University of Oxford partners with Novo Nordisk Foundation to offer new research opportunities for talented international postdoctoral scientists

The fellowship programme provides international research and career development opportunities for early-career researchers in the natural, technical and life sciences.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation has committed around £2.7 million of support over a three-year period, to support up to six fellows from Danish universities to each spend three years at Oxford, working with applied research teams in the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division.

The first two fellows are expected to come to Oxford in 2023, with applications due to open on 24 October 2022. After their three-year research stay, fellows will return to Denmark to complete a fourth and final year of their postdoctoral project at their home university.

Professor Sam Howison, Head of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division at the University of Oxford, said: 'I am absolutely delighted to welcome this generous support to help early-career researchers work collaboratively to tackle some of our most pressing scientific problems. The global challenges we all face show no respect for boundaries, whether between academic disciplines or between nations. It will be a great pleasure to welcome our colleagues from Denmark as they bring their interdisciplinary expertise and research ambition to Oxford.'

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel will also join the Novo Nordisk Foundation programme.

Mikkel Skovborg, Senior Vice President for Innovation at the Novo Nordisk Foundation, said: ‘The Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme will promote building bridges between Danish and international universities and thus help to lay the foundations for making it easier for researchers in Denmark to seek experience outside Denmark in the future, but also the other way around.

‘The four universities that are now part of the programme are all internationally recognised for their high level of interdisciplinarity, and for their innovative approach to research and development. This means that the grant recipients will be able to conduct research in an exceptionally educational and fruitful environment and hopefully achieve exciting new breakthroughs in their research.’

Ninna Rossen, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen, talked about her experiences as a Novo Nordisk postdoctoral fellow visiting Stanford Bio-X, here. 

Further information about this programme can be found on the Novo Nordisk Foundation website.