BMS PhD Fund: 2nd call open for submission deadline 11 September 2026

Sometimes, opportunities arise in your PhD project that may benefit your professional development, but which are not accounted for beforehand. Often, sections cannot financially support these (unexpected) opportunity-driven activities out of the planned PhD-project budget. In case the activities not only result in the scientific-career growth of you as a PhD but also positively contribute to the knowledge/expertise of our faculty BMS, you can apply for (partial) funding from the BMS PhD Fund.

2026 2nd call open for submission

The last submission deadline is September 11, 2026. 
This is the 2nd call for the BMS PhD Fund in 2026. For this call, all activities should happen and be paid for in 2026. 

WHAT CAN BE REQUESTED FROM THIS FUND

Applications for this fund can be about a broad range of activities, initiatives, and (professional) development goals in the PhD-education trajectory of PhDs (e.g., visits to other labs, organizing symposia, and/or conferences). Please have a look at the previously awarded activities by your colleague PhDs. We do not want to give too many examples, as we encourage the creativity of your application (and your activities!). In essence, it is crucial that it enriches your PhD, but it is simultaneously clear that it is of value to a larger part of the researchers in our BMS faculty and/or for BMS Lab. Please note that the fund is not meant to cover costs for language editing, open access publication, thesis printing, or defense activities, conference visits as a participant, and/or regular living expenses.

Please note that multiple other funding opportunities are available to support such opportunities for PhDs. we have an overview of possibilities on our BMS PhD Portal and make sure you also check the 'Stay Abroad' page, as our BMS international office may have nice opportunities and networks in place to go abroad. 

CRITERIA FOR APPLICATION

1. Eligible for all types of actively enrolled PhD’s (see PhD Charter TGS) affiliated with the BMS Faculty and having a promotor from BMS;
2. It is allowed to submit applications for the BMS PhD Fund more than once during your PhD. However, once your submission is granted out of this fund you can no longer submit applications;
3. The application should enrich your professional PhD development, but simultaneously, it should also be of value to researchers outside of your section. So, either to a broader group of researchers in the BMS faculty and/or to our facilities such as the BMS Lab;
4. Your application should fit the BMS research strategy and BMS research themes;
5. Does your supervision team support this activity? Make sure you include their motivation in the application form
6. You need to have co-funding by your section and/or external parties of at least 30% of the costs. Please provide proof/information about this; out-of-personal pocket contributions are not allowed. Check the support on the PhD Stay Abroad page (stayabroad-bms@utwente.nl) for possibilities via an Erasmus partner institute. 
7. Please try to be fair in what you request for support, taking into account opportunities for your PhD colleagues, earlier, we awarded between 800-4500€ per PhD;
8. Once granted, you are required to pay attention to the dissemination of your results with others in the BMS faculty. Please explain in your application how you are going to do that;
9. A prerequisite of the call may be that the fund should be spent in the calendar year of the application, if this is a requirement, this will be noted in the call.   

APPLICATION FORM

After filling out the application form, requests can be submitted via email to BMS Research Support (research-support-bms@utwente.nl). Please make sure you consult with your supervision team about the anticipated activities.

FUND PROCEDURES

We have an annual fund available for all submissions, the amount we have available per call may differ if we do multiple calls. We aim to support as many projects as possible within one call. The fund will contribute to a maximum of 70% of the total costs, granting funds is always on the condition of co-funding with either the section, department, or/and an external partner. Submission will be reviewed within the Research Support Office and the Portfolioholder Research. The BMS International Office & Faculty Board may be asked for advice on the submitted applications.