The two AU professors Bjørk Hammer and Søren Riis Paludan, from iNANO and the Department of Biomedicine respectively, have received a total of DKK 24 million under the Sapere Aude programme run by the Danish Council for Independent Research. A total of ten AU researchers have been awarded a sizeable sum of money to kick start new, pioneering research projects.

2012.10.02 | AU Kommunikation

In 2010 the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF) started making generous grants amounting to many million Danish kroner to both young and more experienced talented researchers under the Sapere Aude career programme. This year is the first time that the DFF has presented grants at the top stage of its career programme, stage 3, which is designed for elite researchers and which makes it possible to pursue innovative and ambitious ideas over a period of five years.

Two of the seven stage 3 grants have been made to AU professors who are both former EliteForsk grant winners: Søren Riis Paludan (Health) and Bjørk Hammer (ST), each of whom has been given almost DKK 12 million for a pioneering research project. The two professors expect the grants to help push back the borders of our knowledge in two areas of research: the development of vaccines against the herpes virus, and the production of biochemical products.

Hunting for a new, improved vaccine

Professor Søren Riis Paludan has been researching into immunology and virology for many years now – efforts that were rewarded with the prestigious EliteForsk grant in 2011. Thanks to this new, major grant from the Sapere Aude programme, he will be able to launch a new research project to find out how the immune system combats the herpes virus: a virus that is the cause of “minor” problems such as cold sores and chicken pox as well as more serious conditions such as meningitis and certain forms of cancer. The hope is that the project can help to develop new, improved vaccines that prevent the herpes virus from developing.

Simplifying biochemical processes

In 2009 Bjørk Hammer was presented with the EliteForsk grant in recognition of his work in modelling physical-chemical properties and the surfaces of materials. He now has the chance to launch a long-term research project to study the structure of molecules in connection with the development of biochemical products such as food ingredients. The goal is to develop a new material that can make difficult and costly product development processes both cheaper and easier.

Stage 2 grants for eight new research managers

The winners of the programme’s stage 2 grants have also been announced recently. This category covers young, established researchers, and a good number of this year’s winners work at AU. Eight AU researchers will receive between DKK 6.2 million and DKK 7 million each, and now have four years to kick start and manage their own research projects.
The eight researchers are:

• Troels Myrup Christensen (ARTS)
• Aurelien Roman Dantan (ST)
• Anne Rasmussen (BSS)
• Maximilian Stritzinger (ST)
• Jakob Skou Pedersen (HEALTH)
• Mogens Christensen (ST)
• Svend-Erik Vrede Skaaning (BSS)
• Thomas Mailund (ST)

The ten AU researchers among this year’s winners have been awarded DKK 79 million out of the total sum granted in 2012 (DKK 210 million).

This year’s stage 1 grants will be announced at the beginning of December.