TOP Grants

Line of action : Opportunities for researchers
Secretariat : MaGW
Apply : Yes, but at a later stage

Objective

The TOP Grants programme is intended for good research groups within the social sciences. The programme offers these research groups the opportunity to strengthen their position by employing excellent researchers.

TOP Grants is an open competition funding programme of the NWO Division for the Social Sciences (MaGW). The key assessment criteria are the quality of the research proposal submitted and the scientific performance of the research group submitting the proposal.

Application

Who can apply

Professors and associate professors (UHDs) with a tenured appointment at a Dutch university or a NWO or KNAW institute. Limiting conditions apply:

  • The application must fit within the MaGW area;
  • Researchers who meet the requirements for submitting a proposal under the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme (Veni, Vidi, Vici) may not submit a proposal as main applicant;
  • A research group may submit one TOP Grants proposal per funding round;
  • Each research institute may only submit one research proposal per funding round;
  • Main and co-applicants may not simultaneously submit another applications to MaGW or have another application that is still under consideration;
  • Main and co-applicants who have submitted a TOP Grants proposal to another NWO division may not submit a TOP Grants proposal to MaGW;
  • Researchers who have been awarded a TOP Grants proposal in the past 3 years may not apply for TOP Grants;
  • Previously rejected proposals may not be resubmitted;
  • Counted from the moment of submission, main and co-applicants may not submit a proposal for Research Talent for a period of three years.

What can be applied for

TOP Grants subsidies range from € 600,000 to € 750,000.

Funding can be requested to cover all subsidisable personnel and non-personnel costs that are necessary for the proposed research. Funding may not be requested to cover overheads, general laboratory equipment, maintenance and insurance costs, depreciation costs and other infrastructural costs.

When can be applied

Preliminary proposals: Open for application: 7 February 2011
  Closing date: 7 April 2011
Full proposals: Open for application: beginning of June 2011
  Closing date: 5 September 2011

Extra Information

Further information about the procedure and conditions for submission can be found in the brochure. 

Selection

Criteria

The proposals are assessed against two evaluation criteria:

  • Scientific quality of the proposal 
  • Past performance of the applicants 
The criteria have several subcriteria and will be weighed equally. Several relevant points of interest have been listed for each criterion (see the brochure).

Procedure

Preproposals
Preproposals will be assessed comparatively by one or more international advisory committees that issue an advice to the Board of the Division of social sciences.

Full proposals
Based on the advices issued, the Board invites applicants to elaborate their preproposals into full proposals. These proposals are assessed in a peer review procedure by international referees. Applicants can respond to the comments from the referees. An international multidisciplinary assessment committee evaluates the proposals, ranks these and then issues an advice to the Division’s Board.

Decision
The Board decides which proposals to fund based on the advice of the evaluation committee. The Board can include policy considerations in its decision.

Committees

The committees will be appointed as soon as the applications have been received. 

Additional information

Budget

The budget for 2011 is 3 million euros. From this amount four to five proposals can be funded. 

Financiers

NWO Division for the Social Sciences

Contacts

Documentation

TOP Grants (Social Sciences) | call for proposals
This document (PDF, 15 pages) contains the programme text and guidelines for submitting preliminary proposals. Read this carefully! (Version 13 May 2011)
Open

last modified on 6 September 2011