PhDs and PostDocs

The STAR programme

Advance your scientific career and employment prospects by enrolling in our Novo Nordisk R&D Science, Talent, Attraction and Recruitment (STAR) programme.

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PostDoc Fellowships

Two types of PostDoc Fellowships are funded by the STAR programme:

• STAR Novo Nordisk PostDocs (in-coming) – senior scientists with an excellent and documented scientific track record
• STAR International PostDocs (out-going) - especially talented scientists who have obtained their PhD degree within recent years

PostDoc Fellowships are intended to strengthen the recruitment base for Novo Nordisk R&D, to help to establish or expand relations to Centres of Excellence, and to generate new knowledge and skills to strengthen competences and innovation.

Application process
Please consult the open position section for vacant Postdoctoral positions. These are advertised throughout the year. You can sign up for our Job agent in order to be alerted whenever there are open positions. E-mails with unsolicited applications will not be considered.

Project applications can only be submitted by a Novo Nordisk scientist
This means that you cannot apply for a fellowship directly unless it is advertised on the open position section.

PhD Fellowships

Currently, Novo Nordisk co-finances around 80 PhD fellows in the R&D organisation. Some are Industrial PhD fellows who spend about 50% of their time at Novo Nordisk. Others are associated with PhD schools at Danish universities. Novo Nordisk and the university jointly define the project. Projects must be related to Novo Nordisk's R&D areas.

• To be considered, you must hold a master’s degree with a grade point average belonging to the top 20% of the grading scale at the university where your Master's degree was awarded. A certificate from the university of this is required, if you graduated from a non-Danish university. Danish graduates must satisfy the marks criteria for the Danish Industrial PhD programme, see below
• Fellows under the Danish Industrial PhD programme can be of any nationality. The university must be officially authorised in the country in question to conduct PhD programmes. If the host university is outside Denmark, a Danish university must be attached to the Industrial PhD project as a third party
• Other PhD fellowships must be linked to a PhD school at a Danish university

Applications can only be submitted by a Novo Nordisk scientist. You cannot apply for a fellowship directly. Your professor or others at your faculty may be of help to contact a relevant Novo Nordisk R&D scientist. Novo Nordisk does not have a repository of PhD projects.

For Industrial PhD fellowships the requirments for marks are:

• Weighted grade point average of 8.2 on the Danish grade scale for bachelor and master’s degrees
• Grade point of 10 on the Danish grade scale for the master thesis.

There are 3 deadlines for applications per year for Novo Nordisk scientists to submit applications.

More information on the Industrial PhD fellowships can be found here.

For more information regarding fellowships at a Danish PhD school, please contact the PhD school directly.

Scholarships

Novo Nordisk, together with Novozymes, provides scholarships to around 40 master’s students annually. Grants for up to one year are awarded to support exceptional students in the final year of their master’s programme for the thesis project.

To be eligible you must be enrolled at a Danish university or Lund University in Sweden and work in a field relevant to Novo Nordisk R&D strategy.

The master’s students are located at the university and work on a master thesis project defined by the university supervisor and the student. Scholarship recipients must not receive other grants during the scholarship period and are expected to not undertake any paid job during the scholarship period.

Application process
Applications can be submitted once per year following a call distributed to all relevant faculties at universities in Denmark and Sweden (Lund University only). Call for applications will be issued in September with deadline for submission in October. The grant starts in February the following year.