Guidelines we follow
Good foundation governance
We report on and strive to adhere to the Recommendations on foundation governance, similar to commercial foundations. In the table below, you can see how the foundation follows the recommendations. The table was last updated in March 2025.
Additional information regarding the foundation’s adherence to the Recommendations on foundation governance:
In our communication, we aim to be transparent about our processes and open about our strategies, activities and grants.
The communications department’s primary goal is to support the grant area strategies and goals of attracting the best applicants and the best applications. We are happy to participate in interviews and comments about our work – but we rather want the focus to be on the goal of our actions, i.e. our grantees, their projects, agendas and results.
The communications department must proactively communicate the foundation’s work through relevant channels, and offer timely, responsive service to the media and other stakeholders.
The executive director represents the foundation externally, except regarding the investment portfolio which is managed by the chief investment officer. In special cases, such as those involving the co-ownership of the VKR Group, the chair may also represent the foundation. However, at programme level or in cases where expertise in policies, programmes and projects is crucial, the programme heads typically speak on behalf of the foundation.
The head of communications is the primary contact for matters related to press and communication strategy.
We aim to ensure transparency in our daily work, not least in the area of impartiality and our relationships with applicants, partners, suppliers etc. The foundations’ boards and working groups have therefore adopted a set of principles and guidelines to ensure that both board members, management, employees and experts adhere to common practices regarding impartiality.
In short, the following applies:
- Board members, working group members and secretariat staff may not participate in the reviews of cases where they have a conflict of interest.
- Board members, members of our working groups and secretariat staff will actively recuse themselves on a case-by-case basis if there is a relationship with an applicant or an external expert. Thus, they do not participate in the processing and decision-making of such cases.
- The board decides which cases should be further processed and approved. Management and senior advisers participate in the application review.
- External experts assisting with the professional assessment of applications are asked each time to clarify whether they are impartial in relation to specific applications.