The humanities and social sciences
The principles for granting support to research projects are laid down by the following wording in the Foundation’s statutes:
”The Foundation may at its discretion support specific, well-delimited, large-scale projects for the advancement of scientific, artistic, cultural, social and environmental purposes, primarily for the benefit of Denmark and the Danish nation”.
In practice, the VILLUM FOUNDATION and the VELUX FOUNDATION share the grant-making in such a way that the VELUX FOUNDATION by tradition awards grants for independent research in the humanities and social sciences. The research projects may be individual (typically postdoctoral projects) or collective. The Foundation considers applications for research projects on a continuous basis, and a special application form is provided.
In addition to this, in 2007, the Foundation decided on a substantial increase in funding for this area through the implementation of the VELUX FOUNDATION Humanities Initiative, which awards independent research grants for collective research projects on the basis of a special dialogue process, whereby the Foundation invites relevant research environments to submit expressions of interest. (Read more about the funding areas of the Humanities Initiative under the menu item on the right).