70 million for innovative science

21 December 2010

NWO awards Vidi grants to 88 outstanding researchers

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.

The Vidi grant is part of NWO’s Innovational Research Incentives Scheme, a series of highly prestigious grants. In total, 556 researchers submitted an application and 88 of them will now receive a Vidi grant. The acceptance rate in this round of Vidi grants is 15 percent, the lowest ever in the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme.

Due to limited resources, NWO has been forced to reject many good researchers. Supporting talented researchers in their academic career is an essential prerequisite for scientific innovation. NWO is therefore strongly committed to supporting scientific talent in the coming years.

Vidi is aimed at outstanding researchers who have already performed successful research for several years at a postdoctoral level. The Vidi winners have demonstrated that they can come up with innovative ideas and develop these successfully and independently. The scientists are among the best ten to twenty percent in their field. The Vidi grant allows them to do research for five years.

Scientists from the Netherlands and abroad reviewed the applications. All applications were judged against the criteria: quality of the researcher and the quality, innovative nature and expected scientific impact of the research proposal. Contagious fascination for research or technology and persuasive power also counted in the assessment. Since 2009, researchers from all scientific disciplines have also been able to address the impact or relevance of their research to society and industry in their proposal. Previously this was possible only in the technical sciences.

Innovational Research Incentives Scheme
Vidi is one of the three types of grant under the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme. The other two grants are Veni (for those who have just gained their PhDs) and Vici (for highly experienced researchers). The aim of the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme is to stimulate innovation in scientific research. The Innovational Research Incentives Scheme was set up in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Dutch universities.

List of Vidi winners
Here is an alphabetical list of the Vidi winners and a working title of their research projects.

About NWO
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) is the principal Dutch science funding body and its mission is to facilitate excellent scientific research in the Netherlands by means of national competition. Each year, NWO spends more than 700 million euro on grants to top researchers, on innovative instruments and equipment and on the institutes where top research is performed. NWO funds the research of more than 5300 talented researchers at universities and institutes. Independent experts select proposals by means of a peer review system. NWO facilitates the transfer of knowledge to society.

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last modified on 21 December 2010