News

News concerning the NWO Division for Physics.

Here you will find news concerning the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM).

3 April 2012

NWO offers 29 young researchers foreign experience with Rubicon

Twenty-nine starting researchers will carry out research abroad thanks to the Rubicon programme of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific research (NWO). With Rubicon, NWO gives researchers who have recently gained their PhD the opportunity to gain research experience at international top institutes.
16 February 2012

Science gives boost to top sectors

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has presented its plans for a substantial contribution to the top sectors policy of the Dutch cabinet. The plans contain a broad package of activities for the next few years with which NWO will link science to the strategic research and innovation agendas that have been compiled for the nine top sectors. In the current financial economic situation, science definitely has a crucial role to play as a source and motor for renewal and innovation.
31 January 2012

Thirty-one top researchers receive 1.5 million euro grants

Thirty-one leading scientists will each receive 1.5 million euros to carry out research over the next five years. They have been awarded a Vici grant from NWO's Innovational Research Incentives Scheme. Vici is one of the largest individual scientific grants in the Netherlands.
13 December 2011

Young scientific talent gains foreign experience thanks to NWO

Twenty-eight starting researchers will carry out research abroad thanks to the Rubicon programme of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific research (NWO). With Rubicon, NWO gives researchers who have recently gained their PhD the opportunity to gain research experience at international top institutes.
18 November 2011

Changes to the NWO Talent line

The Governing Board of NWO has decided to make several changes to the Talent line. These will enable NWO to use the resources for the Talent programmes in a more effective and efficient manner. The Talent line includes all NWO-wide programmes aimed at encouraging talented researchers. With the changes NWO is meeting the request of the Ministry for Education, Culture and Science to establish priorities within the Talent line.
13 September 2011

Top Sectors benefit from open scientific research

NWO will award the funding for scientific research within the Top Sectors on a competitive basis by means of independent evaluation and on the basis of scientific quality. NWO's contribution is focused on fundamental research. During the allocation, the expected societal impact and the participation of industry will also play a role. NWO will continue to direct its efforts towards the entire spectrum of academic endeavour. That is apparent from the industry letter 'To the Top' that the Dutch cabinet presented on 13 September.
9 September 2011

NWO Spinoza laureates use prize for education

Heino Falcke, Patti Valkenburg and Erik Verlinde, the NWO Spinoza laureates of 2011 have announced how they will each each use their prize of 2.5 million euros. Enthusing young people for science is a top priority for the researchers. The NWO Spinoza Prize is the highest Dutch award in science.
5 September 2011

15 million euros for development of young top talent

Nineteen research schools will each receive 800,000 euros from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for the training of young researchers. With this financial boost, each school can appoint four PhD students. The funding is part of NWO’s Graduate Programme and is aimed at encouraging the development of Dutch PhD courses.
5 September 2011

Dutch Network of Women Professors honours four young female researchers

Four young, excellent female researchers representing the spectrum of scientific research have been awarded the prize from the Dutch Network of Women Professors on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. A jury of renowned scientists selected the four absolute leading lights from the 175 nominations.
5 July 2011

NWO offers scientific talent foreign experience

NWO has awarded 28 young, promising researchers funding from the Rubicon programme. Through Rubicon, NWO aims to offer Dutch scientists who have recently obtained their PhD the chance to gain research experience in other countries and equally to attract talent from abroad to the Netherlands. The programme is therefore a vehicle that allows NWO to stimulate the international mobility of scientific talent.
6 June 2011

NWO-Spinoza Prize for Heino Falcke, Patti Valkenburg and Erik Verlinde

Astronomer Heino Falcke, communication scientist Patti Valkenburg and theoretical physicist Erik Verlinde receive the NWO Spinoza Prize 2011, the highest Dutch award in science. This has just been announced by NWO. Each of the laureates receives 2.5 million euros to spend on research of their choice.
5 April 2011

NWO offers international experience to young scientific talent

NWO has awarded 29 young, promising researchers funding from the Rubicon programme. Through Rubicon, NWO aims to offer Dutch scientists who have recently obtained their PhD the chance to gain research experience in other countries and equally to attract talent from abroad to the Netherlands The programme is therefore a vehicle that allows NWO to stimulate the international mobility of scientific talent.
1 March 2011

Hans de Groene new Director General NWO

The Governing Board of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has appointed J.H. (Hans) de Groene as Director General of NWO with effect from 1 May 2011. He will succeed Dr Cees de Visser, who will retire in May.
10 February 2011

NWO supports project for open access books

NWO is making a one-off investment of 360,000 euros in the Dutch successor to the OAPEN project, Open Access Publishing in European Networks. The funding of this project falls within NWO's open access policy.
1 February 2011

Millions of euros in grants for 32 top researchers

Thirty-two innovative scientists will each receive 1.5 million euros to carry out research over the next five years. They have been awarded Vici grants under NWO's Innovational Research Incentives Scheme and with this funding round NWO is investing about 48 million euros in top talent. Vici is one of the largest individual grants in the Netherlands.
21 December 2010

70 million for innovative science

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a Vidi grant to 88 researchers. Each scientist will receive a maximum of 800,000 euro to develop his or her own line of research and to build up a research group. Altogether NWO will divide more than 70 million euro among the laureates.
15 December 2010

NWO offers young scientific talent foreign experience

NWO has awarded grants under the Rubicon programme to 31 promising young researchers. Through Rubicon, NWO aims to offer Dutch scientists who have recently obtained their PhD the chance to gain research experience in other countries.
2 November 2010

Over 40 million for young researchers

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) recently awarded 161 young postdoctoral researchers a Veni grant. Each researcher will receive 250,000 euro. This grant will allow these young talents to perform research for a period of three years.
10 August 2010

Eight million for top PhDs

Ten research schools will each receive 800,000 euro for talented young researchers. The schools can use the grants to set up an excellent education and research programme for the development of young scientific talent. This grant, the Graduate Programme of the Netherlands Organisation for scientific Research (NWO), is contributing to a stronger development of Dutch PhD students.
20 July 2010

Top young researchers from ethnic minorities receive PhD grants

NWO has awarded 21 young, talented graduates from ethnic minorities a grant from the Mosaic programme. The budding scientists can use this grant to carry out their PhD research over a period of four years. On 4 October 2010 the certificates will be awarded at a special ceremony.
6 July 2010

NWO sends young researchers abroad

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded 31 young, highly-promising scientists a grant from the Rubicon programme. Dutch scientists who have recently gained a PhD can use Rubicon to gain research experience abroad. Foreign researchers can use this grant to do research in the Netherlands.
23 June 2010

Themes and talent for the future

More opportunities for scientific talent and a greater role for scientific research in society. These are two important priorities in the new strategy of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). NWO will therefore invest in talent and societally-inspired themes and it will place greater emphasis on knowledge utilisation.
7 April 2010

NWO sends young researchers into the big wide world

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded Rubicon grants to 33 young and promising researchers. Dutch researchers who have recently gained a doctorate can use the grant to gain research experience abroad. Foreign researchers can use it to undertake research in the Netherlands.
11 February 2010

Marianne de Visser joins NWO Governing Board

Prof. Marianne de Visser will join the Governing Board of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) on 1 February 2010. De Visser is a neurologist at the Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam and professor of neuromuscular diseases at the University of Amsterdam. She succeeds retiring member Charles Buys.
2 February 2010

31 top Dutch researchers receive a Vici grant

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded 31 innovative scientists a Vici grant. This grant is worth a maximum of 1,500,000 euro per person and with this is one of the largest individual grants in the Netherlands. Researchers can use the grant to build up their own research group over a period of five years.
16 December 2009

Cees Veerman joins NWO Governing Board

Prof. C.P. Veerman has been appointed a member of the Governing Board of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The professor and former government minister has been appointed with effect from 1 November 2009.
15 December 2009

NWO sends young scientific talent out into the big, wide world

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded grants from the Rubicon programme to 35 young and promising scientists. The grant enables Dutch researchers who have recently gained their PhDs to gain research experience in other countries, and foreign researchers to gain research experience in the Netherlands.
27 November 2009

Tiny nano-electromagnets turn a cloak of invisibility into a possibility

A team of researchers at the FOM institute AMOLF has succeeded for the first time in powering an energy transfer between nano-electromagnets with the magnetic field of light. This breakthrough is of major importance in the quest for magnetic 'meta-materials' with which light rays can be deflected in every possible direction. This could make it possible to produce perfect lenses and, in the fullness of time, even 'invisibility cloaks'.
11 November 2009

A top researcher on your bookshelves with EXPERIMENT NL 2

Following the major success of the first part of EXPERIMENT NL, EXPERIMENT NL 2 is now in the shops. The fourth NWO book for the general public, Experiment NL 2, describes the most remarkable, brilliant, amusing and exciting research projects over the past year, in easily accessible language. Read how we can help shy people, why some sportsmen and women shave themselves, and how a baby chimpanzee grows up without being attended to.
12 August 2009

Seven million for Graduate Programme

The Dutch Minister of Education, Science and Culture, Mr Ronald Plasterk, has announced which nine research schools are to participate in the first Graduate Programme. The subsidy is intended for the creation of an excellent educational and research environment for highly talented young researchers.
22 July 2009

Top-class ethnic minority graduates to receive doctoral grants

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded grants under the Mosaic programme to twenty young, talented ethnic minority graduates. The budding researchers can use the grant to conduct doctoral research over a four-year period. The certificates will be presented at a ceremony in October.
7 July 2009

NWO sends young researchers into the big wide world

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a Rubicon grant to 34 young, highly promising scientists.
16 June 2009

Double scoop quantum dots reaches front page of Nature Nanotechnology

A few weeks ago researchers at the Kavli Institute of NanoScience in Delft got a double scoop with their quantum dots. Their groundbreaking research was already published online in Nature Nanotechnology, but has now also reached the front page of the June issue of Nature Nanotechnology.
6 April 2009

Controllable double quantum dots and Klein tunnelling in nanotubes

Researchers from the Kavli Institute of NanoScience in Delft are the first to have successfully captured a single electron in a highly tunable carbon nanotube double quantum dot. This was made possible by a new approach for producing ultraclean nanotubes. Moreover, the team of researchers, under the leadership of Spinoza winner Leo Kouwenhoven, discovered a new sort of tunnelling as a result of which electrons can fly straight through obstacles.
30 March 2009

DNA gripped in nanopores

Molecular biologists, including the cool dudes from CSI, use gel electrophoresis to separate DNA fragments from each other in order to analyse the DNA. A team of researchers under the leadership of Vici winner Serge Lemay, has now shown for the first time how the gel influences the movement of the DNA. The researchers drove a single DNA molecule through a nanopore in order to analyse the forces on the DNA. The results of the research were published on 29 March in Nature Physics.
27 March 2009

Permanently high level of ambition needed to tackle constraints in education and science

On Wednesday 25 March the Dutch Cabinet presented its declaration about the social agreements and the measures to be taken to ensure that the Netherlands emerges stronger from the current economic crisis. KNAW, NWO and VSNU are happy that the key words education, innovation and knowledge are in the investment package, yet at the same time they are concerned about the lack of ambition.
31 October 2006

Dutch research brings quantum computer a step closer

Dutch researchers have produced a detailed proposal for the possible realisation of a quantum computer. That is the outcome of a PIONIER research project 'Van wervelpatronen to kwantumrekenen' [From vortex patterns to quantum computation] under the leadership of the Amsterdam professor Kareljan Schoutens. The results of this study have just been published in the Annals of Physics.
15 March 2006

Launch NWO strategy on May 22nd

10 October 2003

Seventy-nine young scientists start their own line of research

VIDI awards The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a so-called VIDI Grant to 79 young, excellent scientists. Each researcher will receive a maximum of 600,000 euro. With this the scientist can develop his own line of research for a period of five years.