Research funding of DKK 34 million to address challenges in children’s and young people’s well-being

Five new research projects will soon be launched with support from Independent Research Fund Denmark. The projects aim to provide greater insight into why children and young people experience poor well-being, and how it can be prevented.

Which treatment approaches work best for children and young people with anxiety? How can collaboration between PPR, schools and families be made more meaningful, relevant and preventive? And how do children in vulnerable positions experience and navigate the transition from kindergarten to school? These are some of the questions the new research projects, now funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark, will attempt to answer.

Se all research projects under ’Research on vulnerability and poor well-being’ in 2025 here.

“This year’s applications were generally very strong, and the call was formulated more openly. As a result, we received applications spanning both practice-oriented research and more fundamental studies related to vulnerability among children and young people. Interestingly, the projects awarded funding are highly diverse: some are based on strong qualitative analyses, others on solid quantitative studies. We also have randomised controlled trials as well as projects with a clear focus on practical application. It is very inspiring to see such span of different approaches, yet all within the same theme,” says Mattias Strandh, Professor at Umeå University. He is Chair of the thematic research committee ‘DFF | Thematic Research – Elderly, vulnerability and poor well-being’, which has awarded the grants for this theme.

The research projects are intended to generate new knowledge about the causes of poor well-being among children and young people. At the same time, they may be practice-oriented, meaning research that seeks to solve concrete problems in real-life contexts, involving collaboration between researchers and practitioners to develop knowledge that is both theoretically grounded and practically applicable.

With this funding, there is also a political intention to strengthen capacity-building in research environments working on vulnerability and well-being among children and young people. For this reason, all projects must include at least one PhD student or one postdoctoral researcher.

The thematic committee ‘DFF | Thematic Research – Elderly, vulnerability and poor well-being’ has also awarded grants under the theme ‘Research on elderly and ageing’.

Please note that grant amounts and the number of awards are subject to change following the upcoming administrative review.

 

Facts about the theme

Independent Research Fund Denmark has received a total of 49 applications for ‘Research on vulnerability and poor well-being’, and funding has been awarded to five projects. The success rate is 10% measured by the number of applications.

‘Research on vulnerability and poor well-being’ is one of 12 politically determined themes to which Independent Research Fund Denmark will allocate funding in 2025.

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

The programmes are open to applications from all scientific fields that can contribute knowledge relevant to the theme. Politically prioritised thematic research serves as a supplement to independent research based on researchers’ own curiosity-driven initiatives.