Podcasts, films, events and TV series: the Carlsberg Foundation awards DKK 21 million for science communication

A pop-up exhibition about the latest climate research. A TV series about Denmark’s wild nature. A documentary about finding the DNA codes of 5,000 prehistoric humans. And podcast series about topics such as humans in a digital world, the climate and biodiversity crisis, and formulas that changed the world.

Science will be presented from many angles and in many formats when 27 new communication activities are launched in the near future. All the activities will be accessible free of charge and easy for everyone to experience, which has been a key criterion in connection with the award of the grants.

Altogether, the Carlsberg Foundation is awarding DKK 21 million for these activities. Major communication projects executed by professional communicators will be receiving just over DKK 19 million, while a good DKK 2 million has been awarded to researchers wishing to communicate their work to non-scientific audiences.

The funding was awarded in free competition following the two open calls, ‘Science Communication’ and ‘Carlsberg Mindelegat’, announced in May with an application deadline of 1 September this year. The Carlsberg Foundation received a total of 145 applications in response to the ‘Science Communication’ call and 29 applications for ‘Carlsberg Mindelegat’.

Professor Lasse Horne Kjældgaard, CEO, Carlsberg Foundation, says:

“I am extremely pleased that we have today, for the first time ever, awarded a double-digit million amount in Danish kroner for a number of exciting and inspired communication activities that will bring the many fascinating aspects of science closer to people in Denmark. At a time when so much misinformation is being circulated and so many hasty opinions expressed, it is particularly important to stimulate the spread of solid, scientific knowledge to as many people as possible. It has been important to us to select activities covering a wide range of topics, communicated in different formats and with a potential to reach all those who may be interested – free of charge. I hope that many people will enjoy and benefit from the productions when they are launched on TV, on live stages and on websites and podcast channels in the near future.”

Two types of communication activities

With these grants, the Carlsberg Foundation wishes to stimulate the dissemination of knowledge generated within the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, as well as supporting researchers’ opportunities to communicate their own research to non-scientific audiences. The grants are also aimed at supporting and developing cooperation between researchers and professional communicators.

While projects under the ‘Science Communication’ instrument are subject to a maximum grant size of DKK 3 million, the ‘Carlsberg Mindelegat’ projects are limited to a maximum of DKK 200,000.

Note that both instruments will open for applications again on Friday, 1 December 2023.