Photo: Shutterstock The national research organisation NOW distributes hundreds of millions of euros in research funding each year. Researchers wanting to make use of such grants spend significant amounts of time writing research proposals and applications. Most of this time is wasted, the chance to be awarded a grant are slim.
Slalom
A KNAW-committee led by professor and Spinoza laureate Bert Weckhuysen calls for change. All this weaving from subsidy to subsidy has fragmented Dutch science. ‘There is a lack of continuity’, the committee members write in a new report.
The fund should not replace existing NOW subsidies
KNAW-committee Weckhuysen
Their proposal: provide all university lecturers, associate professors and professors who have a permanent contract with a university or university medical centre (UMC) with seed money. This way, they won’t have to apply to the NOW repeatedly. They suggest putting in place a rolling grant fund. This fund would provide grants fitting the different stages in the scientific ladder.
There will be starter modules for university lecturers (250 thousand euros), associate professors (375 thousand euros) and professors (500 thousand euros) in the first stages of their career. Experienced professors can apply for next-stage modules (250 thousand euros). The minister is to make the funds available, while the universities and UMCs determine who is provided with a grant.
Scientists who receive this grant, are free to decide how it is spent, as long as it fits within the research path. They can hire a PhD candidate, or a technician, or invest in equipment. The fund is for scientists with a permanent contract for at least 80 per cent of a full-time week, who are engaged in both research and education.
New money
The system will cost approximately half a billion euros annually. In new money, the committee stresses. ‘If the introduction of the system results in just moving existing funds around, it will increase or exacerbate problems elsewhere in the system.’ The fund is not to replace existing NWO-subsidies.
