Nordic Life Science 1
hen awarding grants, the NNF considers many aspec
ts and when asked to highlight some of the most significant Lüders cites, ”Excellence, where the Foundation aims to pursue the highest standard of quality in all we support, interdisciplinarity, where we strive to facilitate connectivity across disciplines to generate new ways to discovery, and collaboration, which is about facilitating inclusiveness and collaboration to catalyze advances in national and international partnerships.” Besides awarding grants, the NNF has also established several life science centers, initiated and enabled national and international projects, and they also award several prizes each year. “In 2019, we supported 4,100 jobs in science, fully or partly, and 2,800 new publications have been released as a result of our support,” says Lüders. He and his colleagues recently published a report in which they analyzed and measured the impact of research projects the NNF has supported. For example, last year 9.5% of the country’s public research was funded by the Foundation and DKK 4.9 billion in grants were awarded. Eleven new spinouts were created and 1,780 PhDs and postdocs were supported by the foundation. The purpose of the NNF is also to build bridges between scientific discoveries and their commercial applications. One of the most recent major innovation initiatives was the establishment of the BioInnovation Institute (BII), an international hub in Copenhagen for research-based innovation and entrepreneurship founded in December 2017. The main focus of the Institute is interdisciplinary ideas in medical technology, pharma and biotechnology, and it offers modern facilities, various funding opportunities and partnerships and programs with technical, scientific and commercial experts. Since its inception the BII has provided 85 start-ups with funding totaling EUR 48 million. In December 2020, the NNF also announced that it will establish the BII as an independent charitable, commercial foundation. By doing so, the NNF will continue its interest in the initiative while opening it up for other organizations and foundations to take part in its long-term financing. “We see great potential to develop new solutions in life science and biotechnology, but good ideas often need support from an early stage of development to become mature and prepared for commercialization in order to benefit people and societies. That is why BII’s task is so important,” says Birgitte Nauntofte, CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. o date the NNF has awarded EUR 64 million to BII. With continued positive development, the NNF can provide up to EUR 470 million to the BII Foundation over ten years. The BII expects to house up to 500 researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs over the coming years and will increasingly focus on attracting international life science entrepreneurial talent to Denmark. The BII also expects to raise the profile of Nordic innovation ecosystem for the international life science investment community, the NNF states. ”BII already has a strong collaboration with universities and hospitals, and we have received a large number of very high quality applications for our programs. This testifies to there being immense potential for more projects and start-ups, with much to build on in the coming years,” says Jens Nielsen, professor and CEO of the BII Foundation. ”I have a strong belief in the mission of BioInnovation Institute and great respect for Jens Nielsen. I know from the US how transformational an initiative of this size can be to the life science ecosystem and as Chair of BII’s Scientific Advisory Board I look forward to taking part in this journey,” says MIT-professor Robert Langer, the most cited engineer in the world and who has transformed his own laboratory discoveries into numerous products by founding companies such as Momenta, PureTech, and Moderna. NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG 27