New call: Funds for Arctic research

The research can, e.g., concern climate change, biodiversity or social and cultural changes and conditions in the Arctic communities. Applications must, among other things, include collaboration between different research institutions and support capacity building in the Arctic, including focusing on involvement of the local population and indigenous people.

Read the Call for Proposals of Arctic Research 2025 (pdf) 

The funds have been allocated as part of the political agreements of 1 November 2024 on the distribution of the research reserve in 2025.

Application deadline

Applications to the theme “Arctic research – Climate change and sustainable Arctic communities” have an application deadline on Wednesday 3 September 2025 at 12:00 (noon).

All applications submitted for the themes must be uploaded in the application system www.e-grant.dk before the expiration of the deadline. The fund recommends that applicants begin working on their application in e-grant well in advance of the deadline. The application forms in e-grant are expected to be available during week 19.

Capacity building in the Arctic and involvement of local communities

Funds can be applied for within and across all main research disciplines, and it is also possible to apply for funding within areas that are not mentioned among the examples listed in the politically determined description of the theme.

Regardless of the scientific profile of the research projects, the Call for Proposals of Arctic Research has a focus on capacity building. Therefore, all applications must:

• Contribute to research capacity building. Therefore, it is required that all applications include at least one PhD student or postdoctoral candidate. PhD students and/or postdoctoral scholarships in the research project can, for instance, be fully or partially associated with research institutions in the Arctic.
• Include general capacity building in the Arctic by means of involvement of the local population and/or Indigenous Peoples as an integrated part of the collaboration on the individual research project. For example, the project can involve the local communities that the research is concerned with or has significance for by focusing on how the research project involves the local population and Indigenous Peoples’ perspectives.

The fund urges that the involvement is initiated as early as possible, e.g. in the development stage of the project, and that the application contains relevant collaboration/support letters from the involved parties. Applicants must, among other things, account for how it will be ensured that the involvement happens in an inclusive, credible, appropriate, respectful, and ethically acceptable manner.

Read more about the requirements in the Call for Proposals of Arctic Research 2025 (pdf)

Arctic research within the Danish Realm (Rigsfællesskabet)

All applications must include collaboration between researchers from at least two different research institutions. Independent Research Fund Denmark encourages to apply with research projects that include collaboration between researchers from different institutions in Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Denmark. However, such forms of collaboration are not required, since the fund does not have requirements to applicants’ citizenship or the geographical location of the involved institutions. It is thus also possible to collaborate with researchers and communities placed outside of the Danish Realm (Rigsfællesskabet).

Independent Research Fund Denmark has decided that institutions on the Faroe Islands and in Greenland will receive overhead to the corresponding rate, which is received by equivalent institutions in Denmark. This applies to all of the fund’s current and upcoming calls. For example, research projects at Ilisimatusarfik (University of Greenland) or Fróðskaparsetur Føroya (University of the Faroe Islands) will receive 44 percent in overhead exactly like the Danish universities.

If you do not know which overhead rate your Faroese or Greenlandic institution is entitled to, please contact the Office of Independent Research Fund Denmark.

New funding instrument and special terms in the Arctic Call for Proposals

Independent Research Fund Denmark has introduced a new funding instrument, DFF-Thematic, which set out the general requirements applicable to the announced, politically determined thematic funds. DFF-Thematic has an increased budget framework and entails the possibility for longer duration of the research projects. Furthermore, DFF will place emphasis on collaboration, and therefore DFF-Thematic includes a requirement for the involvement of a Co-PI (Co-Principal Investigator).

For “Arctic research – Climate change and sustainable Arctic communities”, the following special and theme-specific terms apply:

• The appendix must not exceed 2 A4 pages and must not exceed a total of 6,000 characters
• The field in the application form for describing ethical considerations must not exceed a total of 3,000 characters

To allocate the funds and to assess the applications, DFF will establish a thematic committee. Thematic committees are resolved again by the end of the year.

DFF expects that the thematic committees are appointed during May. When the thematic committees have been appointed, you can find an overview of the committee members on the fund’s website.

Arctic, including focusing on involvement of the local population and Indigenous Peoples.

Read the Call for Proposals of Arctic Research 2025 (pdf) 

Read the Call for Proposals of Arctic Research 2025 (web)

Questions and further information

Email: DFF-opslag@ufm.dk 
Tel: +45 72 31 82 00 (Mon-Fri between 9 am and 12 (noon))