Questions and answers

Independent Research Fund Denmark provides support for both independent research and thematic research. Independent research is not restricted to a specific field but is based solely on the researcher’s idea. Thematic research, on the other hand, is limited to specific politically designated areas.

The fund supports concrete and time-limited research activities, preferably with international aspects. The fund does not support the continuation of already ongoing research.

Se the current funding opportunities and calls at this page. 

On the page "Current funding opportunities",  you can see all available funding instruments.

If you would like to receive email notifications when new funding instruments are announced, you can subscribe to our newsletter on this page (only available in Danish).  

You can apply for funding for independent research from multiple research councils at the same time if you believe your project cannot be confined to a single council. In such cases, your application will be reviewed by experts from multiple research councils.

You can read more about cross-council evaluation on this page. 

Læs mere om tværrådslig bedømmelse på denne side. 

Yes, you can. Each application must be submitted fully completed and include all required attachments.

Yes, you can. You may apply with a new project or resubmit a previously rejected project. However, Independent Research Fund Denmark recommends that you carefully review any previous rejections before deciding to reapply.

If you are submitting a resubmission, you must describe any changes made compared to your previous application when applying via e-grant.

Independent Research Fund Denmark does not fund standalone PhD scholarships, except for the funding instrument "Non-university Research Education (PhD)". However, funding for embedded Ph.D. students within larger projects may be applied for. Refer to the individual funding instruments in the current call for guidelines on PhD scholarships.

Independent Research Fund Denmark seeks to strengthen and further develop the internationalization of Danish research. Therefore, applications should ideally include international activities. The goal is to allow the best researchers and research groups to coordinate and develop research collaborations across borders and to provide talented researchers with opportunities to spend part of their research careers abroad. Internationalization aspects can therefore be included in applications for all of the fund’s instruments. Regardless, applications must demonstrate relevance to the international state of the art in their respective fields.

Internationalization and researcher mobility are considered in the evaluation of applications.

The earliest and latest start dates for each funding instrument can be found under the "Framework" section of the relevant funding instrument.

On the page "Current funding opportunities", you can see all available funding instruments.

The application must be submitted by the person who will be legally responsible for the grant. It is important that you, as the applicant, meet the eligibility requirements for the specific funding instrument you are applying for. If you do not meet the requirements, your application may be rejected without further review.

To apply for funding from Independent Research Fund Denmark, you must have obtained a PhD degree or equivalent qualifications at a minimum. If you are applying for "Non-university Research Education (PhD)" the requirement is only a completed master’s degree. If you are applying for “DFF-International Postdoctoral Grant” you must have a PhD degree (or equivalent qualifications, such as a positive assistant professor assessment) or expect to submit your dissertation within 12 months of the application deadline.

Please note that some funding instruments have upper and lower limits on PhD age. These limits will be specified under each funding instrument.

PhD age limits are outlined under each specific funding instrument. You can view all available funding instruments on the page "Current funding opportunities”.

PhD age is calculated from the date the PhD degree was awarded (the date stated on the PhD certificate) until the application deadline of the funding instrument.

Access tool for calculating PhD age

Independent Research Fund Denmark takes selected leave periods into account. See the current call for further details and how to indicate leave periods in your application.

For most of Independent Research Fund Denmark’s funding instruments, applicants must have obtained a PhD degree or equivalent qualifications, such as a positive assistant professor assessment (“adjunktbedømmelse”).

This assessment is only relevant in specific cases where an applicant does not have a PhD degree but is considered to have equivalent qualifications, for example, through an assistant professor position. In such cases, a positive assistant professor assessment may serve as a substitute for a PhD degree.

A positive assistant professor assessment means that the applicant has been deemed qualified to hold an assistant professorship. This qualification may be demonstrated through employment in an assistant professorship or another form of official confirmation. In the case that you currently hold or have previously held an assistant professorship, you have, in principle, already been deemed qualified for the position. In this case, proof of employment can serve as documentation. Alternatively, the assessment can be confirmed by an official statement verifying that the applicant has been deemed qualified for the position, regardless of whether they were ultimately hired.

Yes. Independent Research Fund Denmark aims to promote and strengthen Danish research broadly. The fund does not impose citizenship requirements for applicants or project participants, nor does it require that research institutions be based in Denmark or that research activities take place in a specific geographic location. All applications will be evaluated based on the assessment criteria in the call, including whether the project benefits Danish research. The fund views diversity as a resource, and therefore, all individuals are welcome to apply, regardless of gender, religion, ethnic background, or political beliefs.

However, some funding instruments may require that the applicant conducts research at a foreign institution for all or part of the project period.

Yes, unless you are applying for “The Inge Lehmann Programme”, which has specific employment requirements.

Independent Research Fund Denmark recommends seeking assistance from the institution administering the grant when preparing the budget. This administrating institution must also sign the "DFF-Budget Confirmation" form, which must be included in the application.

No. Independent Research Fund Denmark does not accept applications from individuals who have been found guilty of scientific misconduct by The Danish Board on Research Misconduct within the past two years from the application date, according to Lov nr. 383 af 26. april 2017 om videnskabelig uredelighed mv.

Yes. When calculating PhD age, certain types of documentable leave taken after obtaining the PhD degree must be deducted, in accordance with relevant legislation.
Refer to the section "Calculation of PhD Age " in the current call to see which types of leave must be deducted.

The fund differentiates between three key roles in a project, which impacts the required attachments for the application:

• Applicant: The person who submits the application and is responsible for the project in the event of a grant.
• Participants: Have a significant role in the project and contribute with working hours. Participants must appear in the budget, regardless of whether DFF funding is applied for or not. Examples of participants: Scientific/academic project participants, including embedded PhD students and postdocs, supervisors, technical/administrative project participants, etc.
• Collaborating partners: More peripheral actors in the project. Examples of collaborators: Advisory board member, organisations who are users of project results, e.g. companies or public actors, sparring partners, etc.

Academic hosts during research stays abroad are named participants in the project and as such, they must attach a collective CV and list of publications of max. 2 pages in total. However, it is not necessary to include the academic host in the budget along with other participants, as it can be difficult to estimate how much time and co-financing the academic host contributes to the project. Consequently, you do not need to include the number of working months and co-financing for academic hosts. Please note, however, that if you apply for funds for salary for the academic host, e.g. because the host participates in the project more directly, you must of course account for the relevance, number of working months and financing in the budget.

The secretariat of Independent Research Fund Denmark does not have the competencies to assess whether your research idea falls within the scope of the politically determined theme. We kindly refer to the description of the theme in the call for proposals. It will be up to the assessment of the thematic ad hoc committee, which has been established to evaluate the applications and distribute the research funds, to judge whether your application falls within the scope of the politically determined theme. 

Independent Research Fund Denmark has the legal authority to allocate funds within a politically determined theme, when special funding has been provided for this purpose in the National Budget. The wording of the themes is determined and defined by the government and those parliamentary parties, that enter into the annual agreement on the distribution of the research reserve.

The principles of the allocation of funds within politically determined themes and funding instruments are determined by the Board of Independent Research Fund Denmark. The fund’s accompanying call for proposals will, among other things, contain the wording of the political agreement from the agreement on the distribution of the research reserve.

Independent Research Fund Denmark has allocated funds for thematic calls every year since 2018. A legislative change in 2017 introduced the possibility for Independent Research Fund Denmark to award grants within politically determined themes, when special funding has been provided for this purpose in the National Budget. As such, Independent Research Fund Denmark only allocates funds for thematic calls, when funding has been provided for this purpose with the annual agreement on the distribution of the research reserve.

The annual agreement on the distribution of the research reserve is typically made in the fourth quarter of the year.

As an applicant, you must complete Independent Research Fund Denmark’s mandatory budget template, which applies to the relevant funding instrument. The correct budget template can be found by creating an application for the desired funding instrument in e-grant and downloading the budget template through the application form under the step “Upload budget.” This ensures that you receive the correct template, which should be completed and uploaded to the application. If you wish to access the template before creating an application, you can download it under the relevant funding instrument, which can be found on the page “Current funding opportunities”.  

Remember that a confirmation of the budget must also be attached using the document “DFF-Budget Confirmation”.

The secretariat of Independent Research Fund Denmark strongly recommends that you start your application and budget preparation well in advance. You can create an application and save your entries without submitting it. Similarly, you can download the budget template, work on it, and upload it to your application at a later stage.  

Additionally, Independent Research Fund Denmark recommends seeking assistance in preparing the budget from the institution that will administer the grant.  

Your application may be rejected without further review if you do not submit a budget prepared using Independent Research Fund Denmark’s budget template for the specific funding instrument.  

You can find more information about the budget in the current call under “Budget.”

The information in the budget must be detailed enough that the research councils can clearly see partly what the applied funds are to be used for, partly that the costs are directly attributable to the project, and partly that the costs are relevant and necessary in order to complete the project.

Yes, it is possible to apply for funding to cover all expenses that are directly attributable to the project, and that are relevant and necessary for the project’s completion. 

This also includes funding for project participants who are not categorised as scientific/academic personnel (VIP) or technical/administrative personnel (TAP), but who are participating in the project, e.g. professionals such as nurses, pedagogues, teachers, etc., in connection with practice-related research or the like. As such, it is possible to apply for funding to compensate for the working hours spent on participation in the research project, so that they can be bought out from their usual working tasks and participate in the project while their place of employment, among other things, will be given the opportunity to employ temporary employees/substitutes during the same period.

This type of compensation for spent working time for participants should be listed as operating expenses under ‘other expenses’ in the budget, e.g. listed as a fee. Depending on the number of participants who must be bought out or compensated for their participation, you can use one or more rows in the budget for these expenses. You must remember to describe each included budget item, to indicate the number of working hours for which compensation is sought, and to account for the relevance of the expenses in the application.

Independent Research Fund Denmark only supports projects that can be completed with the grant awarded by the fund – either the Independent Research Fund Denmark grant in itself or the Independent Research Fund Denmark grant in combination with any potential already obtained co-financing, which must be stated in the application budget. This means that Independent Research Fund Denmark does not support projects where full funding depends on additional funding from another source, which, at the time of application, has not been granted.

In this way, you may well have received commitments of support from another source before applying for a grant from Independent Research Fund Denmark. Any co-financing from your own or other participating institutions must be included in the budget under “co-financing” (green cell). Any contributions to the project from sources that are not actively participating in the project must appear in the budget under “funding from other sources” (orange cell).

Note that Independent Research Fund Denmark cannot provide funding for double financing of research projects and/or research activities; this means that the fund only grants funds for the parts and activities of a project, which has not been financed from other sources.

If you receive full or partial for your project from another source, you are obliged to notify Independent Research Fund Denmark within 14 days.

No, please contact the tax authorities or a private advisor/auditor, as Independent Research Fund Denmark and the fund’s office does not have the opportunity to provide counselling on tax issues.

Independent Research Fund Denmark does not provide guidance on unemployment benefits. We recommend that you contact your unemployment insurance fund for guidance before submitting your application to Independent Research Fund Denmark.

You can find templates for attachments under the relevant funding instrument. On the page "Current funding opportunities", you can see all available funding instruments.  

Please note that templates are not available for all required attachments. Refer to the current call to determine which attachments must be included in your application.  

Pay special attention to the fact that several attachments, including the project description and the applicant’s CV, are subject to both page and character limits.

Independent Research Fund Denmark will always rely on e-grant’s character count when determining whether a document exceeds the maximum number of pages and/or characters. It is possible to use e-grant’s counting tool , which provides information on the number of pages and characters detected in the uploaded PDF file (e.g., a project description). Please note that the counting tool is solely a PDF counting tool and will not notify you if the document exceeds the specified requirements.

Access the counting tool 

Pay special attention to the fact that several attachments, including the project description, thematic appendix and the applicant’s CV, are subject to both page and character limits.

No, you should only submit the appendices that are listed in the call for proposals.

Appendices, which are not included in the overview of appendices for the funding instrument in question, will not be considered in the assessment process.

Independent Research Fund Denmark distinguishes between declarations from another host institution than the administrating institution (B51) on the one hand, and collaboration/support letters on the other (B52). A B51-appendix should only be attatched if the entire project or significants parts of the applied-for project take place at another host institution than the administrating institution. A B52-appendix must be attatched in various instances, that is, if the project involves collaboration with users of project results or collaboration with organisations, companies and others who are not co-applicants in the project.

B51 aims to clarify that the project can be carried out at the other host institution institution (another than the administrating institution). The declaration must confirm this and include a short comment on the content of the cooperation and the most important activities. The declaration must be signed by a person who has the managerial authority to do so.

B52 aims to clarify that users of project results or collaboration with organisations, companies and others, who are not co-applicants in the project, understand and accept the collaboration and its form/content. The declaration must confirm the collaboration regarding the project and include a description of the form of collaboration and its content. In regard to DFF-Sapere Aude, statements of support from the department where the applicant is employed/will be employed may be attached.

Yes. If you, as the applicant, use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the preparation of your application, the fund expects this to happen in a responsible manner. To ensure transparency in regard to the use of artificial intelligence, all applicants must declare in the application form if they have used generative AI tools to a substantial extent. Furthermore, the fund refers to relevant guidelines within the area, e.g. the European Commission’s guidelines on the responsible use of generative AI in research.

See the European Commission’s guidelines on the responsible use of generative AI in research.

Yes, it is permitted. In the application form, you must declare, whether or not you, to a substantial extent, have used generative AI in the writing of your application.

It is important to note that, as an applicant, you are solely responsible for the scientific output that is being generated by means of generative AI.

If you use artificial intelligence when writing an application, DFF expects this to happen in a responsible manner.

The fund refers to the European Commission’s guidelines on the responsible use of generative AI in research, in which it is emphasised that researchers that use generative AI is responsible for the scientific output. Thus, this also applies for applicants to DFF, if generative AI is used in the writing of the application. The guidelines emphasise transparency in order for applicants to be open and transparent regarding their use of generative AI in the application.

Whether or not you have used generative AI in the writing of your application, does neither count positive nor negative in the assessment of your application. It is thus not an assessment criteria.

No. Members of Independent Research Fund Denmark make their own assessment of applications without using generative AI. Application material is and is treated as confidential. Therefore, it is not allowed for the fund’s members to upload applications to AI systems for the purpose of obtaining assistance in assessing an application.

Once you have determined which funding instrument fits your idea and whether you meet the requirements stated in the call, you can begin writing your application. This process always takes place in the e-grant web portal.

You can read more about e-grant on this page. 

After you have submitted your application, its status will remain as “submitted” in e-grant throughout the entire evaluation process, until you receive notification in e-grant regarding the fund’s decision on grant, waitlist, or rejection.

If you wish to cancel or withdraw a submitted application, you must contact us directly via your application case in e-grant or alternatively at DFF-opslag@ufm.dk. In your email, you must state your request to cancel/withdraw the application, the title of your application, and the case number so that it is clear which application is being referred to.

The processing time can be found under the specific calls. On the page "Current funding opportunities", you can see all available funding instruments.  

Shortly after the research council has decided to grant or reject your application, you will receive a short notice informing you of whether or not you have received a grant. A few weeks after the research council’s decision, an overview of applicants/projects which have obtained funding is published on Independent Research Fund Denmark’s website.

Two to three months after the council’s decision, applicants will receive further notice in the form of a grant letter or rejection letter in e-grant. You are advised by mail from the fund, when the letter is available on e-grant. The letter will contain a brief justification if you get a rejection.

The applicable funding instrument and its corresponding call will specify the requirements that must be met for your application to be considered for evaluation (see the section "Requirements That Must Be Met for Your Application to Be Considered"). You are encouraged to carefully review these requirements before submitting your application.  If these requirements are not met, you will receive an administrative rejection (cf. §4 and §5 of the Executive Order no. 1154 of 16 October 2017 on the Functioning of grants under Independent Research Fund Denmark).

If your application meets the existing formal requirements, it will be submitted to the research council for active consideration.

Independent Research Fund Denmark does not accept additional information from you after the application deadline. Nor does the fund accept additional documents after the deadline – even if the missing information will result in administrative rejection.

However, you are obliged to inform Independent Research Fund Denmark, if significant prerequisites for the project’s implementation are no longer fulfilled, or if you receive a grant from another source.

Independent Research Fund Denmark, as well as the external reviewers to whom, your application may be sent, work under the instructions on confidential processing of application material and knowledge, which is gained through this processing.

Details about applicants, who have not been awarded funding, will only be published to the extent that someone requests a right of access to documents under the Danish Access to Public Administration Files Act, e.g. in the form of lists of applicants and the projects for which they have applied (i.e. names of applicants and project titles). Applicants should therefore ensure that the title of the application does not contain confidential information.

A submitted application is in its entirety covered by the provisions of the Public Access Act. Any case of handing over of documents pursuant to the Public Access Act, will take place within the realm of this Act.

Not all applications will be subject to external review. This depends, among other things, on the instrument for which you are applying, and whether the fund already has the relevant expertise to evaluate your application. You can read more about external review on this page .

Read more about external review on this page 

Being placed on a waitlist is not a guarantee of funding.

You will receive either a grant approval or a rejection letter as soon as it has been determined whether Independent Research Fund Denmark can finance the project or not.

In the meantime, you may submit the same application to one of the fund’s other funding instruments if you wish to do so.

No, you should not.

The system of the Danish Bibliometric Research Indicator (BFI) has been phased out as a result of the political agreement on basic funding for research of 3 December, 2021. The BFI webpage was closed during the summer of 2022, and consequently, the BFI-lists are no longer accessible.

Thus, Independet Research Fund Denmark no longer requires an indication of either BFI level or Journal Impact Factor (JIF) for the channels (journals, book series or publisher) where your most significant publications have been published.

Yes, Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) hosts information meetings and webinars in connection with current calls. These webinars are typically held about a month before the specific application deadlines. Invitations to these webinars will be published on the fund's website and sent out via the fund's newsletter.

As the only council, DFF | Social Sciences accepts urgent applications. Urgent applications can only be applied for within the framework of the funding instrument DFF-Research Project1 or DFF-Research Project2. Urgent applications can only be submitted on the basis of a pre-authorisation of the urgency factor, which must be scientifically grounded in exceptional, external and unpredictable events. The pre-authorisation is handled by DFF | Social Sciences and will be initiated on the basis of an enquiry to the office of DFF.