Overview of grants

Please be aware that the submission of documents other than those specified in the call texts will result in rejection on administrative grounds.

NB: All budgets must be approved by Head of School (contact Research Consultant Helle Breth Klausen, hbk@cc.au.dk) 

Note, the following calls open in 2026:

• Semper Ardens Advance
• Internationalisation Fellowships

The Velux Foundation: Core Group Programme 2026

The School of Communication and Culture has once again been invited to submit project proposals to the Velux Foundation’s core group programme supporting independent basic research within the humanities and social sciences.

Please see the full call at the Velux Foundation website here.

PURPOSE OF THE PROGRAMME

• The Core Group Programme offers a medium-sized funding form (between individual project and research centre) that can serve as a ‘stepping stone’ both in relation to the participants’ further career opportunities and the potential for larger and/or international grants.
• The project must provide synergy with the departments’ realisation of their research plans and objectives – and thereby also benefitting education.
• With the Core Group Programme, the Velux Foundation wishes to incorporate the research environments’ own ‘silent’ knowledge of research trends, needs and promising new ideas/initiatives/researchers through close dialogue with the heads of schools.
• A core group project can have a budget of max 6 mio. DKK.

REQUIREMENTS FOR APPLICANTS

• A core group is a closely collaborating research team typically consisting of one or two tenured researchers as project managers, possibly along with a number of other senior researchers (tenured) and 2-3 postdocs and/or PhD students.
• A core group can consist of researchers from the same department or researchers from across departments and universities.
• It is a requirement that all postdoc position be filled by open call. The foundation generally encourages to fill both postdoc and PhD positions through open calls whenever possible.

APPLICATION PROCESS

The School of Communication and Culture has been invited to submit a total of four full applications, and we will select the projects in the research committee based on an open school call for expressions of interest.

INTERNAL SCHOOL DEADLINES

REGARDING EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

Expressions of interest (max 3 standard pages, 3x2400 characters) submitted in the pre-qualification round are advised to address the following points (based on the Velux foundation’s evaluation criteria):

• A pitch of the research idea and overall research question (addressing relevance, quality and innovation).
• Presentation and motivation of proposed sub-projects (and the synergies between them).
• Qualifications of the project manager(s) and other project participants of relevance to the project proposal.
• Planned collaborations and reflections on how the project will feed into national and international research agendas.
• Emphasis is placed on the ‘stepping stone potential’ concerning the further career opportunities and research development of the project leader(s) as well as the possibility of establishing a strong research environment.
• Additionally, it is important that the project reflects the department's research strategy and academic priorities and thus it’s ability to contribute to the department with positive effects on research and education.

Applicants should NOT include CVs in the expression of interest.
Budgets are also excluded from the internal pre-qualification round at the school.

Feel free to reach out to research consultant Helle Breth Klausen (hbk@cc.au.dk), if you have any further questions regarding the process

Timeline and procedure: Mads Øvlisen PhD Fellowships

• First and foremost, your project and qualifications must be pre-assessed by the PhD school (Graduate School, Arts) in order to determine whether you are qualified to undertake a PhD position. If you are deemed qualified, you will receive a letter of interest, and upon receiving a grant, you may be enrolled at the PhD school at Aarhus University.
• As a rule, you will both be enrolled and employed at CC, Aarhus University.
• You must obtain a hosting commitment from the institution where you are seeking employment. A prerequisite for receiving a hosting commitment from CC is that the research consultant at CC has approved the project’s budget.

Timeline and procedure: Mads Øvlisen Postdoctoral Fellowships

Eligibility criteria for applications (Investigator Grant):

• Applicants must be engaged in art history research and be affiliated with a university, museum, or other Danish knowledge institution (host institution) throughout the entire grant period. A hosting agreement from the host institution must be submitted together with the application. This hosting agreement will be issued by the research consultant, provided that the project and budget can be approved.
• Applicants must be at the level of postdoc, senior researcher, assistant professor, associate professor, or professor, and must have conducted documented, independent, original, and substantial research of a high academic standard. Applicants may either hold a permanent position at the knowledge institution or not yet have obtained permanent employment.
• Applicants may submit only one application for a specific project/purpose per calendar year.

Eligibility criteria for applications (Project Grant):

• Applicants must be engaged in art history research and be affiliated with a university, museum, or other Danish knowledge institution (administering host institution) during the grant period.
• The project must demonstrate clear and significant research activity and must be feasible to carry out at the host institution during the grant period.
• Applicants may submit only one application for a specific project/purpose per calendar year.

Please note that the deadline for applying in 2025 has passed.

The New Carlsberg Foundation awards PhD fellowships for projects addressing art-related research issues in the broadest sense, which are relevant to the activities of the applying museum, art center, or exhibition venue. This can involve more traditional art historical or theoretical research in connection with collections, but can also include other issues related to the institution’s role in society at large: strategy, curating, marketing, communication, and dissemination.

It is the museum/art center/exhibition venue that applies for – and if approved, receives – the funding from the New Carlsberg Foundation, and the applicant must include a hosting commitment from the university in the application. If the grant is awarded, a collaboration agreement will be established between the institution and the university, stating, among other things, that the PhD student will be enrolled in the university’s PhD school. As a rule, the place of employment is also Aarhus University.

Application procedure

• No later than August 25 2025, send: 1) a preliminary project description, 2) the name of a proposed main supervisor from the department, and 3) a draft budget (see standard budget template, DK only) to research consultant Helle Breth Klausen (hbk@cc.au.dk). The research consultant will forward the description to the relevant administrative officer for an assessment of the academic relevance and anchoring of the project.
• If the project has a named PhD candidate, the candidate must be pre-qualified by the PhD school. Therefore, you must also send the following to the research consultant: 1) the project description, 2) the candidate’s CV, 3) transcripts and degree certificates, and 4) documentation of English language proficiency equivalent to English B-level from a Danish high school.
• If the project has an unnamed PhD candidate to be employed at the university, please note that the PhD school operates with two fixed recruitment rounds annually. Read more here: https://phd.arts.au.dk/academic-staff/call-deadlines-for-grant-holders (see ‘Deadlines’). If the university has approved that an unnamed candidate will be employed by the museum, the museum itself is responsible for the job posting, and the PhD school will approve the applicants.
• Once the administrative officer has approved the academic relevance of the project for the school, and the PhD school has pre-approved the PhD candidate, the research consultant will prepare a hosting commitment on behalf of the School of Communication and Culture, which can be attached to the application.

After preliminary approval from the New Carlsberg Foundation

• If the museum/art center/exhibition venue receives a preliminary approval for a grant, please send the grant letter to research consultant Helle Breth Klausen (hbk@cc.au.dk) in order to initiate the next steps.
• Note that the above refers to the university’s internal process, whereas the New Carlsberg Foundation operates with a “model 1” and “model 2”, which will only be finally decided upon in connection with the preliminary approval.

Practical Information

• The application deadline is 6 October 2025, 12:00.
• Applications must be submitted via the New Carlsberg Foundation’s online application system.
• Read more about the call here: https://www.ny-carlsbergfondet.dk/en/phd-fellowships

Questions?

For questions regarding the call, contact Nina Schmidt-Petersen (nsp@ncf.dk). For other inquiries, contact research consultant at the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Helle Breth Klausen (hbk@cc.au.dk).

Please note that the deadline for applying in 2025 has passed.

The New Carlsberg Foundation awards postdoctoral fellowships for projects addressing art-related research questions in the broadest sense, which are relevant to the activities of the applying museum, art center, or exhibition venue. This may involve more traditional art historical or theoretical research in connection with collections, but can also encompass other issues related to the institution’s role in society at large: strategy, curating, marketing, communication, and dissemination.

It is the museum/art center/exhibition venue that applies for – and, if approved, receives – the funding from the New Carlsberg Foundation. The applicant must attach a hosting commitment from the university to the application. If the grant is awarded, a collaboration agreement will be established between the institution and the university. As a rule, Aarhus University will be the place of employment. For postdoctoral positions, there is a 20% teaching obligation at the School of Communication and Culture.

Application procedure

• No later than August 25 2025, send a preliminary project description and a draft budget (see standard budget template, DK only) to research consultant Helle Breth Klausen (hbk@cc.au.dk). The research consultant will forward the description to the relevant administrative officer for an assessment of the academic relevance and anchoring of the project.
• Once the administrative officer has approved the project's academic relevance for the school, the research consultant will prepare a hosting commitment on behalf of the School of Communication and Culture, which can be attached to the application.

After preliminary approval from the New Carlsberg Foundation

• If the museum/art center/exhibition venue receives preliminary approval from the New Carlsberg Foundation, the institution must inform the Foundation which of the two employment models for the candidate it wishes to use (i.e., open call or designation of a named candidate). If a named candidate is proposed, the following documents must be sent to the research consultant: 1) PhD certificate or equivalent, 2) CV and 3) detailed project description, including a timeline

Practical Information

• The application deadline is October 6 2025, 12:00.
• Applications must be submitted via the New Carlsberg Foundation’s online application system.
• Read more about the call here: https://www.ny-carlsbergfondet.dk/en/postdoc-fellowships

Questions?

For questions regarding the call, contact Nina Schmidt-Petersen (nsp@ncf.dk). For other inquiries, contact research consultant at the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Helle Breth Klausen (hbk@cc.au.dk).