DKK 38 million for creative research ideas

The Novo Nordisk Foundation has allocated almost DKK 300 million to support wild and creative research ideas in natural sciences and technical science. Three DTU projects are to receive funding.

In connection with the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s NERD programme—New Exploratory Research and Discovery—three DTU researchers have received grants of between DKK 12 and 13 million.
The overall objective of NERD is to support original basic research in technical science and natural sciences, including—but not limited to—physics, chemistry, mathematics, and computer science.

Kristoffer Haldrup from DTU Physics receives DKK 12.5 million for his research on newly developed X-ray methods that can close gaps in our knowledge of how water participates in and controls chemical reactions—in particular the description of the structural role of water in chemical responses at the fundamental molecular level.

Read more about the project at DTU Physics.

Emil Boye Kromann from DTU Health Tech receives DKK 13 million for his research on optical microscopy, which can lead to imaging of rapid processes in complex biological samples—e.g. organ-on-a-chip systems.

Kirstine Berg-Sørensen from DTU Health Tech receives DKK 12.5 million for her research into the use of quantum technology—among other things with the help of diamond sensors in living cells—to learn more about the physical properties of our immune cells’ ability to absorb and make foreign bodies harmless.

Read more about these two projects at DTU Health Tech.