The Villum Foundation (); formerly Villum Kann Rasmussen Foundation (''Villum Kann Rasmussen Fonden'') was set up in 1971 by

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

Villum Kann Rasmussen (1909–1993). 10 years later, he set up the Velux Foundation (''Velux Fonden''). Rasmussen was the founder of

VELUX VELUX A/S is a Danish manufacturing company that specialises in roof windows, skylights, sun tunnels and related accessories. The company is headquartered in Hørsholm, Denmark and is a part of VKR Holding A/S. VELUX Group is a founding partner o ...

and

Velfac {{Primary sources, date=April 2009 Velfac A/S is a Danish company who produces windows for the building industry. The company is part of VKR Holding A/S, which also owns, among other things, Velux and Rationel. Velfac exports to several countries ...

, Danish window companies. Both foundations are part of VKR Holding A/S, owned by the Rasmussen family and the Villum Foundation, which is the main shareholder. The foundations fund scientific, cultural, artistic and social projects, and award honorary prizes. In 2018, they together granted EUR 118 million divided among 1,015 donations. The money comes from the revenues of the VKR Group and income generated by the foundations’ other assets.

Grants

The foundations support large research activities in the technical and natural sciences, agricultural and veterinary sciences, the environment, and industrial research, providing money for payroll costs, running expenses and procurement of major research apparatus. The foundation supports research centres, the so-called “Centres of Excellence” with larger grants. The designation of the centres is made upon the initiative of the foundation. Its visiting professor programme gives funds to Danish research institutions to permit leading professors from international universities to spend a period at Danish universities. Additionally, since 2001, the foundation has financed a postdoctoral program in the natural and technical sciences. Beginning in 2006, it has donated a larger proportion of its grants to social and cultural projects outside Denmark, with a special focus on

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and other countries in Eastern and Central Europe. The Velux Foundation is more narrowly focused. It has a program supporting citizens more than 60 years old who are actively engaged in activities of personal or common interest that contribute to maintaining their active lives. In addition, it supports research into diseases of the eye, diseases among the elderly, and living conditions for elderly people. It also supports larger research projects within the humanities, health and medical sciences.

Awards

Each year the Foundation awards The Villum Kann Rasmussen Annual Award for Technical and Scientific Research to a Danish researcher. The award is the largest Danish research award. The 2008 award was granted to Professor

Anja Boisen Anya, Ania or Anja is a given name. The names are feminine in most East European countries and unisex in several African countries. Origins and variant forms * Anya (Аня) is a Russian diminutive of Anna. * Ania is the spelling in Polish ...

, Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology,

Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark (), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and it is today ran ...

, for her research in

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

. The 2009 awards marked the centenary celebration of Villum Kann Rasmussen. One went to Professor

Eva Bjørn Vedel Jensen Eva Bjørn Vedel Jensen (born 14 June 1951) is a Danish mathematician and statistician known for her work in spatial statistics, stereology, stochastic geometry, and medical imaging. She is a professor emeritus in the Department of Mathematical ...

, Department of Mathematical Science

Aarhus University Aarhus University (, abbreviated AU) is a public research university. Its main campus is located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Group, the Guild, and Ut ...

, for research in mathematical and statistical methods for three-dimensional imaging of objects such as the brain from one or two-dimensional observations. The other went to Professor

Jan Oskar Jeppesen Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Nu ...

, Department of Physics and Chemistry,

University of Southern Denmark The University of Southern Denmark (, SDU) has campuses located in Southern Denmark and on Zealand. It offers a number of joint programmes in co-operation with the University of Flensburg and the University of Kiel. Contacts with regional indu ...

, for producing large and complex

organic molecules Some chemical authorities define an organic compound as a chemical compound that contains a carbon–hydrogen or carbon–carbon bond; others consider an organic compound to be any chemical compound that contains carbon. For example, carbon-cont ...

with unique functional characteristics.

References

{{coord, 55.7407, 12.4804, type:landmark_region:DK, display=title Non-profit organizations based in Denmark Organizations established in 1971 Foundations based in Denmark