Villum Experiment: From Digital Scents to Insects as Raw Material
51 innovative and unconventional research ideas have just received support from the Villum Foundation.
The projects were anonymously evaluated to ensure that the potential of the ideas was prioritized over the researchers' backgrounds—a process that promotes creativity and the courage to take risks.
"The Unexpected and the Untested"
The research ideas span a wide range from scent technology to AI and sustainable biomaterials.
Thomas Bjørnholm, Research Director at the Villum Foundation, explains the idea behind the Villum Experiment Programme, which gives bold research ideas a chance: "Villum Experiment represents the unexpected and the untested. Here, we support researchers who dare to take chances, and we know that some of these projects can lead to groundbreaking discoveries. Our goal is to give space to ideas that can change the world—even if they may seem completely wild at first."
Scents over Distance
One of the projects, for example, investigates how scents can be transmitted over distance—just like we currently transmit sound and images. This could lead to an entirely new form of telecommunication that integrates the sense of smell, allowing us not only to see and hear across distances between devices—but also to smell.
"The project opens the door to research on integrating electronic noses in digital scent emission devices. In the future, this knowledge could be used to add an extra dimension to communication by including scents in addition to sound and images," explains Associate Professor at the Mads Clausen Institute Roana de Oliveira Hansen, who leads the project.
Insects as Biomaterials and Green AI
Another project, INFUSE, explores whether insects can be used as raw material for textiles or packaging. If successful, it will open the possibility of widespread use of insect biomass for entirely new types of biomaterials.
And a third project examines whether we can teach artificial intelligence to code more sustainably, so we can reduce the energy consumption of future AI systems.
"The research ideas challenge the boundaries of what we believe is possible—from scent transmission to the development of green AI. This is precisely the type of bold research we want to promote, as it can pave the way for future major discoveries," says Thomas Bjørnholm.
• Focus on innovative and unconventional research ideas
• Anonymous evaluation ensures emphasis on the potential of the idea rather than the researcher's merits
• High risk factor and potential for breakthroughs
• Supports research ideas in their early stages
• Annually awards approximately 50 grants
Villum Experiment recipients 2025:
Zhenghao Liu, postdoc: Feedforward-enabled synthetic dimension photonics, DKK 2.5 million
Brian Seger, professor: CO₂ electrolysis to pharmaceuticals, DKK 2.5 million
Nefeli Effrosyni Novak, researcher: Can the two-state theory of water revolutionise aqueous solutions?, DKK 2.2 million
Nikolaos Angelou, researcher: Laser-based unmanned aircraft system for wind sensing, DKK 2.5 million
Wenjing Zhang, professor: PlasUp: Rekindle Plastic Waste Upcycling by Microwave Reactor with High-Entropy Catalyst, DKK 2.5 million
Gaoneng Dong, researcher: Unlocking silicon's hidden power: on-chip phase transitions enabled by a new nanocavity, DKK 2 million
Innokentiy Zhdanov, postdoc: Room temperature integrated light-squeezing single-photon detectors for quantum systems, DKK 2.5 million
Yong Liu, postdoc: Watt-class Optical Beam Steering on Silicon Photonics, DKK 2.5 million
Shima Kadkhodazadeh, senior researcher: Live Band Nanoscopy: Mapping electronic bands in working photoelectrochemical devices, DKK 2.4 million
Weihua Tian, researcher: Engineering an extracellular vesicles-based transfection method for challenging-to-transfect cells, DKK 2.5 million
Emil Hovad, postdoc: Scientific machine learning for advancing the understanding of the 4D microstructural evolution in metals (SciML4D), DKK 2.5 million
Wei Yan, associate professor: Tackling the Forever Problem: Thermodynamic Solutions to PFAS Pollution, DKK 2,2 million
Jakob Birkedal Wagner, professor: Sub-Ångström 3D Mapping of Single Impurities in Crystals via Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy, DKK 2.5 million
Riccardo Ragona, postdoc: PAMS; Looking at fusion plasmas with new eyes, DKK 2.5 million
Xavier Zambrana-Puyalto, postdoc: Van der Waals meta-crystal for valleytronics, DKK 2.5 million
Colleen Varaidzo Manyumwa, postdoc: PlastiXterminator: Next-Gen Synergistic Enzyme Complexes for Microplastic Degradation, DKK 2.5 million
Narcis-Adrian Petriman, postdoc: TIDE – Transforming microalgae into plastic-degrading vehicles that decontaminate polluted waters, DKK 2.5 million
Mathias Lander Skavenborg, postdoc: Electrifying Manganese Complexes for Stationary Energy Storage, DKK 2.4 million
Kathrin Rousk, associate professor: The symbiotic trinity – the next step in evolution? EvoMoss, DKK 2.4 million
Daniel Hershcovich, assistant professor: Aligning Multi-Agent Interactions for Sustainable Food Behaviour (AMAI), DKK 2.5 million
Jannis Straube, postdoc: ESCAPE – Exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying hatching processes in Nannochloropsis, DKK 2.5 million
Bárbara Parreira, postdoc: Back from the brink: experimental de-extinction in a model organism to restore lost diversity, DKK 2.5 million
Dominique Jeanette Tobler, associate professor: Forever gone: degrading per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances with biochar and light, DKK 2.5 million
Vandana Kaushal, postdoc: Let yeast do the tasting: Can RNA barcodes make in-situ tasting a reality?, DKK 2.5 million
Jesper Bendix, professor: Xenon capture: addressing the missing-xenon paradox, DKK 2.5 million
Morten Bo Madsen, associate professor: Oceans and Plate Tectonics on Early Moon? Danish Instrument for Moon Mission will Help Answer this Question, DKK 2.5 million
Albin Sandelin, professor: Methods for relating spatial patterns of microenvironmental pH and oxygen levels with gene expression of single cells, DKK 2.5 million
Hans Thordal-Christensen, professor: STRUCTURE-STRENGTH: Protect the plant through protein structure insight, DKK 2.5 million
Nan Yang, postdoc: War or Peace: Is There an Ecological Switch in the Microbial World?, DKK 2.3 million
Eliza Cook, assistant professor: PFAS in snow: How much don't we know? (Fluoroland), DKK 2,5 million
Phillip Wagner Kastberg Jensen, assistant professor: Quantum Hardware Architecture based on Electron Scattering in Molecules, DKK 2 million
Yong Zhang, associate professor: Can bacteria subsist on bacteriophages?, DKK 2.5 million
Alexey Solodovnikov, associate professor: Can we build a species discovery factory?, DKK 2.5 million
Nikoline Olsen, postdoc: Ageless DNA – the epigenetics of extreme centenarians, DKK 2.5 million
Shuai Zheng, assistant professor: HOST-IT: Tricking pathogens into revealing their toxic secrets, DKK 2.5 million
Johan Fynbo, professor: 4D Tomography of turbulence in the atmosphere, DKK 2.2 million
Nikolaj Abel, assistant professor: One cryo-ET tag to solve them all, DKK 2.5 million
Michal Budzik, associate professor: Ordo ab Chao: Scaling in Fracture of Complex Materials, DKK 2.3 million
Brian Julsgaard, associate professor: Optical fingerprinting of electron dynamics in wide-bandgap materials, DKK 2.5 million
Ian Marshall, associate professor: AGAMBLE – Anaerobic Growth of Aerobic Methanotrophic Bacteria in Lake Environments, DKK 2.5 million
Michael Møller Hansen, professor: The Genetic Load of Plenty: When Too Much Diversity Becomes a Burden, DKK 2.5 million
Hans Gellersen, professor: Measuring Intent in Gaze Attention, DKK 2.5 million
Asger Givskov Jørgensen, postdoc: Molecular Footprints: Monitoring RNA Aptamer–Protein Interactions through Chemical Modifications and Nanopore Readout, DKK 2.5 million
Jiawei Xu, postdoc: Making Live Transparent Fruit Fly for Live Tissue Imaging, DKK 2.5 million
Stefanie Zollmann, associate professor: Foveated rendering based on a model of eye dominance, DKK 2.5 million
Farshid Naseri, postdoc: Using AI to Discover Battery Anti-Aging and Life-Extending Charging Patterns Based on Dynamic Pulse Modulation, DKK 2.5 million
Yang Wu, postdoc: Next-Generation Controller for Grid-Forming Power Converters through Artificial Intelligence, DKK 2.2 million
Anders Olsen, associate professor: Engineering chemical communication between kingdoms, DKK 2 million
