Semper Ardens Accelerate

Apply

3 til 5-årige bevillinger til nyansatte lektorer i et fast lektorat til konsolidering af selvstændig forskningsgruppe eller forskningsmiljø.

Deadline

01.09.2026 - 16:00

Opslag

Årligt

Åbner

29.05.2026

Beløb

Max. 7 mio. kr.

Call open

  • Deadline: 1 September 2026, 16:00
  • The guidelines have been updated May 2026

Purpose

The purpose of Semper Ardens Accelerate is to provide 3 to 5-years of funding for the consolidation of the applicant’s independent research group or research environment.

Who?

The applicant must be a tenured associate professor or senior researcher, appointed for a maximum of 2 years at the date of the application deadline.

Documented periods leave (e.g. parental leave, family care leave, illness, or military service) may of be deducted from the applicant’s PhD age.

The position must correspond to at least 80% FTE (full-time equivalent) at one or more Danish, Greenlandic, or Faroese research institutions at the application deadline and throughout the grant period.

The foundation expects applicants to dedicate at least 50% of their active research time to the project throughout the grant period. This includes scientific leadership, supervision, mentoring, and direct involvement in the project’s research activities.

While parts of the project may be carried out at collaborating international institutions, the majority of the research activities must take place in Denmark, Greenland, or the Faroe Islands.

For this reason, it is not deemed possible to hold similar “career” grants if the applicant at the time of the application deadline is in the first half of the grant period.

If the applicant holds a career grant from another source and is in the second half of the grant period, the applicant must provide an account of the time commitment for the different projects in the project description. 

What?

The total amount applied for must not exceed DKK 7 million.

This type of grant is given as a framework grant and may be used to cover expenses that are relevant and necessary for completing the activity.

Projects must start no earlier than 1 January 2027 and no later than 1 September 2027.

The following running costs may be applied for:

  • Consumables
  • Equipment
  • Travel, research stays, inviting researchers, conferences, research leadership courses or similar.

In addition to covering such expenses, grant recipients will also be invited to participate in a research leadership course, free of charge, to ensure they have the best possible framework for leading their research group. Furthermore, they will be invited to participate in networking events with other similar grant holders.

The following salary costs may be applied for:

  • Salaries for postdoctoral fellows
  • Salaries and tuition fees for PhD students (enrolment of the PhD students at a Danish PhD graduate school is required)
  • Salary for a research assistant for up to 12 months during the project period
  • Salaries for student assistants

It is not possible to apply for salary costs for assistant professors.

Application requirements

The application must be submitted through the CF-Grant application system.

The application and all supporting documents must be written in English.

Applications that do not meet the specified formal requirements, include documents other than those listed below, or are submitted under the wrong grant type in CF-Grant, may be declared inadmissible and rejected.

All documents must be uploaded in PDF format.

Applicants may submit only one application across all grant types within the same Carlsberg Foundation call.

Required documents to be attached to the application form:

  • Project description
  • Budget
  • Curriculum vitae
  • List of publications
  • Description of the research group, project organisation, and networks
  • Declaration from the administering host institution
  • Other funding

Project description

The project description must be written using Times New Roman, font size 12, margins of at least 2 cm on all sides, and line spacing of 1.5.

The project description must not exceed 3 A4 pages (including figures, tables, etc., but excluding references). Any references or bibliography must be added in direct continuation of the project description.

References or bibliography must not exceed 1 A4 page and must reflect the current state of the art of the research field and the international context.

The project description must clearly state the overarching goal and describe the potential impact of the project.

The use of technical abbreviations must be kept to a minimum.

Budget

The budget in its finalised form must be uploaded using the Carlsberg Foundation budget template. The budget must be itemised. The budget must not exceed 1 A4 page.

For applicants from Danish, Greenlandic, or Faroese universities, the project supplement will be automatically added in the budget template where applicable.

At the time of the opening of the call, the project supplement is DKK 206,000 for applicants from the humanities and social sciences, and DKK 257,000 for applicants from the natural sciences.

Curriculum vitae

The CV of the applicant must not exceed 2 A4 pages and must not include any publications. Please do not include a photo, home address, family information, CPR number, date of birth, or gender.

The exact date on which the applicant took up their position as a tenured associate professor or senior researcher, irrespective of the country, must be stated in the CV. Any periods of leave must also be clearly described in the CV, including the exact start and end dates for each period of leave.

For parental leave taken after taking up the position as a tenured associate professor or senior researcher, the actual duration of the leave, multiplied by 2, may be deducted from the period of employment used to assess eligibility. However, the maximum deduction is two years per period of leave in connection with childbirth.

List of publications

The list of publications must not exceed 2 A4 pages.

The list of publications must first contain a brief summary of the bibliometry of the applicant and is required to include an active link to a relevant bibliometric profile (e.g. Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, or similar, but not to Pure). If relevant to the applicant’s research field, the bibliometric summary may also include the number of first-author and last-author or corresponding-author publications.

The applicant must include a list of up to 10 peer-reviewed publications relevant to the application and representative of their research career. Each publication must be followed by a brief explanation of its relevance.

Including more than 10 peer-reviewed publications, regardless of the nature of these publications, will result in the application being declared inadmissible and rejected.

The list of publications must not include any opinion pieces or comparable material.

The name of the applicant must be in bold font, and the order of authors must be exactly as listed in the original publication. All co-authors must be stated. If the number of authors exceeds 10, it is sufficient to list the first 10 authors as well as the corresponding author(s).

Description of the research group, project organisation, and networks

A description of the research group must be uploaded, including its proposed organisation and composition, and its approach to building a diverse research environment and ensuring gender balance.

The description must outline the specific and concrete steps that will be taken during recruitment processes and throughout the grant period to ensure diversity and gender balance.

Relevant national and international research networks, and their potential role in the project, should also be described.

The description must not exceed 1 A4 page.

Declaration from the administering host institution

A declaration from the Danish, Greenlandic, or Faroese administering host institution confirming its willingness to host the project must be uploaded. The declaration must include confirmation that the applicant is employed as a tenured professor at one or more Danish, Greenlandic, or Faroese research institutions at the application deadline and throughout the grant period, including the percentage FTE employment. If the applicant is employed at more than one research institution, each institution must confirm percentage FTE employment.

The declaration must also include the date on which the applicant took up their position as a tenured associate professor or senior researcher.

Other funding

Applicants must complete the foundation’s template regarding other funding and upload it.

The template must include information on current research funding held by the applicant, in research team applications, by each team member, including funding awarded as Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator, or through a significant leadership role in larger research initiatives, such as, but not limited to, a Centre of Excellence funded by the Danish National Research Foundation or a major ERC grant.

The template must also include information on other research funding applications that are under evaluation at the application deadline.

The template must be uploaded even if the applicant does not hold or have applied for other funding at the time of the application deadline. In such cases, the applicant must indicate this in the template by selecting the relevant checkbox.

For applications submitted by a research team, a form must be filled out for each team member. These must be submitted as a single, combined PDF file.

Completing your submission

The page limits stated in the guidelines apply regardless of the number of applicants. For research team applications, only the page limit for the Description of the research group is extended to 2 A4 pages.

Shortly after submitting your application, the applicant will receive an e-mail confirming that the Carlsberg Foundation has received the application.

Applicants may review the complete application as an assembled PDF file in CF-Grant after submission. Applicants are strongly advised not to use DocuSign or similar digital signature tools on uploaded PDF documents, as these will interfere with the assembly of the final PDF file.

It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that the assembled PDF document is correct and contains all required appendices and that the document is legible.

Submitted applications may be reopened and revised in CF-Grant until the application deadline.

During completion of the application in CF-Grant, applicants will be asked to provide a popularised scientific description directly in the online application form. The description must address “What”, “Why”, and “How” (up to 400 characters each). The description will be published on the foundation’s website should the application be successful and will not be part of the autogenerated PDF of the application.

Apply

Before applying, please review the requirements, use the Carlsberg Foundation budget and funding templates, and familiarise yourself with the assessment criteria and application process.

Success rate

2025

17%

Success rate

2024

14%

FAQ

Please note: The foundation reserves the right to make adjustments to the guidelines.

The Carlsberg Foundation cannot offer individual guidance on projects or elements of projects before the application deadline.

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