DKK 210 million for research

The Danish Ministry of Science has delegated DKK 210 million to establish a new research infrastructure. The University of Copenhagen is receiving DKK 58 million for three different projects

by Anders Fjeldberg, English version by Sebastian Zieler

The Infrastructure Fund, part of the Globalisation Fund, will now award DKK 210 million to help establish a new research infrastructure in Denmark.

See a article 'Deal cut over university billions' here.

According to the press release from the Ministry of Science, the grant has received backing from politicians across the board, and will help secure the best possible facilities for research.

At the University of Copenhagen, three projects have been granted money:

Bioimaging: proteins in our genome

Approximately DKK 50 million is going to projects in bioimaging, DKK 18 million of which is for the University of Copenhagen, to be used for a collaborative project between the faculties of Life Sciences, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Science.

According to the head of the project, Professor Alexander Schulz from the Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, bioimaging is a method of which we can use advanced measurements and microscopes to study living cells without affecting or disturbing them.

The project focuses in particular on how the human genome is put together. Despite knowing what all the proteins in our genome is, we still need to find out how the proteins work.

The additional funds cannot prevent firings

The grant is the result of three years of hard work to receive support from the Globalisation Fund, says Alexander Schulz.

»It is most likely because of the joint effort from the faculties of Life Sciences, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Science that we have received the grant. Even if it does feel a little strange to receive the money at the same time as the firings are taking place at KU.«

»The grant is earmarked and can only be used for infrastructural investments. For that reason it isn’t possible to use the money to save the jobs of people facing redudancy,« says Schultz.

Open to research

A project in radio- and audio-based research has received DKK 25 million. According to the project leader, Marianne Ping Huang, Head of the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, their project is about preserving a piece of national heritage.

»There is a vast archive at Danmarks Radio (Denmark’s Radio, ed.) and many other sound archives have not been accessible to researchers and others as of yet,« she says.

The project is to develop a technical and a virtual infrastructure, so that the sound archives can be digitalised and rendered ripe for research.

Understanding sicknesses of the brain

DKK 15 million has gone to a project in pre-clinical brain imaging, the aim of which is to understand human diseases in the brain. This will be done by studying the function of diseased and healthy animal brains, Professor Gjedde of the Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology explains.

Many aspects of the brain’s function are still unknown, so it is difficult to formulate good, test-worthy hypotheses. The different scanning techniques of the project can help learning about how the brain functions in a living organism, as well as how the brain works with the other organs.

anf@adm.ku.dk

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