VILLUM FONDEN supports efforts to recruit leading academic talents

19.09.2019 l Latest news

VILLUM FONDEN will provide funding to Danish universities as they seek to recruit leading foreign scientists. The initiatives will make it possible to tailor transition-assistance packages to suit the needs of individual recruits.

VILLUM FONDEN will grant DKK 16 million a year to university departments and international HR-offices, making it possible to offer family and welcome packages to leading foreign academics.

The family and welcome packages are a form of transition assistance for academics relocating a family to Denmark and establishing a new life here. Examples of what the funding can be used for include: a temporary salary for an accompanying spouse, help to pay for childcare or school fees or pay for maternity cover.

In partnership with universities

The idea was developed in collaboration with universities.

“Recruiting foreign academics is a high priority task for Danish universities, and success requires as broad-based an approach as possible and to make sure that everyone involved is working towards the same goal,” says Vivian Tos Lindgaard, who heads the University of Copenhagen’s international staff mobility programme.

“One specific challenge we encounter is when academics and their families try to settle down in Denmark. Here, introducing an accompanying spouse to the labour market or paying school fees may be what makes the difference when trying to recruit someone. All tools need to be used, and here the foundation’s support is an important contribution that we can put to use in a different way than public funding.”

A broad range of initiatives

Family and welcome packages are one of a range of new initiatives aimed at helping universities address the various challenges associated with attracting and fostering the most talented academics and encouraging them to settle down in Denmark.

Another of the initiatives calls for drawing on the 250 active VILLUM FONDEN grantees to serve as ambassadors for Denmark as an attractive country to conduct research. Participating grantees will be able to expand their network while also promoting Danish research in the hope of inspiring leading academics to settle down in Denmark.

Fieldwork in the global village

In addition to being developed in collaboration with universities, the initiatives are based on the recommendations of an anthropological study.

The study entailed the authors spending time with foreign academics to get a better understanding of what life in “the global village” is like. Their research involved speaking with foreign academics living in Denmark, those who have moved away and those who have ruled out relocating to Denmark.

The results of the study, according to Thomas Bjørnholm, the VILLUM FONDEN executive chief science officer, show that Denmark has its work cut out for it as it seeks to increase its popularity as a destination for academics.

“The way we welcome leading academics, the framework of universities’ career positions and the perception of Denmark as closed and characterised by a culture that is difficult to understand are some of the significant barriers that the study points to,” Bjørnholm says.

“This is a cocktail that doesn’t align well with the ambition of being at the forefront of the global knowledge society, and that is what VILLUM FONDEN, together with universities, will try to do something about.”
 

- as inspiration for universities, ministries and other foundations working to strengthen the internationalisation of Danish research.