The government has just announced this. Research financier NWO has divided the money. Forty applications from ‘consortia’ were received, fifteen of which were invited for an interview.
One of the seven selected consortia brings together biologists and technology developers to study (and manipulate) body cells in diseased and healthy tissue. It should lead to better treatment of diseases.
Another consortium wants to study how young people grow up and develop in education and their social environment. Neuroscientists and behavioral scientists work together in that project.
This is also the case with the other consortia, in which researchers from various universities study, for example, algorithms and ethics, new plastics, materials for quantum computers and stress in everyday life.
Ten years
The consortia will use the money (142.7 million euros) to conduct research for ten years. This amounts to about two million euros per year. The Gravitation Grants were awarded for the first time in 2012. There have now been five rounds in total and a sixth round will be held next academic year.
By way of comparison, the highest Dutch science prize (the Spinoza Prize) is worth 2.5 million euros and you don’t win it ten years in a row. However, three main applicants in this round also turned out to be former winners of the Spinoza Prize. These are Anna Akhmanova (Utrecht), Eveline Crone (Rotterdam) and Jan van Hest (Eindhoven).