Three new themes brought together in one call under the heading “Health and well-being” from Independent Research Fund Denmark

Read the call for thematic funds for “Research on elderly and ageing” (2024), “Research on loneliness” (2024) and “Strengthened research on vulnerable children and youth and poor well-being” (2024) (pdf)

The funds have been allocated as part of the political agreements of 2 November 2023 on the distribution of the research reserve in 2024. 

DKK 29.5 million for research on elderly and ageing

Within the theme “Research on elderly and ageing”, researchers can apply for funds in open competition from the pool of DKK 29.5 million for original ideas, which can support multidisciplinary and practice-oriented research on nursing and care for the elderly citizen.

The funds should contribute to illuminating elderly citizens’ social, psychological and physical robustness, including and, among other things, within the context of nursing and care in the local healthcare system. It could e.g. be in areas such as rehabilitation, care and prevention with a focus on municipal healthcare services.

DKK 19.7 million for research on loneliness

With the theme “Research on loneliness”, researchers can apply for funds in open competition for their original and curiosity-driven ideas that will support research on loneliness from the collective pool of DKK 19.7 million.

The thematic funds should contribute to generating knowledge on the causes of loneliness as well as the handling and prevention of loneliness across various life phases and generations.

DKK 34.5 million for research on vulnerability and poor well-being among children and youth

With the third theme, “Strengthened research on vulnerable children and youth and poor well-being”, DKK 34.5 million has been allocated with the purpose of strengthening research on vulnerability and poor well-being among children and youth through open competition funds. The initiative should support capacity building and strengthened coordination of the practice-oriented research on vulnerable children and youth and contribute with more knowledge about causal relationships, the interplay with pedagogic-psychological counselling (PPR), etc.

The Board of Independent Research Fund Denmark wishes to emphasise that “vulnerable children and youth” and “poor well-being” is not firmly defined and that the field of research can be described and approached differently within different areas of research and science.

Project types

For all themes under the heading “Health and well-being”, it will be possible to apply for funds within the budgetary framework and requirements that apply to the well-known funding instruments at Independent Research Fund Denmark, DFF-Research Project1 (thematic) and DFF-Research Project2 (thematic).

For all three themes, it applies that the instrument DFF-Research Project2 is only funded in special instances where it has been persuasively argued that the objective cannot be reached through a DFF-Research Project1.

All applications for the three themes will be evaluated by one expert committee. Once the committee has been appointed, its composition will be published on the fund’s website. 

About the fund’s thematic calls

Independent Research Fund Denmark will allocate funds within nine politically determined themes in 2024.

Independent Research Fund Denmark has decided to bring these nine themes together in four calls for proposals. The intention is to give applicants as much time as possible to complete their applications before the application deadline by publishing the calls as early as possible. The four calls, which bring together two or three themes each, have each been given a heading, which reflects the headings in the political agreement on the distribution of the research reserve. The expert committees, which will evaluate the applications for the individual themes, will only consider the theme’s title and description in the call, not the joint heading of the call for proposals.

The fund’s four thematic calls contain the following themes under the following headings:

• Call for proposals with the heading “Climate”
  • Independent green research
  • Arctic research – Climate change and sustainable arctic communities
• Call for proposals with the heading “Health”
  • Strengthened clinical and independent research
  • Better framework for research in psychiatry
• Call for proposals with the heading “Health and well-being”
  • Research on elderly and ageing
  • Research on loneliness
  • Strengthened research on vulnerable children and youth and poor well-being
• Call for proposals with the heading “Well-being and learning”
  • Learning and well-being in primary schools
  • Stronger research environments for vocational education and work-related pedagogy and practice-based learning

A thematic call under Independent Research Fund Denmark is a political, strategic initiative within a specific theme, which is open to contributions from all scientific areas that can contribute knowledge to the theme. Thematic research functions as a supplement to independent research, which is based on the researchers’ own curiosity-driven initiatives.

Since 2018, Independent Research Fund Denmark has awarded grants within politically determined themes, financed through annual political agreements on the distribution of the research reserve.

Questions and further information

Email: DFF-opslag@ufm.dk

Phone: +45 72 31 82 00 (Mon-Fri between 9 am and 12 (noon))