Two CHEM professors receive Villum Experiment grants
VILLUM FONDEN # VELUX FONDEN has created the “Villum Experiment" grants to test research ideas that challenge the norm and have the potential to change the world and our knowledge of the world. There are big, small, and really wild research questions - Can plants help dispose of the greenhouse gas methane? What role does nanoplastic play in the development of bacteria? Do the building blocks of life arise under glaciers?
Two professors at the Department of Chemistry, UCPH - Kemisk Institut, Københavns Universitet are receiving the “Villum Experiment grants” – each receiving DKK 2 million. Professor Henrik Kjærgaard for the research project “New Chemistry by Glaciers”, and professor Morten Meldal for the research project “Microzymes: Synthetic, atactic D-L-microprotein enzymes“.
The common denominator for the projects is originality. ”The focal point of our Experiment program is to give the researchers the opportunity to work with the technical and scientific research ideas that they themselves are most interested in. The program is an experiment in itself - it is designed completely differently from typical research grants. During the processing process, applicants are anonymized for the assessment panel. The international assessors can therefore only assess the applicants based on whether their research ideas are ground-breaking – without the possibility of looking at the applicants' CV and academic merits," says VILLUM FONDEN's research director Thomas Bjørnholm.
Department of Chemistry congratulates Professor Henrik Kjærgaard and Professor Morten Meldal on receiving the “Villum Experiment grants”.
Read the full announcement:
https://veluxfoundations.dk/en/villum-experiment-2022
