DTU Biosustain receives a grant of 100 M€ from Novo Nordisk Foundation to create green solutions

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Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation (Denmark’s largest foundation) has awarded a grant of 100 M€ to DTU Biosustain, paving the way for the development of new sustainable consumer products and strengthening Danish biotechnology research.
Press release: “EUR 100 million support to create green solutions and products for the benefit of society”, 10/6/2020.

Figure 1. DTU Biosustain receives a grant of 100 M€ from Novo Nordisk Foundation to create green solutions (taken from the press release)

The Novo Nordisk Foundation provided the economic framework when the centre was established in 2011. The new funding period runs from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025. Over the next five years, the additional funding will ensure that the centre can continue its research activities and become a world leader when it comes to gaining knowledge and developing technologies for sustainable production of biochemicals and green consumer products by mastering the design of cell factories.

DTU Biosustain will focus on three main areas: sustainable chemicals, biobased products and microbial foods and feed ingredients. Research within these areas will be an incentive to promote more sustainable lifestyles and use biology as a tool to develop biobased products such as medicine, foodstuff ingredients and speciality chemicals. The centre will establish an infrastructure to be able to use big data in the design of the next generation of cell factories (a biofoundry with the latest technological developments within genome-scale analysis and advanced robot technologies).

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