NWO, RVO, and the European Commission offer opportunities to fund research infrastructure. This section discusses the Research Infrastructure opportunities in the Netherlands.
NWO instruments pay for the acquisition and development of equipment, RVO allows you to account for the development and depreciation costs, while EU instruments pay for sharing of facilities and instruments with researchers internationally.
Most common NWO and RVO funding instruments offer the opportunity to fund smaller types of research equipment either by direct compensation (NWO) or by covering the costs of depreciation (RVO). This is applicable for both personal grants as well as open instruments and thematic grants. The budget modules of NWO allow for limited research infrastructure investments (up to €250.000,- for some instruments).
Larger investments in research infrastructure can be financed by two NWO instruments called:
- the Research Infrastructure (RI): national consortia
- the national roadmap for large-scale research infrastructure (LSRI)
Research Infrastructure (RI): National Consortia RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE (RI): NATIONAL CONSORTIA
The call - open once per two years - is intended to finance equipment and data collections. Applications can be submitted by consortia from all scientific disciplines. NWO demands a minimum NWO contribution of €1,000,000 for proposals in the social sciences and humanities and €1,500,000 for proposals in other fields of science. The maximum NWO contribution is €10,000,000. A key aspect of the call is the representation of relevant research groups in a certain field nationally.
National Roadmap for large-scale research infrastructure (LSRI) The National Roadmap for Large-Scale Research Facilities programme encourages the establishment or improvement of large research facilities with which the Netherlands can assume an important position internationally.
The National Roadmap for Large-Scale Research Facilities is intended for investments in: 1) the implementation or upgrade of research facilities in the Netherlands with international allure and/or 2) the participation by the Netherlands in the construction of or substantial change to international research facilities.
The LSRI call occurs once each two years and only research facilities on the roadmap are eligible for funding.
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Last edit: 15 November 2023
