Terms and conditions for grants

When you receive a grant from Independent Research Fund Denmark, you are required to comply with a set of guidelines. The specific guidelines you must adhere to are outlined in the grant letter you received via e-grant.

Terms and conditions

Your grant must comply with "Vilkår for bevillinger" and "Tillæg til vilkår for bevillinger" (in Danish). Please note that a new version came into effect in February 2025. These conditions apply to the administration of grants awarded after 1 February 2025, where reference is made to these conditions in the grant letter. Please note that you must always follow the version of Vilkår for bevillinger and any supplements that were in effect at the time you received your grant letter. The applicable version will be clearly stated in your grant letter.

Open Access

Independent Research Fund Denmark seeks to strengthen the societal effect of research by ensuring unrestricted and cost-free digital access to all the latest research results in scientific articles. For this reason, Independent Research Fund Denmark,
the Danish National Research Foundation, and Innovation Fund Denmark adopted the “Open Access Policy for public research funds and foundations” in April 2019, which requires parallel publishing of published scientific articles resulting from full or partial funding from these funds. However, Independent Research Fund Denmark does not provide financial support for open access publishing as the fund allows for a quarantine period of 6-12 months. Read more about the fund's Open Access policy.

Research integrity and research security

Independent Research Fund Denmark expects grant recipients to follow The Danish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.

Independent Research Fund Denmark does not grant applicants who, in the 2 years prior to the application deadline, have been found guilty of research misconduct by the Danish Committee on Research Misconduct, cf. Act 383 of 26 April 2017 on research misconduct, etc. (in Danish).

Independent Research Fund Denmark expects that applications to the fund comply with the administrating institution’s implementation of the recommendations by the Committee on Guidelines for International Research and Innovation Collaboration
(URIS). The administrating institution’s management confirms this by signing the budget confirmation, which must be attached to the application.

In the application form, the applicant must account for the potential security-related risks that may be associated with the research project. Such security-related risks may, for example, relate to the criticality of a specific technology addressed by the project, as well as to the international collaborations involved, and in particular the combination of these.

Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, DFF does not, as of 22 March 2022, accept applications from applicants or with participants employed at Russian or Belarussian institutions, or applications encompassing research activities in Russia or Belarus.

Data protection Act and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

All grants funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark must comply with applicable legal frameworks regarding data processing, including the Data protection Act and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (in Danish).   

Other relevant rules

Independent Research Fund Denmark emphasizes that the following rules must be adhered to if relevant to the project:

• Projects involving human subjects or human biological material must comply with the Bekendtgørelse af lov om videnskabsetisk behandling af sundhedsvidenskabelige forskningsprojekter og sundhedsdatavidenskabelige forskningsprojekter  (LBK nr 1268 af 28/11/2024.) Such projects may only commence once approval has been obtained from the relevant regional research ethics committee.
• Projects involving animal testing require authorization from The Animal Experiments Inspectorate, if covered by the Bekendtgørelse af lov om dyreforsøg (LBK nr 63 af 19/01/2024). Additionally, note the rules in the Bekendtgørelse om dyreforsøg (BEK nr 1065 af 25/09/2024).
• Projects involving the utilization of genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources are subject to The Nagoya Protocol on fair sharing of benefits arising in the use of genetic resources.