Fortune hunt provides peace and quiet for research RESEAR CH APPLICATION During the autumn, DTU Chemistry received 12 grants from the Danish Council for Independent Research – Technology and Production (FTP), the Sapere Aude Programme and the Danish Natural Science Research Council, among others. DTU Chemistry’s success in winning so many grants is due to a targeted drive launched by its Head of Department, Erling Stenby, who is a past chairman of FTP. “Based on my experience at FTP, where I reviewed thousands of applications, it was clear to me that able researchers very often present their ideas in such a way that the people who have to read them fail to understand the point. And that results in good ideas not being funded”, says Erling Stenby, who was consequently asked to set up a course on how to write a good research application. He ran the course 12 times before becoming Head of Department. “When I took charge at DTU Chemistry, I employed someone to help researchers improve their application writing skills. But it is also important to me that very active researchers spend their time doing research. So I also wanted to relieve them of some of the burden in a way that makes obtaining grants fun and feasible”, says Erling Stenby. Support for researchers Majken Kramer Overgaard was given this task in the capacity of Special Consultant at DTU Chemistry. Over the past two years she has helped researchers to draw up a strategy for how external funding should be structured, to make contact with potential partners and, finally, to find the right approach to the various project presentations. She explains that the help researchers need varies widely between individuals: “Some just need to know when the deadline is. Others need closer collaboration, including drawing up a plan for the process and discussing how to increase the success rate and focus research projects in the right direction”, she says, but also stresses: “It’s not something that happens overnight. You have to set the initiative in motion and only start reaping the benefits at a later date. There can easily be 18 months between starting an application and it culminating in a grant.” The strategy works Søren Kegnæs, an assistant professor at DTU Chemistry, received DKK 4.4 million from the Danish Council for Independent Research – Technology and Production in September 2012. It was his first big grant after previously receiving a postdoc grant and the Sapere Aude Programme’s Young Elite Researcher Award. He explains that he was very aware of the extra effort being made by the department: “Majken helped to ensure that all the formalities were in place. In the case of my own application she dealt with a lot of the practical matters like budgets and obtaining the right signatures, which was great because it meant I could focus more on the academic application, which is what it’s all about for me”, he says, going on: “She helped to make the application itself more digestible, as sometimes we researchers are off in our old little world and it’s great to have someone to make suggestions for getting the application right." After such a good autumn in 2012, Head of Department Erling Stenby is able to conclude that the strategy is working: “It’s quite clear that the service Majken Overgaard provides helps release the major potential represented by able researchers. But we are still working to raise awareness among researchers and create a framework that will make it easier for them to attract grants,” he says and recommends other DTU departments to do the same: “It might be claimed that if everyone does it and they are competing for the same grants, we’ll end up in the same place. But we are also in competition with other Danish universities of course, and it’s particularly important in relation to the EU and the rest of the world to support researchers’ ability to attract funding”, says Erling Stenby. – Tore Vind Jensen In autumn 2012, DTU Chemistry succeeded in winning 12 research grants totalling around DKK 40 million. A targeted drive to raise research funding gives researchers a better framework for their real work: research. Camel cheese - the desert’s new export It is difficult to separate the water from the nutrients in camel milk, so until now it has been virtually impossible to make camel cheese. DTU is now helping to solve this problem through a project in Ethiopia. cheese Camels are indispensable in large parts of the world. They are used for transport, meat and, not least, milk. But no one has yet succeeded in finding a way to make the milk into cheese that tastes good and will keep in hot conditions. Together with the University of Copenhagen, Haramya University in Ethiopia and Chr. Hansen, researchers at DTU Systems Biology are the first in the world to start looking into how to make camel cheese in a profitable way that produces tasty cheese requiring no refrigeration. The project could mean new jobs and better nutrition in areas where there is a great need for both. “We have not seen camel cheese on supermarket shelves yet because, until very recently, no one could find an effective way of getting camel milk to coagulate – in other words separating the water from the nutrients to make a solid substance”, says Egon Bech Hansen, Head of Department at DTU Systems Biology. The enzyme chymosin, which occurs naturally in a calf ’s stomach, has been used to produce camel milk cheese for many years. Calves use the enzyme to separate the water from the proteins and fat in their mother’s milk. Put simply, the enzyme enables a calf ’s stomach to act as a “cheese factory”. So if it is difficult to get camel milk to coagulate and taste good, it seems logical to try adding chymosin. “The only problem is that chymosin from cows does not have much effect on milk from camels. On the other hand, you can be very sure that chymosin from camels can make camel milk coagulate, since that is the function it already performs in a baby camel’s stomach”, Egon Bech Hansen explains. It was not until 2001 that the enzyme was isolated, with the breakthrough being credited to Somali researcher Dr Zakaria Farah. “The rennet enzyme from the camel is now commercially available as a dairy enzyme, but we still need to establish the scientific basis for developing dairy products from camel milk”, says Egon Bech Hansen. The project is not just about developing technical solutions for producing camel cheese. Research-based work on the development of different nuances of flavour, aroma and consistency is intended to ensure that the final products are to consumers’ tastes. And thought must also be given to the technical optimisation of production so as to ensure competitive prices. Large parts of the project are based in Ethiopia, which has 2.5 million camels and a high enough population density to create a domestic market. Together with local Ethiopian manpower, the researchers have already started work on building a dairy with cheese production and training staff at graduate and PhD level to ensure optimum conditions and skills. - Jesper Span gsmark Nielsen Learn more Egon Bech Hansen Head of Department, DTU Systems Biology ebh@bio.dtu.dk Learn more Erling Stenby Head of Department, DTU Chemistry ehst@kemi.dtu.dk What they are co ntributing The project partners are supplying expertise in: • DTU: Biotechnology • University of Copenhagen: Dairy technology and nutrition • Chr. Hansen: Curdling enzymes, starter cultures and industrial enzyme products • Haramya University: Day-to-day management of the project in Ethiopia 2
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