Top researchers receive Semper Ardens: Advance grants totalling DKK 179 million

The aim of these grants from the Carlsberg Foundation is to pave the way for advances in basic research that provide new insights and have the potential to solve global challenges, thus helping maintain Danish research’s leading international position.  

“I’m delighted to be able to congratulate ten of Denmark’s most prominent researchers on being awarded a Semper Ardens: Advance grant,” says Carlsberg Foundation chair Majken Schultz. “Our three Semper Ardens programmes focusing on different career stages aim to give researchers with strong and visionary research ideas the best opportunity to produce research results that make a difference well into the future.”

All applications has been through international peer review

All ten grants have been awarded on the basis of applications submitted by the researchers themselves as part of the Carlsberg Foundation’s Autumn Call 2022. A total of 104 applications were received: 78 from male applicants and 26 from female applicants. All were sent for international peer review and thoroughly assessed by the Foundation’s Board, which made the final decision after interviewing 22 of the applicants.

Carlsberg Foundation CEO Lasse Horne Kjældgaard comments:

“I very much look forward to following these new Semper Ardens: Advance research projects, which will look at topics as diverse as biochemical processes in cells, the interaction between morals and memory, the role of entrepreneurship in society, and the significance of cracks in the ice sheet as indicators of climate sensitivity. The projects will be led by some of Denmark’s most talented and dedicated scholars, and I’m sure that they will deliver results that not only resonate in Danish research circles but also attract attention internationally.”

See full list of recipients of Semper Ardens: Advance grants and read about their projects

Passionate, always burning

Semper Ardens means “passionate, always burning” – a quality found in abundance among the researchers that the Carlsberg Foundation supports with its Semper Ardens grants.

Semper Ardens: Advance is one of three Semper Ardens instruments, which are announced in open competition. Along with Semper Ardens: Accelerate and Semper Ardens: Accomplish (to be awarded for the first time in 2023), the Semper Ardens programme is aimed at established scholars looking to carry out extensive scientific studies whether in a narrow or a cross-disciplinary area. The Semper Ardens: Advance instrument awards five-year grants to internationally recognised professors affiliated with Danish research institutions.

The DKK 179 million in funding for new Semper Ardens: Advance projects forms part of the awards announced in December 2022 for the Carlsberg Foundation’s Autumn Call 2022.