Researchers at Danish universities, companies and institutions have become so good at writing applications that they have secured €1,083 million in research and innovation funding from the EU's Horizon Europe funding programme since 2022. Among higher education institutions, DTU ranks number three among the most successful universities in the EU. However, despite the success, the total funding for research is not increasing because the Danish government is reducing its support for research accordingly.
"It is very gratifying that we have research in Denmark that the EU and partners can see the value in. DTU is one of the universities in the EU that receives the most research and innovation funding, but when the Danish government continues to offset EU funds, it places limits on research and international collaboration. Therefore, our call to politicians is to abolish the offsetting so that we strengthen our involvement in European research programmes and research for the benefit of Danish society," says DTU President Anders Bjarklev.
Ceiling on research funding
Denmark currently has a national target of a public research budget of one per cent of GDP. The money that universities, private companies and other research institutions attract from EU research programmes for their projects is part of the public research budget. This means that when the public research budget is budgeted at one per cent of GDP in the annual finance acts, the EU research funding attracted also counts towards that target. In other words, the one per cent target has become a ceiling and not a minimum. If Danish players increase their take-up, it will make up a larger share of the one per cent target. The state will then reduce its investments in research accordingly, as less state funding is now needed to reach the target.
12 organizations: Drop the offsetting of EU funds
In April, Universities Denmark, on behalf of 12 organizations, including DTU, sent a call to the government to stop offsetting EU funds in research. In the call, the 12 organizations propose that the calculation basis for the one per cent target be changed so that only the contribution that Denmark makes to EU research programmes counts towards the research budget. The money that research institutions and companies attract in addition to this is not deducted.
Changing the calculation method will lead to a higher level of ambition for Danish research because it means that the state research budget will be increased by the difference between Denmark's repatriation of EU research funds and Denmark's contribution to EU research programmes. The Danish Parliament will be able to use this money for new research and innovation activities, including international cooperation.
The 12 organizations call for the calculation basis to be changed as soon as possible, e.g. as of the 2025 Finance Act.
