Non-university Research Education (PhD)

Objective

DFF receives funds under the Danish National Budget, which are earmarked for the education of researchers at public non-university research institutions. In 2026, these funds amount to approx. DKK 22 million.

The purpose of the PhD grants under this call is to strengthen the education of researchers at public, Danish, non-university research institutions. The funding instrument covers national non-university research institutions, sector research institutions, university colleges, business academies as well as state archives, libraries, museums, etc. However, the funding instrument does not cover state-approved museums, Advanced Technology Group (GTS) institutes, hospitals, and others.

The funding instrument only covers the national research institutions which are authorised to carry out grant-funded research activities. Authorisation to carry out grant-funded research activities is specifically obtained by budgeting on a separate subsidiary account according to the guidelines of The Ministry of Finance, section § 2.6.10.1. As an example, the authorisation may appear from the fact that subsidiary account 95 grant-funded research activity is mentioned in the section of the research institution in the Danish Finance Act.

The fund expects to be able to grant approximately 7 projects in 2026.

Please note that the fund does not provide support for individual PhD scholarships to be carried out at the universities.

About the applicant and host institution

You can apply for a PhD grant if you have a Master’s degree or equivalent qualifications as well as confirmation from an institution covered by this funding instrument, stating that it is willing to host your project if you are awarded a grant. Each institution may issue a maximum of three letters of confirmation to applicants applying for this funding instrument. The institution’s acceptance to host a project is provided by signing the budget confirmation. It is up to the individual institution to decide which three candidates it consents to hosting.

If the hosting institution does not award PhD degrees independently, you must be enrolled at a Danish institution with an accredited PhD programme and be affiliated to such a PhD programme at the institution in question. Grants are awarded on the condition that you become enrolled in a PhD programme, and that a collaboration agreement is drawn up between you as applicant, the hosting institution and the degree-awarding institution. The application must include a signed letter of intent for collaboration between the three parties in the case of a grant.

Your main PhD supervisor must be a recognised researcher employed at the degree-awarding institution at which you will be enrolled, cf. the Ministerial Order on the PhD Programme (PhD Order) (Executive Order no. 1124 of 19 September 2025). Only the hosting institution can function as grant administrator – including if the PhD education takes place at a university or another accredited degree-awarding institution.

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.

The application must be written in Danish or in English.

Budget

You may apply for up to DKK 2,150,000 excl. overhead. The budget must be completed in the mandatory budget template, which can be downloaded from e-grant. 

You can apply for a salary level corresponding to the collective agreement for PhDs employed by Danish state institutions. In addition to the regular vacation allowance, a supplementary allowance calculated as 2.5% of your salary may be earmarked for paid extra days off. It is not possible to apply for funding to cover any form of merit pay (”kvalifikationstillæg”). You may apply for salary expenses for a secondary supervisor, but as a general rule, you cannot apply for funding to cover technical/administrative salaries, as you will be expected to carry out your PhD project on your own accord. If you find the hiring of a technical/administrative assistant essential for carrying out the project, you must argue for this. You can apply for education rates, cf. section 11.1.4. 

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.