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Incentive Grants FSS

Last updated on 14 December 2023
The Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (OCW) introduced Starter and Incentive Grants to provide stable research funding at universities and UMCs. These non-competitive scholarships focus on supporting early-career researchers and alleviating work pressure.

The incentive grants aim to serve as working capital for Assistant Professors (UD), Associate Professors (UHD), or Professors with a permanent contract. These grants are intended to provide opportunities and incentives for long-term planning, creating structural space for research within faculties and institutes. The grants support activities such as developing new ideas, forming consortia, and establishing innovative research lines, ultimately enhancing the research capabilities and impact of academic staff.

  • Ministry Conditions for incentive Grants

    The OCW established the following design and conditions for  incentive grants:  

    Target Group and Scope

    Tenured professors, associate professors, and assistant professors* with a permanent contract are eligible for incentive grants.

    * Starter grant holders are excluded from incentive grants for the durations of their starter grants.

    Grant Amount and spending conditions


    The researcher receives a grant up to €300,000. This amount is available for;

      • direct research costs (including salary costs for a PhD candidate, the employment of a lab assistant, data engineer, or other colleague,
      • the use of laboratories and other research facilities, etc.) and the indirect costs associated with the research, and for
      • the indirect costs amount to a maximum of 20% per starter grant.

    The grant has maximum 6 year usage period.

    It is non-transferable and returns to the faculty in case of departure.

    The grant can be carried to another department or faculty within the same university.

    Unspent funds are returned to the university.

    Concurrence with existing programsResearchers can apply to NWO grants without restriction

  • Faculty of Social Sciences: Faculty Guidelines for Incentive grants

    At FSS we agreed to allocate starter and incentive grants to achieve specific goals. Our criteria focus on employee well-being, creating a supportive environment for ambitions, and valuing Team Science, Open Science, diversified career paths, and academic and societal impact.

    Here are the key principles we use for allocating these grants:

    • Reduce work pressure and increase research time.
    • Encourage internal collaboration.
    • Promote individual career development by seeking external research funding.
    • Ensure equitable, transparent, and regularly reviewed distribution mechanisms.

    Our faculty, FSS, will receive approximately €25 million over 10 years (about €2.5 million per year). The allocation process considers the full period because grants can be used for several years, different from when they're initially allocated. We've established principles for allocating incentive grants:

    1. Ex-post Grant: The Ex-Post grant is designed to alleviate application pressure by enhancing the success rate of applications. This is achieved by awarding grants to scholars who have applied for external funding, received favorable evaluations from their peers, yet did not secure financial support (this behavior is termed grant seeking ex-post). The selection of the grant holders will be done by our Research Assessment Board based on the criteria developed by the Heads of Departments. The focus is on excellence and the content of the application rather than numerical rankings or other outcome metrics in grant proposals.
    2. R&I Labs and Internationalization Network Grant: To provide scholars with time and resources for application development, this grant supports collaborative efforts within our Research and Innovation labs. Our commitment to global collaboration is also reflected in this grant, which funds small projects inviting esteemed international scholars to visit our campus. This initiative enhances our academic community and fosters international partnerships. Lab directors create plans detailing collaborative projects (2G, 3G, and 4G applications) to secure funding.
    3. Top-Up Grant: We have reserved a portion of our funding to facilitate collaborations among starter grant recipients. When these recipients decide to work together, they can receive additional support through this top-up grant.

  • For the allocation of the incentive grants we established the following principles:

    		Ex-postR&I Labs and internationalizationTop-up
    Eligibility (of the grant holder)

    Tenured professors, associate professors, and assistant professors* with a permanent contract

    * Starter grant holders are excluded from these incentive grants for the durations of their starter grants.

    Tenured professors, associate professors, and assistant professors* with a permanent contract

    * Starter grant holders are excluded from these incentive grants for the durations of their starter grants

    		Assistant professors with a permanent contract and a Starter grant.
    Target groupScholars who have submitted excellent applications but did not receive fundingScholars that can participate in writing 2G,3G,4G applications and international visitorsStarter grant holders collaborating with each other
    Grant amount€100-300k€130k per departmental lab every 3 years€40k per collaboration
    Advice on the grant decisionRABHeads of DepartmentsRAB
    Selection ProcessBased on  assessment criteriaIntra-departmentalBased on evaluation for project fit