DFF-International Postdoctoral Grant

Objective

DFF-International Postdoctoral Grant aims to strengthen the international mobility of younger talented researchers, and to develop the competencies of researchers in the beginning of their research career. The intention is to enable the grant recipient to consolidate their individual research profile by independently managing a concrete research project at a research institution abroad. 

About the applicant and host institution

You must have obtained a PhD degree, expect to submit your thesis for defence within 12 months after the application deadline, or have obtained equivalent qualifications, e.g., a positive assistant professor assessment (”adjunktbedømmelse”), in order to apply for a DFF-International Postdoctoral Grant. Your PhD degree must have been obtained from a Danish institution. 

DFF finds it important that you, as an applicant, are in the beginning of your research career, and therefore your PhD age must not exceed 3 years at the expiration of the application deadline. If you do not have a PhD degree, you must have obtained equivalent qualifications, e.g., a positive assistant professor assessment (”adjunktbedømmelse”) maximum 3 years before the expiration of the application deadline. Specific periods of leave must be deducted in the calculations of PhD age, cf. section 12.

As a PhD student, you are able to apply if you attach a declaration from your supervisor stating that your PhD thesis will be submitted for defence within 12 months after the application deadline. If you are awarded a DFF-International Postdoctoral Grant, but subsequently fail to submit your PhD thesis within the given deadline, the grant will be annulled. Please note that your PhD diploma must be submitted to DFF before the first instalment of the grant can be made.

You must complete and submit the application yourself.

You cannot apply for funding for a stay at a research institution outside of Denmark where you have stayed for a total of 12 months or more within the last 3 years at the time of the application deadline.

You are expected to take up residence in the country where the research institution outside of Denmark is located during your stay abroad.

About the application

When writing an application to the fund, you must pay special attention to ensuring that the application fulfils the objective of the funding instrument and that it meets the fund’s assessment criteria. Please note that the project must benefit Danish research. 

The project description must illustrate the project’s scientific novelty in relation to your PhD project as well as how the project contributes to your continued competency development. Moreover, the project description must include a description of the scientific environment in which the project will be carried out, including an account of why the chosen environment is well suited for the proposed activities, and how the concrete, binding collaboration with researchers at the foreign host institution will take place.

It is a requirement that the application includes a declaration from the foreign host institution (outside of Denmark), stating that the project can be carried out at the location in question, including a short comment on the scientific/academic content of the cooperation and the most important activities. The declaration must be signed by someone who has the managerial authorisation to do so.

You are responsible for drawing up an agreement with the foreign institution (outside of Denmark) concerning the research activities as well as potential questions concerning intellectual property rights and any equipment that will be used in connection with the grant.

The application must be written in English.

Budget

You may apply for up to DKK 1,550,000 excl. overhead. The budget must be completed in the mandatory budget template, which can be downloaded from e-grant. 

You can apply for funds to cover one outbound and one inbound journey for yourself as the applicant within the margin of expenditure. In addition, you may apply for the coverage of bench fees within the margin of expenditure.

As a general rule, it is not possible to apply for funding for salaries for technical/administrative staff as you are expected to carry out your postdoctoral project independently. If you believe that a technical/ administrative staff is essential for the completion of the project, you must argue for this.

DFF-International Postdoctoral Grants must be administered by a Danish research institution during the entire project period. This does not apply to the increase for accompanying child/partner, see the section below.

Specially concerning accompanying partner/child
You can apply for an increase of your grant of DKK 55,000 for each accompanying child as well as your partner per year during the period in which they stay with you abroad. This grant increase is expected to cover the outbound and inbound journey for accompanying children/partner.

Please note that the grant increase will be paid directly to you as the applicant. No overhead will be added to this grant. It is recommended that you contact the Danish Tax Agency (SKAT) before the start of your stay abroad to clarify any tax-related matters. The Ministry of Higher Education and Science reports the disbursed amount to SKAT, and DFF cannot provide advice regarding tax matters during your stay abroad.

Project description and appendices

Below is a list of the appendices that must be attached to your application. For some appendices, it is specified that they are only to be attached if relevant. You can read more about the general requirements for the content of the project description, CV, publication list, etc. in section 10, and about the budget in section 11. The definition of roles in the project is described in section 10.3.

Please note in particular that there are character and page limits for the project description and page limits for the applicant’s CV and publication list. Exceeding these limits will result in an administrative rejection. It is always the character count generated by e-grant that applies. You can find more information in section 10.2.