The Novo Nordisk Foundation is requesting proposals for highly ambitious and collaborative projects that aim to generate important new knowledge about human invasive fungal diseases and enable the development of better diagnostics and therapeutics.

The ‘2026 NNF Challenge Programme: Unravelling the Pathways of Human Invasive Fungal Diseases’ call offers substantial funding for up to six years to support research programmes, with high transformative and impactful potential, that will increase understanding of the pathogenesis and molecular pathways of invasive fungal infections and diseases to aid the development of globally implementable tools to fight human disease.

There is a total call budget of up to DKK 150 million (approx. €20 million/£17 million). Grants are in the range of DKK 40 million (€5.4 million/£4.5 million) to DKK 75 million (€10 million/£8.5 million) for projects up to six years in duration.

Projects eligible for support could include, for example:

• Elucidating the role of fungal virulence factors – the fungal and environmental factors driving the switch from commensal to virulent pathogen are somewhat poorly characterised. Studies investigating fungal virulence factors should facilitate understanding of how fungal invasive diseases are established and maintained, with the long-term aim to inform new treatments.
• Studying host-pathogen interactions – given the commensal nature of fungal pathogens, understanding how they are sensed and eliminated by the human host is imperative. Studies to increase understanding of anti-fungal host defences should also aim to improve the management of life-threatening invasive fungal infections.
• Understanding mechanisms of anti-fungal resistance – pathogenic fungi are evolving resistance to all licensed systemic antifungal drugs. Understanding of resistance mechanisms is somewhat limited, and new knowledge is therefore highly needed to inform novel and better drug targets and design.
• Advancing fungal disease markers – studies focusing on the role and detection of fungal metabolites, toxins and biomarkers of pathogenesis that would facilitate the development of improved diagnostic tools, ultimately aiding in the timely identification and treatment of these diseases.

Research groups eligible for support should include a main applicant, plus up to three co-applicants. The main applicant must be an independent tenured/tenure-track researcher with their own research group who is employed at a university, hospital, or non-profit research organisation in Europe (including the European Union, Schengen Area and United Kingdom).

At least one applicant (either main- or co-applicant) must be at least 75% employed and have their research group at a Danish university, hospital, or non-profit research organisation. Overall, the programme aims to support a consortium of two to four research groups that will collaborate to share leading scientific expertise.