RESEARCH2025
The Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF) acknowledges the need for investing in research carrying a clear potential for contributing to the solutions of our societies’ complex problems. However, research delivering such solutions needs to be internationally competitive and research groups performing at this level do not appear out of the blue. Such research environments are only slowly formed and require steady commitment. The DNRF recommends that strategic research investments are done in areas, where there is an existing strong scientific base. The DNRF believes that the Danish research system should be characterized by balanced investments in strategic investments in areas carrying remarkable potential for the Danish society at large and bottom-up investment across all research areas. We are certain that this is the best way to identify exceptional talents and particularly fruitful directions for research investments.
Interdisciplinarity and convergence
We fully support the potential in interdisciplinary research and we see some of our most successful Centers of Excellence and Niels Bohr Professors in the intersection between research fields. We also recognize convergence as a trend that is currently happening at several scientific frontiers. This is often driven by new technological possibilities and it is particularly obvious in relation to ICT, bioinformatics, and cognitive sciences. We believe that many of our grantees have shown how to do successful interdisciplinary research and, in our view, this is due to the fact that the centers and professorships are driven by individual researchers who see a potential in collaborating rather than consortiums set up to win grants. We do not believe in making interdisciplinary research a criterion when announcing calls.
Research infrastructure
We highly recommend that investments in strategic research are done in alignment with the funding of research infrastructure. We would like to see Denmark take full advantage of existing infrastructures, both nationally and internationally. For that reason, RESEARCH2025 ought to include considerations on the potentials offered by infrastructure in Denmark as well as Danish membership of existing infrastructures, including ESRF, CERN and EMBL. Furthermore, the DNRF would like to see Denmark play a much larger role in the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) and we would like to see new international investments in infrastructures coordinated with the strategic research investments. This is particularly important in relation to the establishment of the European Spallation Source, but is also applies to other investments at the European level.