Danish universities to benefit from billion-kroner funding reform

»A breakthrough« and »something close to a political miracle«.

These were a couple of the glowing endorsements from political spokespersons last week as a clearly satisfied Christina Egelund presented a new research policy agreement for 2026–2029.

The Minister for Higher Education and Science had united all parties in the Danish parliament, with the minor exception of the small Citizens’ Party, to secure DKK 18.4 billion in research investments.

The breakthrough is in the agreement’s multi-year financial framework. Universities and research communities had long wanted a change to the previous system of allocating a research funding pool one year at a time.

The billions of kroner are mainly earmarked for research in security, health, and climate.

At the same time, the universities’ basic funding is being increased — something that is welcomed by university rectors.

Time to focus on things that matter

Researchers in Denmark will notice the advent of the new political agreement in two specific ways, Christina Egelund explained to the University Post after the agreement presentation.

»Firstly, the longer-term funding provides stability. This makes a difference in terms of how research projects can be planned. Secondly, we are significantly increasing the universities’ non-earmarked basic funding. This eases the pressure on research communities that are dependent on writing grant applications to both public and private foundations,« the Minister for Higher Education and Science said. She added that she hopes more researchers can move from temporary project positions to permanent roles.

»Because this means you can focus on what really matters — research — and not chasing the next round of funding. It creates resilience and stability in university research communities, which I think is really important.«

The agreement includes funding to strengthen academic freedom in Denmark, which, according to the minister, is under pressure.

»We now agree that the principles and values that safeguard researchers’ freedom and independent thought should be politically protected. I think that sends a strong signal from Denmark at a time when such principles are under attack in other parts of the world,« said the minister.

The increased focus on academic freedom will be partly put into action through a summit in early 2026, where researchers, universities and other stakeholders will join politicians to take stock of the state of academic freedom in Denmark.

Social Liberals call for permanent increase

Stinus Lindgreen, research spokesperson for the centrist Social Liberal Party, is pleased with the new multi-year research agreement.

»When you start a research project, results often don’t appear until five, ten or twenty years later. That’s why it made no sense to allocate funding on a one-year basis,« he told the University Post.

Everything is a matter of priorities — and we have the funds we have

Christina Egelund, Minister for Higher Education and Science (M)

The Social Liberal spokesperson would however have preferred a larger — and permanent — increase in basic funding.

»I also think they should have raised the basic funding in one go, instead of splitting it into innovation funding and non-earmarked funding. It’s still unclear how this will be administered. But this was the deal that we could reach — and at least we’ve taken a step in the right direction,« he said.

The University Post asked the minister why the basic funding wasn’t increased even further, as suggested by Stinus Lindgreen.

»Everything is a matter of priorities — and we have the funds we have. We raised it by half a billion last year — for one year — and now we’re increasing it to a full billion, initially for a period of four years. So I believe this is a major — and much-needed — boost to basic funding,« replied Christina Egelund.

Peace research and nuclear power

The new agreement earmarks a total DKK 6.9 billion for research into security, critical technologies and defence.

In a departure from this, the Socialist People’s Party (SF) entered the negotiations with a wish to prioritise peace research. In this, they succeeded, as the agreement sets aside DKK 25 million for this from 2026 to 2029.

»Many of our neighbouring countries have peace research centres that study wars as they may have looked like 20 years ago. I believe Denmark is well-positioned to investigate what peace might look like in a new era of hybrid and cyber warfare, and all kinds of other things we didn’t know about 20 years ago. We have huge potential to contribute to this globally. That’s why I think it’s only natural that DIIS [the Danish Institute for International Studies, ed.] should set up a strong research community in this field,« said SF research spokesperson Sofie Lippert to the University Post.

Conservative Party research spokesperson Lise Bertelsen had, at the same time, fought for the inclusion of nuclear power research in the agreement. She succeeded, and the parties have allocated DKK 40 million to nuclear research.

»This is a chance to counter fear with facts, and we’d like to go even further. We want to lift the ban on nuclear power, because we know this is one of the ways to address the green transition,« said Lise Bertelsen.

READ ALSO: No more political tinkering: Danish government launches long-term research strategy

This article was first written in Danish and published on 7 November 2025. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.