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Villum Experiment: DKK 100m to 51 extraordinary research experiments

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10.09.2020 I Latest news

51 researchers are receiving grants to test their bold and strange research ideas in technical and natural sciences. The projects have been selected from among nearly 500 applications that have been through an anonymous selection process.

Focus

The Villum Experiment Programme has been created for research projects in technical and natural sciences that challenge the norm and have the potential to change the way we approach important subjects. The applicants are anonymous to the international assessors to increase the focus on the research ideas and to let the researchers think freely.

The grant is of DKK 1-2m and runs for up to two years. The programme is announced each year in an open competition with an application deadline in March.

VILLUM FONDEN has initiated a research evaluation of the Villum Experiment Programme to examine whether it meets the objective. The data collection is in process.

Read more about the Villum Experiment Programme

“One experiment is better than 1,000 expert assumptions.” The founder of VILLUM FONDEN, Villum Kann Rasmussen, lived by this motto. He experimented tirelessly and invented everything from coffee machines and wind turbines to the VELUX skylight. The Villum Experiment Programme puts millions behind the motto and allows researchers to test their wildest ideas. 

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained is a key principle of the Villum Experiment Programme. The purpose of the programme is to find and support outstanding research projects in technical and natural sciences that challenge the norm and have the potential to change the world and our knowledge of the world. The programme is an experiment in itself and has been conceived completely differently from typical research grant programmes. During the application processing process, the applicants are anonymised for the assessment panel, and the panel members thus only assess the applicants based on whether their research ideas are groundbreaking, without taking their CVs and academic track records into account,” says Thomas Bjørnholm, Executive Chief Scientific Officer of VILLUM FONDEN.

The assessment process

The overall success rate for applicants for this year’s Villum Experiment Programme is just over 10%. The applications have been assessed by an assessment panel consisting of 20 international external experts divided into four sub-panels: ‘Earth & Space’, ‘Life Science’, ‘Physical Science & Math’ and ‘IT & Engineering’ (see selection process)

The assessors have weighted the applications based on three parameters:

  • Originality
  • Potential impact
  • Appropriateness in relation to the programme

Each external expert has also had the opportunity to allocate a so-called ‘trump’ to an application to give this application precedence (see review sheet)

From milking cows to Mars

A total of 195 researchers have received a grant under the Villum Experiment Programme since its start in 2017. This year, DKK 99,604,815 will be distributed between 51 researchers attached to Danish universities. Their experiments cover a wide range of projects – from low methane emitting milking cows to the mysterious methane gas on Mars. The only common denominator for the researchers is originality and that they have the technical and natural sciences as their starting point.

Professor Dennis Sandris Nielsen from the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen wants to make ruminants more environmentally friendly. The Villum Experiment Programme grant will be used to examine whether his idea for reducing livestock methane emissions is valid:

“Emission of methane from ruminants is a major climate problem. The methane is produced by a group of microorganisms called Archaea. We will develop a technique for reducing methane emissions by killing Archaea by means of some viruses that specifically attack this group of microorganisms. However, it won’t be easy, as Archaea also has a number of defence mechanism against these viruses. This makes it a high risk/high gain project, but if our idea proves to work in practice, it will be a breakthrough in our efforts to reduce the climate impact of the agricultural sector,” explains Professor Dennis Sandris Nielsen.

Villum Experiment Programme recipients in 2020

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