Explore our grantees and awardees

Grant category: LEO Foundation Dr Abildgaard Fellowships

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

The LEO Foundation Dr Abildgaard Fellows received a two-year leadership coaching program as an add-on grant to their existing fellowship.

The LEO Foundation Fellows Leadership Coaching Program (LCP) will help identifying the fellow’s key strengths as well as their potential key leadership obstacles and situations they find most challenging within leadership – and how to handle these situations. During the coaching sessions they will identify and train new leadership skills going forward which can help them perform even better.

Potential themes for the leadership coaching sessions could be elements from the following sections:

• Learn more about your leadership style and get the best out of it
• Setting up – and leading the team
• Stakeholder Management
• Mentoring

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Go Zebra is an organization dedicated to stimulating the STEM curiosity of children through educational material with a special focus on engineering and innovation. In the project, it joins forces with researchers Emma Aller (molecular biologist), Abdi Hedayat (conservator), and Tina Ibsen (astrophysicist and science communicator) in developing two free educational courses on evolution and plant science for 3rd-4th grade teachers and pupils. Teachers with a formal STEM education are in short supply, and the two courses will be designed so that they can also be taught by teachers without a STEM specialty. Classes participating in the project will have workshops facilitated by Go Zebra at their schools, and the developed material will become available for free.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

The project supports and develops the annual Bloom Festival on nature and science, which is free and open to everyone, in 2026-28. In addition to the festival program which targets the public in general, the activities include the continuation of the Bloom School initiative – a one-day event targeting school children – and Bloom Explore – digital science dissemination. Furthermore, a new activity, Bloom High School, will be introduced, targeting the upper secondary school level with an additional festival day customized for this age group.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

The Ungdommens Folkemøde festival in 2026-28 will be expanded with an area designated for STEM and health sciences-related activities, with the overall aim of increasing awareness of the role of science in developing society and solving societal challenges. The focus will be on dissemination from young to young. Engaging activities, such as hands-on experiments, workshops, and talks, will spark curiosity, provide STEM experiences outside the classroom, and allow visitors to meet other young people who are pursuing scientific interests in different ways, as well as STEM professionals. The annual two-day event is visited by 30,000 visitors each year, typically between the ages of 15 to 25.

Grant category: Serendipity Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén serendipitously found that ~15% of sequenced phages encode two adjacent, independently active endolysin genes, often with distinct catalytic and binding domains. In one example, each enzyme is active on its own, and modelling suggests they also form a complex. While developing a custom endolysin predictor incorporating gene neighbourhood context, he detected genomic patterns missed by other tools. Most studies focus on individual lysins or domains, overlooking adjacent full-length endolysin genes. His large-scale analysis of 21k phage genomes revealed this hidden trend and a possible unrecognised lysis strategy hiding in plain sight.

The project will begin with phage AA002, which infects Staphylococcus hominis, a contributor to human body odour. Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén will clone, express, and purify its two endolysins, assess their activity alone and in combination, and investigate synergy and complex formation. Structural modelling will provide mechanistic insight. In parallel, he will mine publicly available phage genomes to identify additional dual-endolysin systems and prioritise further candidates for testing on skin-associated bacteria under skin-like conditions.

This study will define a novel category of cooperative phage lytic enzymes, offering insights into phage genome organisation and enzyme evolution. Beyond fundamental discovery, these enzymes could serve as precise, microbiome-friendly actives for non-antibiotic applications such as next-generation deodorants.

Grant category: Serendipity Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

“Stretch-mediated tissue expansion” is used to grow extra skin during breast reconstruction. A mouse model mimicking this clinical process was used to unravel fibroblast-epithelial crosstalk supporting keratinocyte self-renewal. Unexpectedly, the research project found that stretching alters gene expression in Schwann cells, which support nerve function, and reduces touch sensitivity. However, how stretching impacts skin nerves and sensation remains unclear. In light of this serendipitous discovery, the project now plans to investigate how Schwann cells contribute to the regeneration and re-innervation of peripheral sensory neurons in stretched skin.

The new research project – SkinSense – will explore how stretching affects peripheral sensory neurons and Schwann cells, which are key to skin sensation. Single-cell transcriptomics and high-resolution imaging will be used to study how peripheral sensory neurons are affected in terms of structure, function, and repair. Based on these findings, gene therapy approaches using adeno-associated viruses will be tested to restore nerve function and recover skin sensation.

Loss of skin sensitivity after breast reconstruction can greatly affect the quality of life of women. Yet, the reasons behind this sensory loss are not well understood. SkinSense aims to uncover the biological causes of this dysfunction and test ways to restore sensation. This research could lead to new treatments that improve sensory outcomes for patients undergoing reconstructive surgery.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Biotech Academy Camp is a free, annual event organized by Biotech Academy – a non-profit organization run by ambitious students from Danish universities. This project supports three Biotech Academy Camps for 30 high school students from all over Denmark. The camps combine theory and lab work at Technical University of Denmark and expose students to opportunities within commercial R&D through company visits. They are run by master’s and bachelor students from the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen. The topic changes every year, but in 2025 the theme will be genetic modification. The camp will focus on how genetic modification can be used to address societal challenges, develop and improve cell factories in industrial contexts, and open up discussions about research ethics.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

Matematikcenter offers free math support to children and young people in Denmark through local math cafés, the digital platform Webmatematik.dk, and the online math café Webmatlive.dk.

Through its initiatives, Matematikcenter breaks down barriers in mathematics, strengthens students’ skills, helps them succeed in math, and demonstrates how mathematics is an essential part of both education and the job market.

By engaging volunteer role models, Matematikcenter creates a safe learning environment where students can receive support at their level – regardless of where they are.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

With the album Mininaut Musik, complex scientific topics are transformed into catchy, educational songs for children aged 3–6.

The album includes 8 original songs on topics such as poop, plastic, skin, and plants, giving children extraordinary knowledge about subjects in their immediate world.

Behind the album is Radionauterne, who for over 8 years have created engaging and innovative science communication for children aged 3–10. The project Mininaut Musik stems from Radionauterne’s popular podcast for 3–6-year-olds, Mininaut. The idea is to link the original songs directly to selected podcast episodes – both existing and future ones – thereby creating an extra dimension to an already successful science communication project.

Grant category: Education and Awareness Grants

Year: 2025

Geography: Denmark

“Denmark in the Future Global AI Society” is an ambitious documentary TV series for DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) that, in an entertaining format, aims to engage Danes in a debate about artificial intelligence (AI) and the societal changes that come with it.

Across six episodes, the series will follow a number of leading Danish AI researchers who, in a time of transition, are confronted with ethical, political, and existential questions surrounding the technological shift. In the international race for new AI technologies – led by the USA and China – the researchers are pursuing groundbreaking methods and unique data to develop AI solutions that not only make Denmark competitive but also protect its citizens and democracy.