News item | 09-12-2022 | 3:30 pm
Minister Dijkgraaf of Education, Culture and Science has set up a committee that will advise him and university boards (including UMCs) on the further elaboration of the start-up and incentive grants. He announced these grants for (young) researchers earlier this year.
The start-up and incentive grants play an important role in creating peace and space and in putting the foundations in order in the system of higher education and research. The aim of the grants is to stimulate unfettered research and to reduce the workload and application pressure. A total of 300 million euros per year is available for these grants.
Task assignment
The new advisory committee advises the minister and the university boards (including UMCs) on the further elaboration of both starters and incentive grants. The starting point for this is the agreements that universities and the ministry have made in this regard in the Administrative Agreement 2022 for higher education and science.
The committee’s terms of reference with regard to incentive grants have been established in consultation with UNL, NFU, NWO, KNAW, AOb, WOinActie and De Jonge Akademie. In response to questions and signals from universities about the implementation of starter grants, it was decided to expand the task assignment to include starter grants.
The aim is to continue working on achieving the intended objectives of the grants with the aid of the advice of the new committee. Universities have already started to formulate policy and award the first grants. The minister assumes that they will continue to do so, with due observance of the objectives and agreements in the administrative agreement. The committee’s recommendations will help with the further elaboration of university policy, whereby the committee will also take into account the required implementation time.
Composition
prof. ir. BM (Bert) Weckhuysen, Professor of Chemistry at UU, will chair the advisory committee. The other members are:
- dr. T. (Thijs) Bol; associate professor of sociology at the UvA;
- Prof. RE (Remco) Breuker; professor of Korean Studies UL;
- mr. M. (Mariska) Brzözek; director HRM TU/e;
- Prof. P. (Pamela) Habibović; rector magnificus, professor of inorganic biomaterials UM;
- Prof. PCW (Pancras) Hogendoorn; vice-chairman of the Executive Board and dean, professor of pathology LUMC;
- Dr. F. (Femke) Nijboer; assistant professor biomedical signals and systems UT;
- Dr. C. (Ceren) Pekdemir; assistant professor of sustainable development at UM; and
- Prof. M. (Mladen) Popović; Dean of Theology and Religious Studies, Professor of the Old Testament and Ancient Judaism RUG.
The committee is expected to offer its (first) advice at the end of March 2023 and later also share best practices. The committee has a term of two years and maintains contact with the NWO committee, which will investigate how the new starter grants and incentive grants relate to existing research funding. The findings of the NWO committee are expected in the first quarter of 2023.