Introduction and purpose
The NWO Visitor's Travel Grant programme is designed to encourage visits to the Netherlands by highly qualified foreign researchers in order to advance international cooperation by Dutch researchers and to enable foreign researchers to familiarise themselves with Dutch research and the research infrastructure of the Netherlands.
The purpose of the Visitor's Travel Grants programme is to promote international cooperation between researchers in the Netherlands and elsewhere and to promote knowledge of Dutch research in other countries. The aim of the programme is to
increase the expertise and knowledge of the Dutch research team concerned. The programme provides the opportunity to apply for a grant to help fund a visit by a foreign researcher that will make a vital contribution to the progress of a clearly delineated current scientific research project in the Netherlands. For the programmes Visitor’s Travel Grant, Cooperation Germany – Von Humboldt Stiftung, Cooperation Japan, Cooperation Taiwan and Cooperation China travel grants and seminars, NWO has reserved k€ 370 for 2016, which has been divided into two equal parts over the year. NWO aims to increase researchers’ awareness of the possibilities for knowledge utilisation. NWO asks applicants to consider the potential for knowledge utilisation and, where relevant, to suggest how the results of the proposed research could be used by third parties outside the academic sector or working in other academicdisciplines. This does not mean the use of such knowledge by fellow researchers within the same academic discipline; after all, the relevance of the proposed research to the advancement of science within the applicant’s own discipline is assessed through the application of the existing quality criteria.
Who can apply
A professor with a tenured position at one of the following knowledge institutions can apply for his/her research group:
- Dutch universities;
- NWO and KNAW institutes;
- the Netherlands Cancer Institute;
- the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen;
- researchers from the DUBBLE Beamline at the ESRF in Grenoble;
- NCB Naturalis;
- Advanced Research Centre for NanoLithography (ARCNL).
The applicant or a researcher of the applicant must act as the host/hostes.
What can be applied for
The application can be for a period of up to four months, to be spent at one of the institutions listed under ‘Who can apply’. A professor may submit maximum 1 application per calendar year. For a visitor a maximum of 1 application per calendar year may be submitted. Grant can be requested to help meet the costs of subsistence and international travel. The following rates apply:
Subsistence costs
Visitor's Travel Grant Subsistence costs are decided on a case-by-case basis up to a maximum of € 1750 per month for an experienced senior researcher or € 2000 per month for a full professor.
International travel costs
Assistance with the costs of international travel is based on the cost of second class rail or tourist class air travel. The maximum amount of grant depends on the destination. For researchers based in Europe, the maximum is € 500 and for researchers based outside Europe it is € 1500.
Any funding received from other sources to help meet the costs of subsistence and/or international travel will be deducted from the NWO grant.
Research costs are not eligible for NWO assistance under this programme
When can applications be submitted
Proposals may be submitted at any time. There are no deadlines. Applications must reach NWO at least six months before the proposed starting date of the visit.
Preparing an application
- Download the application form from the electronic application system ISAAC or
from NWO’s website (on the grant page for this programme). - Complete the application form.
- Save the application form as a pdf file and upload it in ISAAC
Submitting an application
An application can only be submitted to NWO via the online application system ISAAC. Applications not submitted via ISAAC will not be considered. A principal applicant must submit his/her application via his/her own ISAAC account. If the principal applicant does not have an ISAAC account yet, then this should be created at least one day before the application is submitted to ensure that any registration problems can be resolved on time. If the principal applicant already has an NWOaccount, then he/she does not need to create a new account to submit an application. When you submit your application to ISAAC you need to enter several additional details online. Make sure you allow enough time for this.
For technical questions please contact the ISAAC helpdesk, see the section Contact.
Procedure
The NWO office will screen the applications to determine if they comply with the formal requirements of this call for proposals. Applications that do not comply with these requirements will not be considered. As a rule, for the application no external referee will be consulted. The Visitor's Travel Grants selection committee will assess the application and accompanying documents and will advise NWO whether to award the grant; the final decision will then be taken by the Governing Board of NWO. The assessment procedure may take up to six months to complete. The NWO Code of Conduct on Conflicts of Interest applies to all persons and NWO staff involved in the assessment and/or decision-making process. NWO gives all full proposals a qualification. The applicant is informed of this qualification when the decision about whether or not to award funding is announced.
Criteria
Proposals will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria: - 1.a The quality of the applicant; - 1.b The quality and seniority of the visitor; - 2.a The quality and feasibility of the work plan for the visit including the timetabling of the visitor’s activities in relation to the period of the grant requested - 2.b The importance of the visit to the progress of the ongoing research project - 3 Knowledge utilisation. All proposals will be assessed against the three criteria. These criteria weigh 40%, 40% and 20% respectively in the total assessment.
For more information click "Further official information" below.