NORFACE here. 

CHANSE – Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe is an international consortium, which is the result of a collaboration between the two European research networks, HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) and NORFACE (New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe).

In 2021, CHANSE launched the transnational call "Transformations: Social and cultural dynamics in the digital age" under Horizon 2020. The programme has been developed by 27 research-funding organisations from 24 countries, coordinated by the National Science Centre, (NCN) Poland. Danish participation in the call has been financed by DFF | Humanities and DFF | Social Sciences.

Out of 26 granted projects, 10 projects have Danish subprojects. The projects started in 2022 and will end no later than 2026.  

Read more about CHANSE here.

Independent Research Fund Denmark is an active member of the Coalition on Reforming Research Assessment (CoARA). In October 2022, the fund signed the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment, thereby committing to working to strengthen the quality of research assessment.

The agreement sets a common direction for improved assessment processes for research, researchers and research-performing organisations. The purpose of the agreement is to develop the quality and efficiency of research, and it contains a number of principles and commitments, which the signatories must live up to.

Up until 2027, the fund will work on the implementation of the agreement on the basis of Independent Research Fund Denmark’s CoARA Action plan. 

The agreement is in line with DFF's wider ambition to ensure that the fund's assessment processes are open and broad, in order to ensure that it is possible for ground-breaking research projects to obtain funding. It is important for the fund that the work to implement the agreement unfolds in harmony and cooperation with the Danish research environments. 

For Independent Research Fund Denmark, the agreement offers an opportunity to inspect the fund's processes and practices. The work on the agreement will, among other things, lead to revised assessment processes, more openness about the fund's work, and close dialogue with other actors in the research world, both in and outside of Denmark.

Read more about CoARA and the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (ARRA) her.

You can find Independent Research Fund Denmark's CoARA action plan here. 

Since 2019, Independent Research Fund Denmark has had a bilateral cooperation agreement with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). SNSF is the leading research fund in Switzerland and funds research ideas within and across all research fields with particular focus on young research talent.

The agreement between Independent Research Fund Denmark and SNSF aims to strengthen research relations and collaborations between the two countries and opens, among other things, for researchers from Denmark to participate in SNSF-supported Swiss-Danish research projects.

Danish-Swiss research groups can use the programme to apply for funding for research projects with topics and goals of their choice, just as it is already possible today for Swiss researchers to participate in the programmes of Independent Research Fund Denmark.

SNSF has two annual application deadlines on 1 April and 1 October.

Read more about the bilateral agreement at the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) here.