Session Leads:

Martijn de Wilde, Programme Officer at NWO (Dutch Research Council)
Tieme Janssen, Assistant Professor Clinical Developmental Psychology at VU
Anna Dahlman, Business Developer/Impact Developer Social & Behavioural Sciences at VU IXA-GO

The NWO 'Innovation Accelerator' funding scheme aims to accelerate the journey from research results to societal applications. NWO achieves this through a range of options—such as grants, training, and loans—tailored to researchers' needs. Launched in early 2026, the scheme is set to be further refined to align with the needs of researchers and with external programs within the funding landscape. In this session, we present the current options and the future vision for the Innovation Accelerator. VU researchers who were granted a Take-off 1 grant to develop “explore your brain” to an application in the classroom by setting up a foundation, will share their experiences. 

Session Leads:

Claudia Persoon, Head of Neurospector at Amsterdam Neuroscience
Sandra Hasanefendic, Associate Professor, Faculty of Science, Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences at VU, AIMMS and Amsterdam Sustainability Institute

Contract research offers a direct route to funding: an external party pays for the work, with no grant cycle in between. But it only happens if the outside world knows what you have to offer. 

This workshop explores how that works in practice at the VU, drawing on two groups that built a clear offering around their expertise: Neurospector and AIMMS. We cover how to translate your research to appeal to partners beyond academia, how to build lasting relationships with external partners, and how contract research is organised day to day. 

If you have ever wondered whether your academic expertise has a market, join us. 

Session Lead: 

Sander Bosch, Open Science Coordinator at VU

Including citizens in your research proposal can make it stronger. In Amsterdam partners have united efforts in the Amsterdam Citizen Science Hub, which tackles urban challenges through citizen collaboration in science across three core areas: sustainable and inclusive cities, health and well-being, and democratic and accessible technologies. 

Session Leads:

Mike Rose, Grant Advisor at VU-SSH
Scott Hayes, Grants Advisor, Expertise: National and International grant opportunities, at VU IXA-GO 

Reviewing is hard. You want to offer high-level conceptual feedback, assess the narrative and structure of the proposal, check it matches the call requirements, and probably remove all those unnecessary commas, too. This workshop helps to break reviewing down into specific roles or 'hats’, helping you to structure feedback for others, or to revise your own ideas. It works great for a peer-group review session, or just in your own head.  

In the workshop we will introduce the different hats and why they are useful, followed by a facilitated group practice session on example texts.