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Background

The Lundbeck Foundation’s ambition is to make Denmark leading in neuroscience research by funding relevant biomedical, health, clinical and other sciences in Denmark. The goal is to foster world-class research at Danish universities and Danish hospitals. At the same time, our grants must help provide an environment that stimulates the best graduates and scientists at all career levels.

The purpose of this grant instrument is to support extraordinary and bold research ideas that challenge the norms and prevailing ideas within its field of research. We are seeking unique, high-risk ideas which have great potential to transform our understanding of an important neuroscience field if successful. Therefore, the evaluation procedure is based on the idea itself, not on previous scientific merits. 

The Lundbeck Foundation believes that diversity strengthens science and for this reason diversity, including, but not limited to, gender and ethnic origin, is encouraged. We especially encourage scientists from groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in academia, including women and scientists of diverse ethnic backgrounds, to apply.

Research theme

Advancements in neuroscience often develop from cross-disciplinary interaction, leading to novel insights into biological mechanisms, trial design, emerging technologies, etc. 

With this call, we invite applicants to submit proposals that benefit the advancement of neuroscience and/or prevention, diagnosis or treatment of nervous system disorders. 

Your project proposes ground-breaking ideas in their early phase, which hold the potential to fundamentally change a neuroscience field. Your research may offer a transformative understanding of a research topic, pave the way for a new research field or create a new method or technology. Proposals without clear relevance for neuroscience will be rejected.

Previous LF Experiment grant holders.

Who can apply? 

Applicants must hold a PhD degree at the application deadline.

For general eligibility criteria, see here.

Important changes in 2026: 

• Applicants with active LF Experiment grants, at the time of the call deadline, cannot apply for LF Experiment 2026
• Applicants applying for LF Experiment 2026, obtaining an average score in the top 30% of applications (but that do not get a grant) can apply for LF Experiment 2027 
• Applicants applying for LF Experiment 2026, obtaining an average score outside the top 30% rated applications cannot apply for LF Experiment 2027
• Applicants applying for LF Experiment 2026 that receive an administrative rejection cannot apply for LF Experiment 2027

Where

The research must be based at a non-commercial Danish research institution or hospital, and it is expected that the majority of the research activities will be performed in Denmark.  

How much?

The Lundbeck Foundation is allocating up to DKK 60 million to this call, provided sufficient quality of the applications. 
You can apply for up to DKK 2.3 million for a period of up to two years. The budget may cover staff and non-staff costs related to the project.

Please note:

• You cannot apply for PhD salaries 

• If you are permanently employed scientific staff or on tenure track you cannot apply for your own salary

• You may apply for funds to hire other academic staff provided (both criteria must be fulfilled): (1) You have at least four years of research experience after your PhD degree AND (2) the project period lies within the timeframe of your current employment contract. 

For applicants hosted by a Danish university:

Please see details regarding project supplement rates . 

For applicants hosted by other Danish research institutions and hospitals:

Up to 10% of the budget can be reserved for project-related, indirect costs.

How to apply?

You must submit your application, written in English, via the  no later than 13.00 CET, August 27, 2026.

Your application must include the following:

• Project proposal- written in an anonymised form
• CV- only filename in an anonymised form 
• Budget- written in an anonymised form
• Letter(s) of support from the Danish host institution: see example below the call text for what to include in the letter- only filename in an anonymised form.

Please read the applicant guide and the application formfor further requirements and details. Applications that do not follow the call text AND the guidelines will be rejected administratively. 

Since the review process is anonymised, it is very important that the research proposal and budget do not contain any indication of the applicant or affiliation. 

You are welcome to contact Senior Scientific Programme Manager Anette Høye (ah@lundbeckfonden.com) or Scientific Programme Director Peter Thostrup (pth@lundbeckfonden.com) if you have any questions regarding your application.

Important:

The Lundbeck Foundation is working with a research team at Copenhagen Business School to improve transparency, effectiveness and fairness of our grant application processes.

Please note that upon submitting an application to LF Experiment 2026, you will be expected to complete up to two short surveys. The first survey should be completed shortly after submission of your application; the second survey will only be sent to rejected applicants. Please note that the survey responses will not impact the evaluation of your LF Experiment application, or any future proposals submitted to the Lundbeck Foundation. The surveys will be sent directly to applicants by the research team at CBS and the responses will be anonymized before data analysis. Only aggregated results will be reported to the Foundation.

Evaluation process

All proposals will be reviewed in a three-step process. 

Step 1:

The Grant & Prize department approve the application for review based on the fulfilments of the formal criteria. Applicants will be notified if their application is rejected administratively before step 2.   

Step 2:

The second step is evaluation of the anonymous applications by the . The panel members will score the applications on the criteria below:

• Originality of the idea and fit for LF Experiment call:
  • The potential for a transformative understanding of a topic
  • The potential for paving the way for a novel method, technology, etc.
  • Likelihood of funding from conventional funding schemes

• Impact of the idea:
  • Potential impact on neuroscience and/or human health
  • The feasibility of the roadmap to impact

Each reviewer has the option to cast one decisive vote. The decisive vote is used for an extraordinary application that deserves to be funded regardless. Applications will be ranked according to overall score, and applications with decisive votes will be ranked highest.

Step 3:

The Foundation’s  will approve the CVs of the applicants whose applications have been chosen by the Panel. This is to ensure that each applicant has the necessary qualifications to perform the research project. Applicants will be notified of approval or rejection of the application after the Research and Prize Committee’s review.
 

What are the grant conditions?

If your proposal is successful, you must accept by signing the Lundbeck Foundation’s general grant conditions. The current version can be seen here:

The purpose of the Lundbeck Foundation is to create powerful ripple effects that bring discoveries to lives through investing actively in business and science at the frontiers of their fields.   

Example of letter of support:

Host letter of support - [Name of applicant and project title]

[Name of applicant] is employed as [title] in a time- limited position with the current end-date [mo/year] or in a tenure-track/ permanent position.

The applicant’s salary is covered by [xxx] or  The applicant applies for their salary in this proposal. 

We confirm that the [Name of applicant] has more/ less than four years of research experience after their PhD. 

The current project lies within the strategy of [host] and the [host] agrees to manage the entire grant, host and support the project with the necessary research infrastructure, facilities, and administrative support.

Date and signature on behalf of the host.