novo nordisk foundation

The Novo Nordisk Foundation is a Danish foundation with corporate interests. The Foundation has two objectives: 1) to provide a stable basis for the commercial and research activities of the companies in the Novo Group(*); and 2) to support scientific, humanitarian and social purposes. The Foundation has a 90-year history and the vision is to contribute significantly to research and development that improves the health and welfare of people. Since 2010, the Foundation has donated more than EUR 2.1 billion (DKK 16 billion) for research, innovation, treatment, education and humanitarian and social purposes. Through its holding company Novo Holdings A/S the Foundation is a major shareholder in Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S as well as more than 75 other companies. The Foundation awards grants for research, primarily at public universities and hospitals. While the main focus lies within biomedicine and biotechnology research, the Foundation also awards grants for research in general practice and family medicine, nursing and art history. All researchers have full publishing freedom and can decide their own research priorities. No Novo Group(*) company has preferential access to research results funded by grants from the Foundation. In recent years, the Foundation has increased its focus on innovation, diabetes treatment and grants for humanitarian and social purposes. In 2016 the Foundation awarded EUR 400 million (DKK 2.945 billion) to the Capital Region of Denmark to establish Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, a diabetes treatment and research institution. The Foundation gets its income from dividends and returns on investments in life-science companies and financial investments made by Novo Holdings A/S, a private limited liability company wholly owned by the Foundation and the holding company in the Novo Group and responsible for managing the Foundations assets. (*) The Novo Group Companies: Novo Nordisk A/S, Novozymes A/S and NNIT A/S.