History

DTU Biosustain is an international research Center of Excellence at DTU funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation working to ensure (bio)technologies for sustainable lifestyles.

DTU Biosustain was initially funded in order to strengthen Denmark's position within advanced bioprocessing and bioengineering. It was financially based upon a generous DKK 700 Million grant from the NNF in 2011 to DTU to establish the Center.

Subsequently, NNF has granted a number of extensions. In 2015, the Center had a midterm evaluation, and in 2019, the Center went through a second review round in order to evaluate its performance and results. Based on this review, the NNF chose to grant the Center DKK 750 (€100 M) for another five-year period, running from 2021-2025. This means that the NNF has, until now, funded the Center with more than DKK 2 billion (approx. €275 M) from 2011-2025.Since the inauguration in Hørsholm in 2011, the Center has rapidly developed from a few employees to an international research center with well-functioning infrastructures and more than 300 employees in Denmark and abroad.In its early phases, the Center was situated in the Science Park in Hørsholm.

During the summer of 2016, the Center moved to its new premises, a brand-new black and gold five-story high-rise at DTU (Building 220), Lyngby. In November 2016, HRH Prince Joachim officially inaugurated Building 220.

Today, the Center has an even stronger focus on sustainability and use of big data. It works within three scientific application areas to support sustainable lifestyles and the 12th UN Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns.

A trip down memory lane..

2011: NNF ESTABLISHES THE CENTER

In early 2011, the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) grants 700 Million DKK to establish The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability. A kick-off in Hørsholm later that year marks this happy event. In the picture: CEO of the NNF Birgitte Nauntofte (right), President of DTU Anders Bjarklev (mid-right) and CEO for Center for Biosustainability Bernhard Palsson (mid-left).

This introductory video from 2011 explains the vision and initial thoughts for establishing the Center.

2012: CHO PROGRAM & INTERNATIONALISATION

During 2012, the Center receives two further grants from The Novo Nordisk Foundation: one aiming at generating optimised CHO cell factories to produce the next generation of bio-pharmaceuticals (DKK 280 M) and one facilitating further internationalisation of the Center (DKK 131 M).

2013: EU SPONSORS 4 MAJOR PROJECTS

With four big grants for the projects BacTory (Phd program), BachBerry, Biorefine-2G and ProMys, the groundwork for many exciting activities at the Center was laid in 2013. The BacTory PhD's were some of the first PhD-students at the Center.

2014: THE DBTL WORKFLOW IS ESTABLISHED

In 2004, the iterative group - back then called iLoop - is formed. Its goals are to establish and optimise the design, build, test and learn (DBTL) steps of cell factory development. Today, the DBTL workflow is placed in our Biofoundry, which is a melting pot for cell biology, cell engineering and big data science.