BIO team receives Novo Nordisk Foundation Prize

From the very beginning of their teaching collaboration, the common goal for Birthe B. Kragelund, Karen Skriver and Kresten Lindorff-Larsen from the Department of Biology at UCPH was to develop a graduate course that could combine new research with new methods of teaching.

After ten years of collaboration, the list of initiatives developed by the small team to strengthen teaching has only grown longer. Today, their dedicated work includes a series of different technical, social, didactic, and educational implements across bachelor, graduate, Ph.D., and postgraduate levels. They have developed educational tools oriented towards high schools, such as researcher internships and high school teacher courses, tried out forms of examination and methods of teaching, as well as experimented with teaching via virtual reality rooms, courses on personal development, and training programmes for researchers. In addition, they have collaborated with numerous researchers and experts from professional organisations, companies, and departments at both UCPH and other international universities.

These impressive and far-reaching efforts are now being awarded with The Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Prize for Natural Science Teachers at Universities. It is an annual prize, which is awarded to smaller educational teams for especially inspiring educational work.

Strong research and inspiring teaching go hand in hand

The prize has a particular significance to Birthe B. Kragelund, Karen Skriver and Kresten Lindorff-Larsen. To them, it is an acknowledgment of the importance of collaboration as a foundation stone of educational innovation – something which the team has emphasised since the very beginning.

“It’s a recognition of the fact that working collaboratively with teaching is important and holds value, both to us as teachers and in turn for the inspiration we can offer the students. It’s also great to be validated and recognised for proving that strong research and inspiring teaching go hand in hand and aren’t in opposition with one another,” the three recipients explain.

There is also no doubt in the mind of Niels Kroer, Head of the Department of Biology at UCPH, about how significant their work has been for both students as well as the team’s own colleagues.

”It’s both wonderful and incredibly well-deserved that the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Prize for Natural Science Teachers at Universities 2026 goes to Birthe, Karen, and Kresten,” says Niels Kroer. He continues:

“Throughout the last ten years, they’ve innovated and enhanced teaching in the fields of biochemistry and structural biology by developing teaching approaches where the students themselves formulate research questions and design experiments. At the same time, the teaching is closely linked to industry related challenges, which makes the learning process both motivating and relevant for the students. The creativity and innovation that Birthe, Karen, and Kresten brings to their teaching is a big inspiration for colleagues across the department.”

“I am extremely impressed with the team’s work with research integrated and professionally oriented teaching – and incredibly proud on their behalf. It’s commendable that the Novo Nordisk Foundation has decided to highlight good teaching with this prize. It is a recognition of the great work that our researchers undertake every day and reminds us that this old idea that great researchers don’t prioritise teaching fortunately does not withstand scrutiny,” says Andreas de Neergaard, Associate Dean for Education at SCIENCE.

Student curiosity at the centre

Along with researcher collaboration, there is another group that is just as essential for the team’s motivation – the students themselves.

“The most important factors for my dedication have been long-term collaborations with equally dedicated colleagues – like our small team and with UCPH colleagues from different areas, such as language studies and didactics – and above all, experiencing that our initiatives lead to the improvement of our students’ skills,” says Karen Skriver.

That is a motivator Birthe B. Kragelund also relates to.

“Engagement – both my own as well as my colleagues’, students’, collaborators’ – and the willingness and opportunity to offer more, especially with the students as partners, where mistakes and doubts are a central part of learning,” she explains.

“It’s been fun to work out how to bring frontline research to the students in way that is both inspiring and gives them the opportunity to gain unique skills,” says Kresten Lindorff-Larsen. “It has required sparring with colleagues and the students, along with the realisation that you have to proceed by trial and error, make mistakes, and adjust accordingly along the way.”

A connecting thread for the team’s many initiatives has been putting the students’ curiosity at the centre while presenting them with the newest research and giving them access to researchers, research infrastructure, and stakeholders at the highest level.

”Together, they have mastered an approach to teaching that is both challenging and inspiring,” says Anna Ida Trolle who was taught by all three professors during her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She is now a PhD student with Kresten Lindorff-Larsen at the Department of Biology. “As a student, you leave with not only a solid understanding of the theory but also with a passion for the subject and the feeling that you have something very real to offer.”

As a student, you leave with not only a solid understanding of the theory but also with a passion for the subject and the feeling that you have something very real to offer.

This openness to meeting the students where they are – as well as their challenges – was especially emphasised when the three professors were nominated.

This approach can be seen in a variety of ways across the different initiatives. Amongst others, in the way the team handles the students’ challenges.

One example is how, at the start of the academic year, they collaborated with external experts to address some of the challenges that especially concern gen-Z in relation to the performance-oriented society. When the team saw that many young researchers felt insecure when facing challenges within the natural sciences, they developed a personal development course in collaboration with therapists and coaches. And when they realised that many students struggle with learning how to write academically, they collaborated with Danish and English linguists to set up a course for training academic writing.

As a result, the team makes to that their students are equipped with a particularly broad skill set that they can use to strengthen their own development as well as their professional skills.

No plans of stopping here

Even though the list of initiatives developed by the small teaching team, there are no plans of stopping here – on the contrary. Here, the funding grant provided by the Novo Nordisk Foundation prize will be of particular importance.

“The best thing about the whole thing is that I know the team has many more good ideas to help develop their teaching even more – so it won’t stop here,” says Andreas de Neergaard.

That is a prediction that Birthe B. Kragelund, Karen Skriver and Kresten Lindorff-Larsen all agree with.

“Additional to the personal part of the prize, the grant dedicated to the development of teaching is also important. It makes it possible to develop several new initiatives that we otherwise would not have the resources to Department. And we are more than ready to put it to good use,” the team explains.