The Carlsberg Foundation awards more than half a billion Danish kroner to new basic research initiatives

The Carlsberg Foundation is putting a total of DKK 581 million into initiatives that will pave the way for major new breakthroughs in the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities. The projects will be carried out by researchers at all career stages to ensure both talent development within the Danish research environments and support Denmark’s strong position in international research.

The DKK 581 million have been awarded in open competition on the basis of the researchers’ own project proposals submitted as part of the Carlsberg Foundation’s Autumn Call 2025.

From the development of deserts to Greenlandic glaciers’ reaction to climate change

The research projects will tackle some of the most complex questions of our times, diving deep into topics as diverse as how deserts develop and impact the climate, the relationship between redistribution policy and political polarisation, the consequences of child vulnerability in Denmark at the turn of the 20th century and Greenlandic glaciers’ reaction to climate change.

The Carlsberg Foundation’s CEO, Professor Lasse Horne Kjældgaard, comments:

“I’m delighted to be able to congratulate all 159 successful applicants on this opportunity to realise the research ideas that they’ve put so much time and energy into developing and formulating. It’s important to the Carlsberg Foundation that our funding helps maintain high standards throughout the scientific food chain - and does so in a way that is rooted in the fundamental scientific questions that naturally arise within the research environments.

The 159 awarded grants are distributed as follows: 32 for humanities research projects, 40 for social science projects, and 87 for research within the natural sciences.

They cover the following types of grants:

All applications submitted under the Monograph Fellowship and the Semper Ardens Accelerate and Semper Ardens Accomplish types of grants were submitted for international external review as part of the assessment process.

The Autumn Call 2025 in numbers

The Carlsberg Foundation received 709 applications for a total of DKK 3.5 billion by the application deadline of 1 October 2025.

Of these, 467 were from male applicants, 234 from female applicants and eight from applicants who either chose not to disclose their gender or gave another gender.

A total of 159 grants have been awarded, breaking down into 59 for female researchers, 97 for male researchers and three for researchers who chose not to disclose their gender. Based on applications where gender was disclosed, this translates into a success rate of 25 percent for female applicants and 21 percent for male applicants.

Including the Autumn Call, the Carlsberg Foundation has approved total funding of DKK 753 million for basic research activities in 2025.