Villum International Postdoc

Villum International Postdoc

Supports female Danish researchers with international postdoctoral grants that strengthen long-term research careers.

The Villum International Postdoc 2026 program, administered by the Villum Foundation in Denmark, provides grants of DKK 1 to 3 million over up to three years to female researchers completing Danish PhDs in technical and natural sciences who wish to undertake an international postdoc stay and return to Danish institutions. The recommended structure is two years abroad followed by one year at a Danish host institution. DKK 18 million has been allocated for the 2026 cycle. The call opened on 5 May 2026, with a submission deadline of 26 August 2026 at 14:00. Funding decisions are issued approximately five months after submission. The programme was designed in response to the fact that only 18 percent of professors in Danish natural and technical sciences are women, targeting the career phase immediately after PhD completion as a critical retention point.

Eligibility is restricted to female scientists who have either submitted their PhD thesis or completed their Danish PhD up to one year before the deadline. The PhD must be from a Danish university in technical or natural sciences; Danish citizenship is not required. Candidates do not apply independently — they must be nominated by a Danish university, with institutions permitted to nominate one to three candidates depending on institution size. Health and veterinary research fields, including medicine, biomedicine, pharmacology, and diagnostics, are excluded. The grant covers primarily salary expenses during the international stay, lab space, and individually assessed family relocation support.

The application package submitted by nominees includes a proposal of up to seven pages or 20,000 characters, a CV, a budget, support letters from both the home and international host institutions, and PhD documentation. Selection is conducted by the Foundation's Working Group for Technical and Natural Sciences, assessing scientific excellence and institutional commitment. Contact for the programme is Karen Skytte Larsen at ksl@villumfonden.dk. The annual cycle — opening in May and closing in August — makes this one of the few mobility-focused grants in the Nordic research landscape that specifically targets female postdocs at the point of international career launch.