A high-profile neuroscientist of Bulgarian origin in Denmark has been involved in a scandal involving 'close ties' with a former Science Minister and fraud.

At the end of last week, Danish media reported that Milena Penkowa, a 37 year old researcher, has used her close friendship with the country's ex-Science Minister Helge Sander to penalize her personal opponents.

For ten years running, the independent Danish research and grant approval agency Research Council for Health and Research had rejected all Milena Penkowa's applications for funding.

Then, in 2009, according to the Weekendavisen weekly, the former Minister Helge Sander forwarded 30 questions from an anonymous source to the Research Council. The questions indirectly accused the Council of nepotism, and were about grants to Mette Rosenkilde, a competitor to Milena Penkowa for a Professor chair.

Milena Penkowa, who is half-Bulgarian by origin, stepped down as a Professor in the University of Copenhagen in December due to charges  in connection with a series of experiments on 1000 lab rats, which formed the empirical basis of Penkowa's doctoral thesis at the university in 2003.

According to Weekendavisen, she provided falsified documents to prove to the university that the tests on 784 rats had been completed as claimed. Meanwhile, the administration at the university where she worked has been accused of ignoring her alleged misdeeds for the better part of a decade.

Penkowa has denied all claims of wrongdoings.