Denmark

Impact of Covid-19 on the Danish Academic Job Market in the Social Sciences and Humanities

For now, the academic labour market seems not to have been severely impacted by the crisis. However, the universities manage the employment of new workers on a case by case basis. For example, on the recruitment webpage of the University of Copenhagen a banner warns that:

'Due to precautions connected with the coronavirus, there may be delays or changes to ongoing and upcoming recruitments, including that interviews may be conducted by skype or other media, or the recruitment may be postponed. Any changes will be communicated during the process.'

Therefore, candidates could expect to start their new job later than expected or to work remotely.

Special calls

In Denmark, private funds play an important role in the funding of academic research. To tackle the COVID-19 crises these funds largely supported academic research. Therefore, there are opportunities to receive grants or to join new research projects funded by the foundations.

Some of the initiatives and the links to find out more about them:

Novonordiskfonden: This foundation offered a large variety of grants to private and public institutions. Many grants were provided for research in the health sector, but some projects are appealing also for social scientists or for individuals that have good quantitative skills. Moreover, new projects that might be more closely related to the social sciences could come up in the future, so it might be worth keeping an eye on it.

Carlsbergfondet:This foundation funded a project that is particularly appealing for social scientists. Therefore, the page of the foundation and the research group that received the funding might be interesting to follow to keep track of possible job openings.

Useful resources

On the universities:

• Recruitment web page of the University of Southern Denmark: https://www.sdu.dk/en/service/ledige_stillinger
  Specific information for prospective candidates (e.g.: job interviews) :https://ism.ku.dk/coronavirus/

• Recruitment portal University of Copenhagen: https://employment.ku.dk/

On Novonordiskfonden:

• https://novonordiskfonden.dk/en/news/novo-nordisk-foundation-allocates-dkk-50-million-for-emergency-response-to-the-coronavirus-epidemic-in-denmark/
• https://novonordiskfonden.dk/en/grants-awarded-for-projects-to-mitigate-the-adverse-health-effects-of-the-coronavirus-epidemic-in-denmark/
• https://novonordiskfonden.dk/en/about-the-foundation/initiatives-covid-19/

On Carlsbergfondet:

• https://www.carlsbergfondet.dk/en/News/News-from-the-Foundation/News/25-million-DKK-to-social-behavioral-research-during-the-Covid19-epidemic
• https://www.carlsbergfondet.dk/en/News/News-from-the-Foundation/News/25m-DKK-to-Semper-Ardens-research-into-Corona-virus