25 August 2011

DKK 33m to new heads of research

Monday 22 August, the Danish Council for Independent research awarded more than DkK 33m to four elite researchers at the Faculty of Social Sciences. The funds form part of the Danish Council for Independent Research's Sapere Aude - a career programme aimed at young researchers.

Results to come

The millions are awarded to Thomas Habekost and Lotte Thomsen, who are both employed at the Department of Psychology, Morten Axel Pedersen at the Department of Anthropology and Søren Leth Petersen, Department of Economics. The funds awarded allow the researchers to establish and head their own research groups.

- I am very proud that researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences are able to establish results that enjoy such respect that also the Danish Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology wishes to invest in results to come. It strengthens the establishment of the research environments that are of huge importance to the Faculty, also in an internatonal perspective. Congratulations to the recipients, says Dean Troels Østergaard Sørensen, the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The Faculty receives four out of the 33 grants awarded nationwide, which, according to the Dean, is very satisfactory.

Outstanding projects

Soon, the four researchers may widen the scope of the research projecs for which they have applied for funding, which is the following:

Department of Psychology

Project: The brain's level of activity and ability to be vigilant (DKK: Hjernens aktivitetsniveau og evnen til at være opmærksom).
Recipient: Associate Professor, PhD Thomas Habekost
Amount: 8.6m.

Project: Grammar of the social life: Basic relational building blocks and the significance of relational appreciation and preferences on the life and position of man (DKK: Det sociale livs grammatik: Bassale relationelle byggeklodser og betydning af relationelle forståelser og præferencer for menneskets liv og holdninger).
Recipient: Assistant Professor, PhD Lotte Thomsen
Amount: DKK 8.6m.

Department of Anthropology

Project: Wanted unwantedness: Ethnographic studies of warped intentions (DKK: Villet uvillighed: Etnografiske studier af forvrængede intentioner).
Recipient: Associate Professor, PhD Morten Axel Pedersen
Amount: DKK 8.4m.

Økonomisk Institut

Project: Pension scheme (DKK: Pensionsplan)
Recipient: Professor, PhD Søren Leth-Petersen (in cooperation with the Danish National Centre for Social Research)
Amount: DKK 7.6m.

In 2010, three researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences were likewise awarded funds worth a total of DKK 22m by the Danish Council for Indenpendent Research.

On 22 August 2011, the Danish Council for Independent Research awards more than DKK 250m to 33 young elite researchers. More than half of the heads of research are employed at the University of Copenhagen; all in all 16 of which four are employed at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Abouth the Danish Council for Independant Research

The Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF) is an independent council that, in 2011, is expected to award around DKK 1.1bn to Danish research. The Council funds specific research activities within all scientific areas that are based on the researchers' own initiatives and that improve the quality and internationalisation of Danish research.

The Danish Council for Independent Research also provides scientific advisory services within all scientific areas to the Danish Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, the Danish Parliament and the Danish Government. Furthermore, the Danish Council for Independent Research strengthens the dissemination and application of research findings as well as participate in international research collaborations.