Sapere Aude: DFF-Forskningsleder (Sapere Aude: DFF Research Leader)

Sapere Aude: DFF-Forskningsleder (Sapere Aude: DFF Research Leader) is sponsored by Independent Research Fund Denmark (Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond). The Sapere Aude: DFF Research Leader (Sapere Aude Starting Grant) aims to give talented young researchers the opportunity to develop their research ideas and build a team around them, pursuing innovative and ambitious goals.

Sapere Aude: DFF-Research Leader Sapere Aude: DFF-Research Leader The instrument aims to develop the abilities and competencies of the most talented researchers nationally and internationally, and as research leaders. This page presents the overall framework for the instrument. The full Call for Proposals for Independent Research in 2026 can be accessed here or under "Documents” in the right column.

Please read this carefully before applying to DFF for funding. In case of discrepancies between the website and the Call for Proposals, the Call for Proposals applies. In order to promote the education of researchers and strengthen internationalisation, DFF offers the funding instrument Sapere Aude (i.e., “dare to know”).

The objective of this initiative is to develop the qualifications and competencies of the best research talents, both nationally and internationally.

Sapere Aude: DFF-Research Leader is aimed at providing excellent younger researchers, i.e., researchers who have carried out top class research in their field, with the opportunity to develop and strengthen their research ideas as well as their competencies as independent research leaders of other researchers.

The funding instrument also aims at promoting careers, international as well as national mobility among research environments, and to strengthen networks. Sapere Aude: DFF-Research Leader are targeted at top researchers who intend to gather a group of researchers and/or research students to carry out a research project at a high, international level.

Sapere Aude: DFF-Research Leader furthermore strengthens the possibility for excellent younger researchers to return to a Danish research institution after a research stay abroad. DFF expects that a Sapere Aude: DFF-Research Leader project prepares the grant recipient to apply for an ERC funding instrument, or a similar international programme. DFF expects to award approx.

35-40 grants in 2027. Up to DKK 4,450,000 excl. overhead.

You must have obtained your PhD degree or equivalent qualifications within 3-8 years before the expiration of the application deadline. Specific periods of leave must be deducted. All councils and DFF | Cross-Council Committee Sapere Aude: DFF-Research Leader is aimed at younger, very talented researchers, who have demonstrated the ability to carry out original research at a high, international level.

You must have obtained the PhD degree within 3-8 years before the application deadline (after the deduction of relevant leave of absence). If you do not have a PhD degree, you must have obtained equivalent qualifications, e.g., a positive assistant professor assessment (”adjunktbedømmelse”) within 3-8 years before the application deadline. Specific periods of leave must be deducted in the calculations of PhD-age, cf.

section 12 . Previous management experience and mobility will be viewed positively in the assessment of your application. If DFF finds your application to be among the very best, the final evaluation will consist of an interview with you as the applicant wherein you will be asked to present your project.

In addition to DFF’s assessment criteria, you will be assessed based on your ability to present your project in a clear and comprehensible way during the interview, including to researchers who are not experts in your scientific field. You are also expected to be able to reflect upon how you will develop your competencies as a research leader and how you will handle concrete challenges as a leader.

It will be a requirement for funding that the Sapere Aude grant recipient participates in the fund's research management course. The course will be paid for by DFF, and you do not need to include it in your budget. When writing an application to the fund, you must pay special attention to ensuring that the application fulfils the objective of the funding instrument and that it meets the fund’s assessment criteria.

You need to draw up an ambitious and realistic research plan in which you clearly describe how a Sapere Aude grant will contribute to boosting your research leadership competencies and your research career with an excellent international profile. Thus, it will be included in the assessment of your application how you will work with and develop the various aspects of research leadership.

It is considered very important that you, as the applicant, plan to participate in international research activities, where relevant. You must describe the planned international activities in your application.

These may include e.g., research stays abroad, collaboration with foreign research groups, hosting of or participation in international conferences, invitation of foreign visiting researchers, etc. The project description must include an account of the proposed content of all sub-projects, including any PhD and postdoctoral projects.

There must be a sufficiently balanced relationship between the roles of all listed project participants (scientific/academic staff, technical/administrative staff, and whether DFF-funding or not), and the concrete role of the participants must be accounted for and justified. The application must be written in English.

PhD and postdoctoral scholarships You can apply for funding for embedded PhD and postdoctoral scholarships, if these are well integrated into the project and fulfil a clear, independent function within the research project. Embedded postdoctoral candidates must have obtained their PhD within the last 4 years at the time of the application deadline.

If an embedded postdoctoral candidate does not have a PhD degree, they must have achieved equivalent qualifications, e.g., a positive assistant professorship evaluation (“adjunktbedømmelse”), within the last 4 years at the time of the DFF application deadline. Specific periods of leave must be deducted in the calculation of PhD age, cf. section 12 .

Note that the PhD age requirements does not apply to application for DFF | Medical Sciences.

If you, as the applicant, are not an associate professor and have not been awarded a positive associate professor assessment (“lektorbedømmelse”) and the project involves the education of researchers, you must account for how the relevant supervision will be provided, and how the research student’s scientific association to the project will be ensured.

If the application includes requests for funding for unnamed PhD students and/or unnamed postdoctoral participants, the application must include an account of the proposed recruitment process.

If a named postdoctoral candidate is a PhD student at the time of application, the application must include a declaration from the student’s supervisor, stating that the student is expected to submit the PhD thesis within 6 months after the application deadline. You may apply for up to DKK 4,450,000 excl. overhead.

The budget must be completed in the mandatory budget template, which can be downloaded from e-grant. Project description and appendices Please note in particular that there are character and page limits for the project description and page limits for the applicant’s CV and publication list. Exceeding these limits will result in an administrative rejection.

It is always the character count generated by e-grant that applies. You can find more information in section 10. 2 .

The project description must not exceed 7 A4 pages (incl. figures, tables, etc.). The 7 A4 pages must not exceed 21,000 characters incl.

spaces, figure captions, formulas, etc. It is recommended to use the “DFF-Project description” template. B11: List of references/bibliography List of references/bibliography for the project description. Must be completed in the mandatory DFF budget template downloaded from and uploaded to e-grant.

Must be compiled using the mandatory DFF CV template and must comply with the specified formal requirements ( see section 10. 7 ). Your CV must not exceed 3 A4 pages.

B21: Applicant’s list of publications (track record) Must be compiled using the mandatory DFF track record template and must comply with the specified formal requirements ( see section 10. 7 ). Your track record must not exceed 3 A4 pages.

B22: Applicant’s PhD diploma PhD diploma must be attached. If you do not have a PhD degree, you must include documentation showing either: a) positive assistant professorship evaluation (“adjunktbedømmelse”) or b) qualifications corresponding to PhD level achieved in another manner.

Please note that if you apply to DFF | Humanities, you must provide your PhD evaluation in addition to your PhD diploma (or a declaration from supervisor on expected submission within 12 months of the application deadline). If you have not received a PhD evaluation, you can provide a summary of the dissertation (1-2 A4-pages).

B40: Participant's CV and list of publications (if relevant) CVs and publication lists must be attached for all named project participants, including the principal supervisor (if relevant). Participants may choose either to submit a CV and publication list without using the DFF template, with a combined maximum length of 2 pages, or to use DFF’s templates for CV (B20) and track record (B21), combined into a single PDF.

B41: Named PhD’s (if relevant) In the case of PhD positions for named individuals, the following appendices must be attached: CV, list of publications (if the candidate has already published scientific work), and a complete transcript of records/diploma.

The candidate may choose either to submit a CV and list of publications without using the DFF template, with a combined maximum length of 2 pages, or to use DFF’s templates for CV (B20) and track record (B21), compiled into a single PDF. B42: Named postdocs (if relevant) In the case of postdoctoral positions for named individuals, the following appendices must be attached: CV list of publications, and PhD diploma.

The candidate may choose either to submit a CV and list of publications without using the DFF template, with a combined maximum length of 2 pages, or to use DFF’s templates for CV (B20) and track record (B21), compiled into a single PDF.

If the candidate does not have a PhD diploma you must submit documentation showing either: a) that the thesis has been accepted for defence, b) positive assistant professorship evaluation (“adjunktbedømmelse”), c) qualifications corresponding to PhD level achieved in another manner or, d) declaration from supervisor on submission of PhD thesis within 6 months of the application deadline (PhD students) must be submitted.

B52: Collaboration/support letter (if relevant) If a collaborator is significant for the project’s completion, a collaborative statement/letter of support must be enclosed. It must be specified how the collaborator contributes to the project (max 1 page from each). Statements of support from the department where the applicant is employed/will be employed can be attached.

B63: De minimis declaration (if relevant) If funding for private companies is included, a de minimis declaration must be attached. Administrator’s confirmation of the budget etc. in the template “DFF-Budget Confirmation”. Supplementary information Processing of your application If your application meets the requirements for active consideration, cf.

section 7 , it will be submitted for scientific assessment in the relevant research council or DFF | Cross-council Committee. The assessment is completed on the basis of the assessment criteria outlined in section 8 and the specific requirements for Sapere Aude: DFF-Research Leader.

If the council/committee finds that your application is among the very best, it will proceed to review (interview) by the Sapere Aude committee, which consists of the chair and vice chair from each of the research councils. Applications that do not proceed to this stage will receive a rejection. During the interview, you will be asked to present your project to the Sapere Aude committee and answer specific questions from the committee.

The DFF | Cross-Council Committee will make the final decision regarding the applications that have proceeded to the interview. Applications for Sapere Aude: DFF-Research Leader are not submitted for external review unless special circumstances apply.

When you have determined the most appropriate funding instrument for your research idea and whether you meet the requirements in the call for proposals, you can begin preparing your application to DFF. Applications must be submitted through the e-grant system at: www. e-grant.

dk . It is important that the application is initiated and opened for the first time in e-grant by the applicant (i.e., the researcher who is mainly responsible for the project and responsible to the fund in relation to the submitted project). The application must also be submitted by the applicant.

To submit an application to DFF, you must first register as a user in e-grant. In order to access the application form, you must choose which specific research council under DFF you wish to submit an application to in the “Search possibilities” tab. If you wish for the application to be assessed by several research councils, you can indicate this when filling out your application.

Once you have chosen the relevant council, you can choose the funding instrument you wish to apply for. When filling in the application form, you will go through a series of steps, where you must provide information about your application. These steps vary depending on which funding instrument you are applying for.

For this reason, we strongly urge you to open the application form in good time to get an overview of the information that must be included. If you experience technical issues, you should contact e-grant support as soon as possible and well in advance of the application deadline ( see section 17. 2 ).

It is possible to re-open and re-submit your application up until the deadline. If you have already submitted your application, subsequently made corrections and not managed to submit these corrections before the deadline, DFF will assess the most recently submitted application received before the expiration of the application deadline.

Here you can find the answers to a range of the most frequently asked questions *Applicants who are not selected for an interview are expected to receive a response in April 2027. Call for Proposals for Independent Research 2026 DFF-Project description (Word) DFF-Project description (LaTex) DFF-Track record template De minimis declaration (if relevant) The budget template must be downloaded in e-grant.

Access counting tool (appendix) Access calculation tool (PhD age) Questions about your application? Weekdays from 9 am - 12 pm See special opening hours and closing days