Background and governance

In 2013, Novo Nordisk and the University of Oxford established a prestigious international fellowship programme. In late 2015, the fellowship programme was initially expanded to support a total of 32 fellows. In 2021, Novo Nordisk and the University of Oxford have renewed the programme to support a further 12 postdoctoral research fellows, each for a three-year period, which takes the total funding provided by Novo Nordisk to the fellowship programme to £16.6m. The aim of the fellowship programme is to support the development of a new generation of exceptional early career researchers, who will become future leaders in the field.

The research included in the fellowship programme focuses on diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases and spans the translational spectrum, from basic research through to clinical application. Approaches taken include basic mechanistic understanding at the cellular level, systems biology, big data integrative approaches, in vivo physiology and clinical studies.

The fellowship programme is coordinated by the Radcliffe Department of Medicine but encompasses all researchers in Oxford with a focus on diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases. 

The programme’s success is underpinned by a Joint Steering Committee, which is led by Professor Keith Channon and has representatives from both partners. This committee is supported by Dr Serena Briant, who manages the fellowship programme at the University of Oxford and is supported by Dr Nuala Simpson, and Dr Dorthe Lundsgaard who manages the fellowship programme at Novo Nordisk.