Internationalisation in the Humanities

With this grant instrument, the Humanities Divisional Board wants to facilitate the international cooperation between Dutch research groups and their foreign colleagues, stimulate the formation of international networks within the humanities and encourage humanities applications to international agencies.

Who can apply

Senior researchers employed at the following knowledge institutions can apply:

• Dutch universities;
• NWO and KNAW institutes;
• The Netherlands Cancer Institute;
• the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, and
• researchers on the Dutch Belgian Beamline at ESRF in Grenoble.

Researchers not employed at an institute recognised by NWO, can submit an application in collaboration with senior university researchers. The application must be submitted by a Dutch research group (research school, research institute or department of the applicant) that wants to work with at least two foreign research groups. Other Dutch research groups may be involved in the project.

What can be applied for

Grant for the exchange of researchers, scientific meetings, publication costs, secondment costs, costs for setting up a network and material costs. Personnel costs, as well as activities that are primarily related to education (such as courses, summer schools, international trips of PhDs in the context of their PhD research) are not eligible for funding.

The maximum duration of a project is three years.

The grant must have a minimum size of € 25,000. The grant payment received may be no higher than € 75,000. NWO will pay a maximum of 75% in the case of a first application and 50% in the case of a continuation of a subsequent application.

At least two of the foreign institute(s) or research groups need to contribute to the costs of the cooperation (at least 25% of the amount applied for to NWO in the case of a first application and at least 50% in the case of a subsequent application).

When can be applied

• Closing date for submitting applications was 1 March 2012

Application rounds for this type of grant take place each year.

Extra Information

Applications should be related to specified research activities within the framework of a structured programmatic cooperation with two or more foreign institutes or research groups. The aim of the cooperative project must be to realise a tangible form of international cooperation. This mainly concerns 1) the added value of the international cooperation, in a form that exceeds the level of individual internationalisation (conferences, fieldwork, etc.) and 2) strengthening the Dutch research in the international arena. For further information about how the aim of this grant instrument can be realised and the weighting aspects used, please refer to the heading Criteria: Operationalisation of the objective and Intrinsic weighting aspects.

An applicant may submit one application per year for scientific cooperation with two or more foreign research groups (research school, research institute or department). An application must concern a single well-defined cooperative project; different cooperative projects should not be brought together under a single application.

Approved applications should start within 6 months of the grant being formally awarded. A later starting date can lead to the grant being withdrawn.

Criteria

For further information please contact the person coordinating this grant (see below). Aspects of the collaborative project that must be described in the application:

• aim of project;
• feasibility of the planned activities;
• relevance of the planned activities;
• programmatic coherency;
• importance, added value and urgency of the collaboration for the participating research groups;
• quality of the research groups involved;
• qualifications of the main applicant as an international project leader (refer to CV), evidenced by a general international orientation (participation in international activities and international collaborations).

Operationalisation of the objective and intrinsic weighting aspects:

The objective of this type of grant described under the explanatory notes (realising a tangible international cooperation) must seek to realise one of the following results (or a combination thereof):

• a detailed international research proposal within the grant period;
• a structurally embedded international research network;
• research infrastructure (joint databases and the like);
• one or more forms of other joint output, such as scientific publications (preferably not in Dutch).

In the event that a further prioritisation proves necessary most weight will be attached to points 1 and 2 during the assessment.

Procedure

First will be decided if the application can be taken into consideration. NWO’s Code of Conduct on Conflicts of Interest fully applies to the members of the board.

Admissibility criteria:

• 1. the application must lie within the area of the Humanities;
• 2. an applicant may only submit one application per year;
• 3. the original guarantee statements from the foreign partners must be submitted simultaneously with the application (by regular mail in March);
• 4. the application may only have been submitted once before.

The applications will be assessed and if necessary prioritised by the Humanities Divisional Board. Due to the special character if this instrument (maximum duration of three years and small budgets) art. 2.2.5 of the NWO Regulation on Granting applies. Therefore no external recommendations will be obtained.

If so desired, the board can request extra information from the applicant. A decision about the awarding of grants will be taken in June.

Committees

There are no committees. The applications will be assessed and if necessary prioritised by the Humanities Divisional Board.

Budget

The total budget for the 2012 funding round is € 400,000.

Financiers

NWO Division for the Humanities (GW).

Contacts

• Ms I.J. Drijfhout-Geijteman
  phone: +31 (0)70 344 08 29, e-mail: i.drijfhout@nwo.nl