To apply for a 2/3-financed thematic PhD scholarship in classical endocrinology, the following requirements must be fulfilled: 

• Only PhD candidates may apply for a PhD scholarship (not the Principal Investigator).
• You must have a Master’s degree from a Danish university or an equivalent degree from a foreign university (approved by the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science) by the time of application*.  
• You must not already be enrolled as a PhD student at the time of receiving the grant notification letter (26 November 2026). This means that already enrolled PhD students cannot apply for or obtain funding from DDEA. We reserve the right to check with the relevant institution whether you are enrolled as a PhD student. 
• Your principal supervisor must be employed at the faculty of the Danish university at which you apply for enrolment, and they must conduct research as an associate professor or professor within the subject studied by you.  

Please also consult our Funding Terms.

* If the exam is not yet passed, the applicant should enclose a statement from the supervisor of the master’s thesis confirming when the thesis will be handed in and when the exam will take place. The master’s degree certificate must be forwarded to the DDEA Secretariat no later than six months after the receipt of the grant notification letter. If we have not received your master’s degree certificate six months after the grant notification or if you do not pass the master’s exam, the PhD scholarship will be withdrawn.

Applications must be written in English and submitted via our online application form. 

Please note that you must be logged into the DDEA Grant Website to submit an application. You can create an account here. 

You can edit and review your data before the final submission. After submitting your final application, you will receive an email acknowledging receipt of your application. If you do not receive this email, please contact the DDEA Secretariat at ouh.ddea@rsyd.dk to make sure that your application has been successfully submitted. Please note that the date of submission stated in the email is the date when you created the application. 

You must upload your application in a single PDF file!  
 
The application should include the following documents, which should be numbered as specified below:  

0. Title page: Name of applicant, project title, names and affiliations of principal supervisor and co-supervisor.

1. Abstract in English (half an A4 page). 

2. Lay abstract in Danish (half an A4 page). If you do not speak Danish, please ask your principal supervisor to assist you in preparing the abstract. Please note that the lay abstract must be written specifically for a Danish lay audience – that is, in language understandable to non-specialists – and must not be a direct translation of the English abstract.

3. Project description including:

• Specific aims
• Background and significance of the project to the research area
• Preliminary studies (if applicable)
• Research design and methods
• Time schedule for the course of study
• Literature cited

The page limit for the project description is five pages (font size 12, single spacing), including figures and tables, but excluding references. We will not consider applications with project descriptions exceeding the page limit. 

4. Motivation letter (half an A4 page), including an explanation of why you are the right candidate to complete the project and your future career plans.

5. A short description (one to two A4 pages) on how your research project relates to the four DDEA funding focus areas*: Internationalisation, interdisciplinarity, collaboration across sectors, and patient and/or public involvement (in four separate paragraphs). Importantly, the reviewers will also assess this part. 

6. Recommendation letter from your principal supervisor, including a description of the research environment where you will carry out the PhD project and confirmation that you can carry out the PhD project at the department where your principal supervisor is employed.

7. Your Curriculum Vitae (including documentation of research experience e.g. experience with working in a research environment, pre-graduate research, participation in research conferences/meetings, studies abroad, etc.) (max. two A4 pages). 

8. Your publication list including journal impact factor (no page limit).

9. Copy of your master’s degree certificate including grades (from both BA and Master).

10. Short CV of your principal supervisor (max. two A4 pages).

11. Other relevant documents e.g. documentation for collaboration agreements regarding change of research environment and/or studies abroad (email correspondence is sufficient documentation).

* The four funding focus areas of DDEA:

• International collaboration: Such as study abroad; recruitment from abroad; and/or affiliation of collaborators from abroad. The collaboration can be documented by e.g. a collaboration agreement or an email from the collaborator describing the nature of the collaboration. The international collaboration must create actual value for the project and the applicant, and it should therefore be incorporated in the project from the beginning. 

• Interdisciplinary collaboration: Such as affiliation of collaborators from other research disciplines e.g. basic science, clinical science, epidemiology, psychology; and/or integration of different research disciplines in the project. The collaboration must be described in the research plan with regard to the description of the hypothesis, methods and/or idea development. The collaboration should result in synergy between the collaborators. 

• Collaboration across sectors: Such as affiliation of collaborators from other sectors e.g. industry, general practice, university hospitals; formalized agreements with collaborators from other sectors; and/or change of research/work environment in other sectors. The collaboration can be documented by joint publications based on affiliation and educational background of authors, joint and funded applications, patent applications or spin-off companies. The collaboration should result in synergy between the collaborators. 

• Patient and/or public involvement (PPI): The application should include a separate paragraph that reflects on and outlines explicit plans and strategies for PPI in the study. It should be discussed how PPI can improve and contribute to this particular study and detail the benefits and relevance of the study for patients/users and society. PPI requires different approaches in various contexts, such as basic research, epidemiological research, and clinical research. Given the diverse nature of research disciplines and methodologies, the extent and manner of meaningful PPI will vary in applications from different research areas. However, it is imperative that all applications adhere to a baseline level of PPI, as outlined in our Information about the DDEA Funding Focus Areas. 

Evaluation and Selection 

The DDEA Secretariat will process all incoming applications. Applications not fulfilling the eligibility criteria and/or technical requirements will not be considered.  

All eligible applications will be submitted to the DDEA Grant Review Committee for a scientific evaluation. Evaluation of the applications will consider four evaluation criteria: 1) the applicant; 2) the project; 3) the research environment; and 4) the DDEA four funding focus areas: internationalisation, interdisciplinarity, collaboration across sectors, and patient and/or public involvement. 

For further information about the evaluation procedure, selection process and evaluation criteria (including the DDEA funding focus areas), we refer to the Guidelines for the DDEA grant review process and evaluation criteria for grants.   

Conflict of interest 

To ensure that we avoid potential conflicts of interest in the allocation of reviewers for the evaluation of your application, we ask you to indicate whether your PI or Co-PI (or any other members of your project team) has a conflict of interest with any of the international reviewers on the DDEA Grant Review Committee. Examples of conflicts of interest include joint publications or close collaborations within the last five years.

Please consult the list of members of the DDEA Grant Review Committee before submitting your application and indicate in the application form whether any conflicts of interest exist. 

Funding Terms 

We will fund the PhD scholarship up to an amount of DKK 1,100,000 covering your salary and tuition fee for two years during the three-year PhD project period. 

Please note that we do not cover overhead or operating expenses. 

Full financing for three years is a prerequisite for being enrolled as a PhD student at a Danish university. Accordingly, we grant 2/3 PhD scholarship, if funding for the remaining 1/3 financing is assured. The documentation for the remaining 1/3 financing in terms of a grant letter or the like (e.g. signed guarantee from main supervisor or head of department), must be submitted to the DDEA Secretariat at the latest 12 months after receiving the grant notification letter. Otherwise, the scholarship grant will be withdrawn. 

If you receive another grant covering salary for the same project as described in your application to DDEA, we reserve the right to withdraw your PhD scholarship grant or part of it. 

Enrolment as a PhD student 

Enrolment must be at a university in Denmark and take place within 12 months after receiving the grant notification letter. Terms of enrolment are according to the rules and regulations defined by the university where you will be enrolled. 

Employment 

Employment can take place at the university where you are enrolled or at the Danish research institution where you will carry out the PhD project. The host institution will be responsible for the employment of you as a PhD student. We will have no influence on the employment other than allocating the grant to your host institution. 

Commitment to DDEA 

As a DDEA grant recipient, we expect you to be an ambassador for DDEA, to participate in the activities and PhD courses that we offer, and to submit an annual reporting of activities and research results deriving from the project.  

For further information about the PhD scholarships, please contact Managing Director Tore Christiansen at tore.christiansen@rsyd.dk, tel. +45 2964 6764 or Management Assistant Mette Kjær Faurskov at mette.kjaer.faurskov@rsyd.dk, tel. +45 2491 5676. 

For information about user login to the DDEA Grant Website, please contact the DDEA Secretariat at ouh.ddea@rsyd.dk or Office Assistant Mette Roed at tel. +45 2466 9802.