Netherlands

EUP OHAMR joint transnational call 2026: National rules and requirements for applicants from Netherlands.

The information below of the national rules and requirements is only a summary. Please visit the national website and contact the national contact person for full details.

Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)

Eligible institutions

An application for funding from NWO may consider the following roles:

• National main applicant (mandatory): the applicant who leads the application to NWO and is the foreseen national project leader, in case a project is granted.
• National co-applicant (optional): national applicants in addition to the national main applicant with an active role and responsibility in realising the project and requesting funding from NWO.

National main applicants

Researchers may submit an application as a national main applicant if they have a tenured position (and therefore a paid position for an indefinite period*) or a tenure track agreement at one of the following research organisations:

• Universities and universities of applied sciences (UAS) as referred to in Article 1.8 paragraph 1 of the Higher Education and Scientific Research Act and universities listed in the Policy Rules for Universities located in the Kingdom of the Netherlands;
• University medical centres by which is meant academic hospitals as referred to in Article 1.13 paragraph 1 of the Higher Education and Scientific Research Act;
• Institutes affiliated to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) or NWO;
• TO2 institutions;
• Netherlands Cancer Institute;
• the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen;
• Naturalis Biodiversity Center;
• Advanced Research Centre for NanoLithography (ARCNL);
• Princess Máxima Center.

*Professors employed at a university of applied sciences and researchers employed at a TO2 institute may also submit as a main national applicant provided that they have at least a salaried position for a limited period of time.

Persons with a zero-hour employment agreement or with a contract for a limited period of time (other than a tenure track appointment) may not submit a proposal.

It could be the case that the applicant’s tenure track agreement ends before the intended completion date of the project for which funding is applied for, or that before that date, the applicant’s tenured contract ends due to the applicant reaching retirement age. In that case, the applicant needs to include a statement from their employer in which the organisation concerned guarantees that the project and all project members for whom funding has been requested will receive adequate supervision for the full duration of the project. Such a statement should be submitted in the full proposal stage.

The main national applicant employed by a university of applied sciences or TO2 institute whose employment ends before the intended completion date of the project for which the grant is being applied for must also attach such a statement.

Applicants with a part-time contract should guarantee adequate supervision of the project and all project members for whom funding is requested.

National co-applicants

Researchers interested to apply as a national co-applicant, i.e. together with a national main applicant, may submit as a national co-applicant if they have a tenured position (and therefore a paid position for an indefinite period*) or a tenure track agreement at one of to the research organisations listed under ‘National main applicants’ or at other research organisations as referred to in Article 1.1, paragraph 4 of the NWO Grant Rules 2024 that meet the following cumulative conditions:

• be established in the Netherlands;
• be a foundation, association or legal entity governed by public law (“publiekrechtelijke rechtspersoon”);
• have as its primary goal the independent conduct of its own fundamental research or industrial research or with widely disseminating the results of those activities through teaching, publications or knowledge transfer;
• be able to state that the organisation keeps separate accounts with regard to economic/non-economic activities and that undertakings with decisive influence on the organisation do not enjoy preferential access to the organisation’s results.

Please note: Prior to the submission of an application, NWO assesses on the basis of the above-mentioned conditions whether an organisation complies with Article 1.1, paragraph 4 of the NWO Grant Rules 2024 and may therefore participate as a national co-applicant. NWO performs this assessment to preclude the granting of prohibited state aid.

The organisation of the prospective national co-applicant must provide the following documents no less than 20 working days prior to the submission deadline for pre-proposals (meaning no later than 5 January 2026, 14:00:00 CET) by email to ohamr@nwo.nl:

• a recent extract from the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce;
• the deed of incorporation or current articles of association;
• the latest available annual accounts accompanied by an audit statement (Organisations that are not legally obliged to have their annual accounts audited do not need to provide such an auditor’s statement. They must however be able to demonstrate that this legal requirement is not applicable to the organisation concerned.);
• the completed form ‘Declaration research organisation’, available on the funding page of this Call for proposals on the NWO website.

Other relevant documentation may be added. NWO may request additional information if the above documents are not sufficiently conclusive to determine whether the organisation may act as a national co‑applicant.

If the organisation of the prospective national co-applicant does not submit the necessary documents for this assessment in time, NWO cannot accept the organisation as a national co-applicant. If the addition of new co-applicants to the consortium is allowed in the full proposal and these new co-applicants are not affiliated to a research organisation listed above, these conditions will also be checked for this organisation/these organisations. The documents listed above as a requirement in the pre-proposal stage must then be submitted by email no less than 20 working days before the submission deadline for full proposals (meaning no later than 20 May 2026, 14:00:00 CEST).

Eligible experimental approaches and disciplines

NWO aims to fund pre-clinical research.

Eligible costs

The available budget modules are listed below:

Personnel

• Personnel at a university in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, umc or a research organisation, as referred to in Article 1.1, first paragraph, subparagraphs c to h of the NWO Grant Rules 2024 salary costs can be claimed for the following positions:
  • Postdoc: at least 1 position, for at least 12 months, for at least 0.5 fte, according to UNL or NFU rates, a benchfee is available;
  • Non-scientific personnel (NWP): according to UNL or NFU rates;
  • Research leave: max. 5% of the grant amount, according to UNL or NFU rates.
• Personnel of universities of applied sciences, TO2 institutes and other research organisations using the Government Tariff Manual (HOT), Table 2, under 2.2 ‘average total salary cost per salary scale’, column ‘Hourly rate productive hours, excluding VAT’;
• Students: according to the usual internship fee or HOT rates, may be added to material costs

Material: for project-specific material costs, up to 25% of the grant amount. Subsequently, up to 50% of the material budget can be used for work by third parties;

Knowledge utilisation (All activities applied for under this budget module must fit within the definition of “Knowledge Transfer Activities” used by the European Commission in the Framework for State Aid for Research, Development and Innovation, OJEU 2022, C 414): for activities that promote the use of knowledge from the research following the Impact Plan approach, mandatory 5-20% of the grant amount;

Project management: up to 5% of the grant amount.

Please note the following:

• PhD positions cannot be applied for in this call, due to the maximum project duration of 3 years.
• NWO funds project-related costs. Therefore overhead costs are not eligible for NWO funding.

A more detailed explanation of the budget modules and eligible costs can be found on the funding page on the NWO website.

It is recommended to use the NWO budget template in the pre-proposal stage to confirm eligibility of budget items. For full proposals, it is mandatory to submit the NWO budget form for the funding requested at NWO at the time of the transnational deadline. Please submit it to ohamr@nwo.nl.

Do not hesitate to contact the national contact point in case of questions via the aforementioned email address.

Submission of the proposal at the national level

Once proposals are selected for funding, the consortia will be notified by the Joint Call Secretariat and subsequently, the national granting process will be initiated by NWO.

An application for NWO funding has one national main applicant, responsible for scientific and financial management. National co-applicants within an application for NWO funding are allowed.

• A researcher may only request NWO funding for one project (part of a European consortium) in this Call for proposals, either as main applicant or co-applicant within an application for NWO funding.
• Researchers employed at a university in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, umc or a research organisation, as referred to in Article 1.1, first paragraph, subparagraphs c to h of the NWO Grant Rules 2024 may not apply for a scientific or post-doc position for themselves.

The NWO Grant Rules 2024 and the Agreement on the Payment of Costs for Scientific Research are applicable to all applications for NWO funding. Any arrangements made regarding the grant from NWO, for instance in a Consortium Agreement, must comply with the NWO Grant Rules 2024 and the European legislation on state aid.

As stipulated in the NWO Grant Rules, Article 3.2, paragraph 2, the project cannot start until the conditions set out in the grant award decision regarding the start of the project are met. Please note, these conditions will include a signed Consortium agreement by all partners in the transnational project.

Under the Dutch General Administrative Law Act, any interested party has the right to lodge an objection to the decision taken by NWO within six weeks of the date of the decision letter. Further information about the objections procedure can be found on the NWO website: https://www.nwo.nl/en/lodging-an-objection.

NWO will, if necessary, apply a one-off indexation of personnel costs when awarding the grant. The UNL/NFU/HOT rate at the time of the decision date applies and the date on which the rates take effect is used for this purpose. Submission of financial and scientific reports at national level is required in accordance with the rules of NWO. Granted consortia will be informed in due time.