Villum Investigator 2026: Up to DKK 30 Million Over Six Years From a DKK 300 Million Call for Denmark's Most Established Technical and Natural Scientists, Closing 20 August 2026 at 14:00

Villum Investigator 2026: Up to DKK 30 Million Over Six Years From a DKK 300 Million Call for Denmark’s Most Established Technical and Natural Scientists, Closing 20 August 2026 at 14:00

The Villum Foundation runs one of the largest single-investigator research grants available anywhere in the Nordics, and the 2026 round is open now. A Villum Investigator receives up to DKK 30 million and a six-year appointment at a Danish university or at GEUS, with the money deliberately left flexible so the recipient can build a group around an idea rather than deliver a pre-costed workplan. The 2026 call allocates DKK 300 million in total, opened for submissions on 26 February 2026, and closes at 14:00 on 20 August 2026.

This is not a starter grant or a project grant with a research-leader label attached. The foundation’s own terms of reference tell reviewers it expects Villum Investigators to have “an outstanding international reputation within their research fields, e.g. at the level of ERC Advanced Grant holders.” The selection process is built around that bar: ten years or more of demonstrated excellence, plus a plausible and ambitious plan for the next six.

Key details

What the grant actually buys you

The stated aim of the programme is to let outstanding, experienced researchers pursue original new ideas in the technical or natural sciences. The practical translation is a six-year horizon and a budget large enough to staff a substantial group.

The grant can fund postdoctoral researchers, PhD students, equipment, technical assistance, and other customary project expenses. Administrative support dedicated to the principal investigator may be applied for at up to two months per year. Beyond the direct research costs, the budget carries a project supplement — indirect costs — set for this call at DKK 257,000 per project-funded full-time academic staff equivalent in eligible staff categories. The Villum Foundation points applicants at the Universities Denmark guidance on what the project supplement is meant to cover, and general administrative support falls inside that supplement rather than being claimable as a direct cost.

One line item is fixed rather than optional: DKK 200,000 of the budget must be set aside for participation in “Villum Footsteps,” a mandatory networking and leadership programme run by the foundation. Build it into the budget from the start rather than discovering it late.

The foundation is explicit that the budget should reflect expenses typical for the proposed research field. Asking for the DKK 30 million ceiling because it is the ceiling is not a strategy. An experimental programme with major instrumentation needs will justify a very different figure from a theory or computation group, and the working group evaluating applications knows the cost structure of both.

Who can apply, and who is ruled out before review

The eligibility conditions are unusually concrete, and several of them cause administrative rejections rather than low scores.

Applicants must be active researchers with a track record of excellent research spanning at least the last ten years. The Villum Investigator is appointed at a Danish university or at GEUS, and the research must be carried out at the Danish institution where the applicant is employed. Villum Investigators are required to devote at least 75% of their total effort to the direct conduct of research and education within the technical and/or natural sciences at a Danish research institution — which in practice means holding at least 75% of a full-time position there.

A useful clarification from the foundation’s own FAQ: the 75% figure is not a requirement to spend 75% of working hours on the funded project. It is a requirement that the investigator’s overall professional effort sits within technical and natural science research and education. The expectation for the project itself is that the PI spends a substantial amount of time on it.

The exclusions are firm. Health and veterinary research is outside scope — research focused on the health of humans and animals, including nutrition, medicine, biomedicine, pharmacology, and research within diagnostics and methods for examination and treatment. The restriction extends to affiliation, not just topic: applicants attached to departments whose main scientific focus lies in those areas, including university health departments, hospitals, the Danish Cancer Society, DTU Health Tech and SDU Health Informatics and Technology, are ineligible and will receive an administrative rejection.

There is also a reapplication rule with teeth. If you applied for a Villum Investigator grant in the 2024 call and were not invited for an interview, you cannot apply in 2026. The same rule projects forward: applicants in the 2026 call who are not invited for an interview will be ineligible for the next Villum Investigator call in 2028. Applying is therefore a real commitment of your two-cycle window, not a free option.

One change worth noting for anyone working from an older set of notes: it is no longer possible to apply for a larger grant on the grounds of being an international recruitment to Denmark. Such applicants may still be eligible for relocation support, but that is assessed individually by the host institution and the international office at the host university — not funded through a larger Villum Investigator award.

Current Villum Investigators can reapply at the end of their grant period in open competition with everyone else. For the 2026 call the foundation expects an indicative DKK 90 million of the DKK 300 million total to go to returning Villum Investigators, which is a meaningful signal about how much of the pot is realistically contested by first-time applicants.

What the money cannot cover

Two salary exclusions shape the budget more than anything else.

The grant cannot be used to cover the salary of the Villum Investigator. The host institution pays that throughout the six-year period — which is precisely why the departmental letter of support matters, and why conversations with your head of department need to happen before you submit, not after.

The grant also cannot be used to cover the salary of permanently employed scientific staff, defined by the foundation as the job categories assistant professor, associate professor, researcher and senior researcher, whether time-limited or not. Note the breadth of that definition: it captures time-limited appointments in those categories too, which trips up budgets built around buying out an existing colleague.

Open Access publication costs are not eligible for support.

The two-step assessment, and what reviewers are told to look for

Assessment runs in two steps.

In step one, the foundation’s Working Group for Technical and Natural Science evaluates applications against the published terms of reference and decides which applicants to invite for interview. Applications selected at this stage are sent for external peer review.

In step two, the working group recommends grants to the Villum Foundation board on the basis of four inputs: the application, the external peer reviews, the applicant’s written reply to those reviews, and an interview.

The terms of reference are public, and reading them is the highest-value hour you can spend. Reviewers are asked for a well-argued report of roughly two to three pages, addressing three areas:

The applicant. Does the applicant have high standing in the international research community, judged by comparison with world-leading researchers in the area? Is the track record characterised by ground-breaking research that has typically gone beyond state of the art? Has the applicant demonstrated sound leadership and commitment to capacity building — supporting, training and advancing young researchers, and engaging in strong international collaborations? Are they well qualified to lead an initiative of this size?

The research. To what extent does the proposed research present new and original ideas, and does it have the potential to reach significant scientific breakthroughs and make an impact?

The research environment. Is the environment at the host institution ideal for the proposed research and for recruiting and training students and young researchers from Denmark and abroad?

Reviewers close by summarising the three top qualities and the three weakest points of the application, and by ranking both the applicant and the proposed research on a one-to-five scale from poor to excellent. Applicants receive an anonymised copy of the reviews and are asked to comment before the foundation decides — a genuine right of reply, on a tight schedule.

Reviewers must be free of conflicts of interest, defined to include close family relationships or friendships with people involved in the proposed research, and joint projects or co-authorship within the past five years.

What you have to submit

The application is submitted as five separate PDF files:

1. The application itself, written to the published guidelines.
2. A CV using the foundation’s template, supplemented by a complete publication list from the last ten years.
3. A budget in the foundation’s template.
4. A letter of support from the department wishing to host the Villum Investigator, demonstrating its support for and recognition of the application.
5. An optional request naming specific peer reviewers you would prefer be excluded. The foundation is explicit that it is not bound to honour such requests.

Formatting is prescribed and enforced: Times Roman 12 pt, 1.15 line spacing, and page margins of at least 2 cm on all sides. Text exceeding the stated limits will not be considered by the selection committee.

The application itself has a fixed structure and fixed lengths:

• A — Summary of items B to H, 2,500 characters including spaces. This summary is used to identify potential peer reviewers if the application proceeds to step two, so write it with that audience in mind.
• B — Scientific achievements and discoveries, maximum 2 pages. List your most important career achievements with particular emphasis on the last five years, excluding career breaks. For each, explain the significance of the result for your field and the wider scientific community. The guidance is pointed: explain your achievement, not the publication.
• C — Project description, maximum 8 pages including figures and tables. Describe an ambitious research plan for the next six years and how it builds on your current work, including the state of the art and your position in it.
• D — Leadership and research environment, 2,500 characters. Your experience as a research leader, the current environment at the host institution, what you think defines a good research environment, and how you will support the next generation — including succession, where relevant.
• E — Collaborations and recruitment, 1,500 characters.
• F — Research funding, 1,500 characters. How this application differs from or complements ongoing grants, plus any current applications for similar activities, amounts, and decision dates.
• G — PhD students, 1,500 characters. The total number of PhD students who completed with you as main supervisor over the last ten years, up to five named with current affiliations, and your contribution to their careers.
• H — Other important issues, 1,500 characters.
• I — Reference list, 1 page.

Hyperlinks to additional material are not permitted anywhere in the proposal, and the working group will not take them into account.

Timeline from now to decision

• 26 February 2026 — call opened for submissions.
• 20 August 2026, 14:00 — application deadline.
• November 2026 — decision on which applicants proceed to step two and interview.
• 15 January 2027 — peer reviews forwarded to applicants selected for interview.
• 22 January 2027 — deadline for applicants’ comments on the peer reviews.
• 2–4 February 2027 — interviews.
• March 2027 — rejection or approval of grant.

Two things follow from that schedule. First, this is a seven-month process from submission to decision, so the six-year project you describe needs to still make sense starting in 2027. Second, the gap between receiving peer reviews on 15 January and responding by 22 January is one week. If you reach that stage, protect that week in your calendar now.

Making the remaining time count

As of early August 2026, roughly two weeks remain before the deadline. That is not enough time to start from nothing at this scale, but it is enough to fix the things that most often weaken an otherwise strong application.

Settle the host letter first. It requires a department to state support and recognition, and it implicitly commits them to paying your salary for six years. That is a conversation with a head of department, not a form. If it is not underway, it is the binding constraint on your submission.

Make item B do real work. Two pages on achievements, with the explicit instruction to explain the significance of results rather than the prestige of the venues, is where an application is either credible at the Advanced-Grant level or not. Write it so a reviewer in an adjacent field can see why each result mattered.

Write item C to the “new and original” criterion. Reviewers are asked directly whether the proposal presents new and original ideas with breakthrough potential. A continuation of a productive existing programme, described as such, will read as safe. The programme is designed for the idea you would not otherwise be able to attempt.

Take items D and G seriously. Leadership and capacity building are scored, not decorative. The programme asks about succession and about the careers of your former PhD students because it is funding a research environment, not just an individual. Concrete names, destinations and contributions beat general statements about mentoring.

Sanity-check the budget against the rules. Confirm you have not budgeted your own salary or the salary of permanent scientific staff, that the DKK 200,000 for Villum Footsteps is present, that the DKK 257,000 per FTE project supplement is applied correctly, that no Open Access costs appear, and that any administrative support for the PI stays within two months per year.

Common mistakes

• Applying while affiliated with an excluded department. This produces an administrative rejection regardless of quality. If your topic is technical or natural science but your department’s main focus is health, resolve the affiliation question with the foundation before you invest weeks in writing.
• Ignoring the 2024 lockout. If you applied in 2024 and were not interviewed, you are ineligible now. Submitting anyway wastes the effort.
• Treating the application as a low-cost lottery ticket. Missing the interview stage in 2026 removes you from the 2028 call. Apply when the case is strong, not merely when the call is open.
• Overrunning the limits. Text beyond the stated page and character limits is not read. The margins, font and spacing rules exist so that limits are comparable across applicants; bending them does not create space, it removes content from consideration.
• Linking out. Hyperlinks are disallowed and disregarded. Everything the committee should see must be inside the PDFs.
• Budgeting at the ceiling without justification. The size of the budget is expected to reflect costs typical for the field.

Frequently asked questions

Can I apply for a Villum Investigator grant myself, or do I need to be nominated? You apply directly through the foundation’s application portal linked from the call page. What you need from your institution is the departmental letter of support, not a nomination.

Are references counted in the page limit for the project description? No. The project description is capped at eight pages including figures and tables, and references belong in the separate reference list item, which has its own one-page allowance. The foundation also stresses that this list is a literature list, not a list of your own publications — your publications go in the CV.

Can I hold a position at a non-Danish university at the same time? A Villum Investigator must have their main position at a Danish research institution, meaning at least 75% of a full-time position there.

Does the grant pay my salary? No. The host institution pays the Villum Investigator’s salary across the six-year period.

I am a current Villum Investigator. Can I apply again? Yes, at the end of your grant period, in open competition with other applicants. The foundation expects an indicative DKK 90 million of this call to go to reapplying Villum Investigators.

What if I am recruited to Denmark from abroad? The option to apply for a larger grant as an international recruitment has been removed. Relocation support may be available separately, assessed individually by the host institution and the university’s international office.

Official links and contact

The call page — including the application portal and downloadable application guidelines, budget template, CV template and terms of reference — is at villumfonden.dk/en/group/channel/villum-investigator-2026.

Programme contact: Anders Smith, Head of Programme, [email protected], +45 29 66 70 86.

Foundation address: Villum Foundation, Tobaksvejen 10, 2860 Søborg, Denmark. General enquiries: [email protected], +45 39 57 09 57.

The foundation states a commitment to diversity and a focus on equal opportunities throughout the assessment process and the grant period, and publishes a gender policy alongside the call.

All figures, dates and conditions above are taken from the Villum Foundation’s own 2026 call page and its published application guidelines and terms of reference. Deadlines and budget rules occasionally change between calls; confirm against the official page before submitting.