The Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) is a Danish enterprise foundation based in Hellerup, Denmark. Established in 1924, it supports research and other activities primarily in health, sustainability, and life sciences.
The foundation is the controlling shareholder of Novo Nordisk and Novonesis (formerly Novozymes A/S) through its investment arm, Novo Holdings. It holds a minority of the share capital in these companies but controls a majority of the voting rights. Income derived from these holdings constitutes the foundationâÂÂs primary source of funding.
The foundation is among the worldâÂÂs largest charitable foundations by assets. In recent years, it has awarded billions of Danish kroner (DKK) annually in grants and investments to research institutions, organisations, and initiatives in Denmark and internationally.
As of February 2026, the foundation had a net worth of US$220bn), making it the wealthiest charitable foundation in the world. In 2024, the foundation awarded US$1.83bn) in grants.
From 2016 to 2022, the foundation distributed more than US$4.5bn in grants for research, innovation, treatment, education, humanitarian and social purposes.
While the main focus lies within biomedicine and biotechnology research, the Novo Nordisk Foundation also awards grants for research in general practice and family medicine, nursing and art history.
The origins of the Novo Nordisk Foundation are linked to the early development of insulin production in Denmark in the 1920s. In 1922, Danish professor August Krogh obtained the rights to produce insulin in Scandinavia following its discovery in Canada. In 1923, Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium was established, and a foundation ownership model was adopted in December 1926 where the profits from Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium's sales were directed to the Nordisk Insulin Foundation, in order to ensure long-term stability of the enterprise and continued support for scientific research.
During the mid-20th century, the Danish insulin industry developed through two principal companies: Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium and Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium. The two companies operated separately for several decades before merging in 1989 to form Novo Nordisk A/S. The foundation structures associated with the companies were subsequently consolidated, forming the basis of the present Novo Nordisk Foundation.
In the decades following the merger, the foundation evolved from primarily holding industrial ownership stakes to becoming one of the worlds largest philanthropic foundations by assets. Its financial resources are derived primarily from its controlling ownership stake in Novo Nordisk through Novo Holdings A/S.
During the 2010s and 2020s, the foundation expanded its grant activities in scale and scope. In addition to funding biomedical and clinical research, it increased its support for initiatives related to sustainability, environmental research, and life science innovation. Annual grant distributions increased substantially during this period (DKK 5.8 billion in 2017 compared to DKK 10.1 billion in 2024), reflecting the financial performance of Novo Nordisk and the foundationâÂÂs investment activities.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation is an established enterprise foundation. It is a self-governing entity with no owners, focusing on long-term ownership of the Novo Group (Novo Nordisk and Novozymes) while combining business and philanthropy with scientific, humanitarian and social purposes. The Novo Nordisk Foundation's investment activities are managed by its 100%-owned subsidiary, Novo Holdings A/S whose sole purpose is to invest the foundation's wealth and ensure financial returns. Novo Holdings A/S is also the holding company for the foundation's ownership in Novo Group (Novo Nordisk and Novozymes).
The Novo Nordisk Foundation is obligated to maintain its controlling ownership in the Novo Group's two largest companies: Novo Nordisk and Novozymes.
The class A-shares in both companies (Novo Nordisk and Novozymes) are unlisted and consequently cannot be publicly traded. The voting weight of the A-shares are 10 times those of B-shares in both companies.
The current chairman of the Novo Nordisk Foundation is Lars Rebien Sørensen (former CEO of Novo Nordisk) and Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen is the current CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation receives cash flows and profits from paid dividends from Novo Holdings A/S. The paid dividends are taxed in the underlying companies in correspondence with Danish corporate tax laws, prior to being paid out as dividends.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation is the primary owner of Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S through the foundation's subsidiary company Novo Holdings A/S. Aside from Novo Nordisk and Novozymes, the foundation is also a major shareholder in more than 135 other companies as of 2022. The foundation's financial endowment is maintained by dividends and returns on these investments.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation offers grants under five main models:
The foundation has an objective of providing support for scientific, humanitarian and social purposes. The grants go primarily to support research in biomedicine, biotechnology, general medicine, nursing and art history at public knowledge institutions. Humanitarian and social purposes includes the Steno Diabetes Center research hospital.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation awards several prizes, including the Novo Nordisk Prize for outstanding research in medical science and the Novozymes Prize focusing on biotechnology and environmental research. The Novo Nordisk Foundation also recognise achievements in teaching and education in the sciences through awards such as the Hagedorn Prize and various scholarships and grants to support upcoming scientists and educators.
The level of research funding concentration granted from enterprise foundations has consistently been a central issue in science policy discussions. Intensive concentration has been viewed both as a means to enhance and direct research investments effectively and as a concerning trend leading to excessive competition, reduced diversity, and the selection of conservative topics.
There is a focus on evaluating potential imbalances in the distribution of research funds in Danish society regarding the role of the Novo Nordisk Foundation in advancing scientific research and innovation.
One criticism is related to the foundation's significant economic influence in the research landscape. The substantial grants from the foundation may inadvertently overshadow other sources of research funding and potentially lead to a concentration of resources in certain research areas closely aligned with the foundation's priorities and interests.
Concerns have been raised about the potential influence of the Novo Nordisk Foundation's agenda on the direction of scientific research. Critics express concerns about the potential effect of the foundation's allocation of funds on the diversity of research topics and perspectives within the Danish scientific community, as it tends to prioritize projects that align with its strategic goals.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation has faced criticism for the concentration of its research funding, often favouring a select group of established researchers. This trend, prevalent in many countries, leads to funding disparities, where a majority of resources are allocated to a small percentage of researchers, often to the detriment of early-career, female, and diverse researchers. In response to these concerns, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has introduced partial randomisation in its grant allocation process. This approach was designed to mitigate biases and increase the diversity of funded research, aiming to support projects that might otherwise be overlooked. The effectiveness of this strategy has been under evaluation during a three-year trial period.
In 2024 and 2025, the Novo Nordisk Foundation expanded several of its grant programmes and entered a number of large-scale international collaborations.
In May 2024, the foundation convened a Global Science Summit in Denmark, bringing together approximately 150 scientific leaders to discuss challenges related to health, sustainability, and technology. The summit was also used to announce several new funding commitments, including a three-way partnership with Wellcome and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in which each organisation committed US$100 million - a total of US$300 million - to fund global health research over three years, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. The partnership targeted the health impacts of climate change, infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance, and the links between nutrition, immunity and disease.
In March 2024, the foundation announced plans to co-fund the construction of an AI supercomputer in Denmark, later named Gefion. The system was built in partnership with the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) through a jointly established company, the Danish Centre for AI Innovation A/S (DCAI). The foundation committed approximately DKK 600 million to the project's initial costs, while EIFO contributed DKK 100 million. Gefion is based on an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD architecture comprising 1,528 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs. The system was inaugurated in October 2024 in the presence of King Frederik X and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. In November 2024, Gefion entered the TOP500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers at rank 21. The system is hosted in a Digital Realty data centre in Denmark running on 100 percent renewable energy and is intended to support research in healthcare, life sciences, and sustainability.
In 2024, the foundation stated that it intended to direct a growing share of its annual grants to recipients outside Denmark, citing the global nature of challenges such as climate change and health inequity. In April 2025, the Challenge Programme - the foundation's flagship competitive research grant scheme - was opened to applicants based in the Schengen Area, Ireland, and the United Kingdom for the first time, with the maximum individual project grant raised to DKK 75 million.
In May 2025, the foundation entered into a strategic framework agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO), pledging up to DKK 380 million (approximately US$57 million) over the period 2025âÂÂ2028 to support WHO programmes targeting non-communicable diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and health system resilience. The commitment was announced at the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva.
The foundation has also expanded its operational presence in low- and middle-income countries. It has supported the Partnership for Education of Health Professionals (PEP), a programme aimed at strengthening the education of nurses and other health workers in India and Kenya. The University of Copenhagen was awarded a DKK 52.9 million grant under PEP to co-develop health professions education capacity in India and Kenya, focusing on cardiometabolic diseases, healthcare workforce shortages, and underserved populations.
In December 2024, the Novo Nordisk Foundation announced a grant of up to DKK 1.05 billion (approximately â¬134 million) over seven years to establish the Novo Nordisk Foundation Biotechnology Research Institute for the Green Transition (BRIGHT) at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). BRIGHT is structured as a research hub within DTU, intended to develop and scale biologically based production methods - known as biosolutions - that can substitute fossil-derived materials and processes in sectors such as agriculture, food production, and industrial manufacturing. The institute was designed to build on the work of the existing Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at DTU, whose activities were scheduled to transition into BRIGHT or be phased out as the new grant programme was implemented. BRIGHT began its activities in 2025.
In January 2024, the foundation committed up to USD 25 million over three years to the Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X), a global non-profit public-private partnership that funds early-stage development of products to prevent, diagnose, and treat drug-resistant bacterial infections. CARB-X is headquartered at Boston University and is supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Wellcome Trust, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and several national governments, including Germany and the United Kingdom. The foundation's commitment to CARB-X formed part of a broader set of activities by the foundation and its investment arm, Novo Holdings, targeting antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which also included the REPAIR Impact Fund - established by Novo Holdings in 2018 with a total budget of USD 165 million to invest in companies developing therapies targeting resistant microorganisms - and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Initiative for Vaccines and Immunity (NIVI).
Stem cell-based therapy research: In 2018, the Novo Nordisk Foundation invested in stem cell-based therapy research to focus on new therapeutic approaches for chronic diseases, exploring the regenerative potential of stem cells.
COVID-19 pandemic: The Novo Nordisk Foundation contributed to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. As of June 2020), the foundation had donated DKK 366.2 million (approx $55.77 million) for COVID-19 related measures, including test centres in Denmark (DKK 250 million for 11 COVID-19 test centres ), financing research projects aimed at mitigating the health consequences of COVID-19, emergency production of ethanol in cooperation with the Carlsberg Foundation to manufacture hand sanitizers and disinfection.
Pandemic antiviral discovery initiative: In 2022, the Novo Nordisk Foundation formed in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Open Philanthropy to focus on developing accessible oral antiviral treatments for viruses with pandemic potential. The initiative aimed to support researchers globally in identifying and developing phase 2-ready antiviral drug candidates.
Vaccine development for respiratory diseases: In 2023, the Novo Nordisk Foundation allocated $260 million to develop vaccines for respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis and influenza. This initiative, known as the Novo Nordisk Foundation Initiative for Vaccines and Immunity (NIVI), collaborated with the University of Copenhagen and Denmark's Statens Serum Institut. It emphasised generating immunity in the airway, a novel approach in vaccine development.
Combatting antimicrobial resistance and tuberculosis: In 2023, the Novo Nordisk Foundation worked on developing vaccines and treatments for tuberculosis, addressing the broader issue of antimicrobial resistance.
Cell therapy facility: In 2023, the Novo Nordisk Foundation launched an initiative to support research infrastructure development, specifically aimed at facilitating the creation and scaling up of cell therapy solutions and products.
In 2025, the Novo Nordisk Foundation received the Prix Galien CEE Pro Bono Humanum Award, a regional distinction presented as part of the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) edition of the international Prix Galien programme. According to the award organizers, the Novo Nordisk Foundation was selected for its contributions to global health, scientific research, and initiatives aimed at improving health outcomes across diverse populations.The award was presented at the Prix Galien CEE ceremony in Warsaw. Poland. Chief Executive Officer of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, accepted the award on behalf of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
The Prix Galien programme, established in 1970, is regarded as an international awards platform recognizing achievements in medical research, pharmaceutical innovation and humanitarian impact. The CEE edition of the programme focuses on contributions to public health across Central and Eastern Europe.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation is headed by Chairman of the Board Lars Rebien Sørensen and CEO Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation's Board of Directors consists of a total of 10 members. In addition to the Chairman and Vice Chairman, the Board consists of four members elected by statute, two of whom must have medical or scientific expertise, and three employee representatives from Novo Nordisk and Novonesis (formerly Novozymes).
The Foundation's management is responsible for executing the decisions of the Board of Directors and for overseeing the Foundation's activities and operations. In June 2025, the Foundation introduced a new executive management structure, which involved organizational restructuring and staff reductions.