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Funder ·

Dutch Research Council (NWO)

Funds Dutch Research Council, the Netherlands funder supporting university and societal challenge research and infrastructure.

Netherlandswww.nwo.nl
Key stats
Annual funding€1.5B
Programs10
Active grants5
Total grants6
About

The Dutch Research Council, or NWO, is the Netherlands' national research funding agency under the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. It invests about EUR 1.5 billion a year in curiosity-driven research, societal challenge research, and research infrastructure, and it supports more than 7,500 projects at universities and knowledge institutions. Its funding base is not just OCW; almost eve…

Programs & grants under this funder
Knowledge and Innovation Covenant (KIC)

Connects Dutch researchers, businesses, and civil society through mission-oriented collaborative grant programmes.

1 grant
Knowledge and Innovation Covenant (KIC)
Open
€120M pool
KIEM (Creative Industry / Applied Research Seeds)

Supports Dutch applied-research teams with small seed grants linking industry collaboration and practical outcomes.

1 grant
KIEM HighTech
Open
€2.1M pool·23 days
Dutch Research Agenda (NWA)

Connects Dutch stakeholders through citizen-driven research agendas that fund societal challenge work.

1 grant
Dutch Research Agenda (NWA)
Open
— pool
NWO Open Technology Programme

Provides the NWO Open Technology Programme support for Dutch applied research teams at universities and institutes with unrestricted project topics.

1 grant
Open Technology Programme
Between cycles
€25.9M pool
NWO Take-off

Funds Dutch innovation collaborations with support for feasibility studies and early financing for startup growth.

2 grants
Take-off Phase 1 — Feasibility Study (WO)
Open
€5.4M pool·100 days
Take-off Phase 2 — Early-Stage Loan (Vroegefasetraject)
Open
€10M pool·38 days
NWO Open Competition Domain Science

Funds NWO Open Competition Domain Science for Dutch research projects in natural sciences and engineering.

NWO Take-off Grant

Funds NWO Take-off Grant for university spin-offs with feasibility support from prototype to market readiness.

NWO Veni

Funds NWO Veni for Dutch early-career researchers to launch independent science projects at the start of their careers.

NWO Vici

Funds NWO Vici to support senior Dutch researchers building strong research groups through sustained multidisciplinary work.

NWO Vidi

Funds NWO Vidi to enable Dutch mid-career researchers to establish independent research programmes and teams.

Parent entityMinistry of Education, Culture and Science (Netherlands)
Last verified: 29 May 2026Source: www.nwo.nl