Infectieziektebestrijding

Pilots Infectious Disease Control — From Small Steps to Great Insights (Pilots Infectieziektebestrijding — van kleine stappen naar grote inzichten)

Funds Dutch pilot studies in infectious disease prevention that generate practical insights for wider implementation.

Pilots Infectieziektebestrijding is a grant strand under ZonMw's Infectieziektebestrijding 2025-2030 programme, administered by ZonMw — the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development — on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The strand's stated aim is to stimulate small-scale pilot research (kleinschalig pilotonderzoek stimuleren) that generates new insights to strengthen infectious disease prevention and control in the Netherlands. This positions the Pilots strand as the exploratory complement to the Onderzoeksimpuls strand within the same programme: where Onderzoeksimpuls reinforces existing programmes, Pilots is intended to generate preliminary evidence that can inform future, larger-scale intervention strategies.

The call opened on 6 May 2026 at 14:00 and closes on 7 July 2026 at 14:00 Netherlands time, sharing its deadline with the concurrent Onderzoeksimpuls and Verspreiding en implementatie impuls calls under the same programme. Eligible applicants include Dutch universities, university medical centres, non-profit research organisations, and societal partner organisations. For-profit organisations and individual researchers are not eligible as main applicants. Specific award amounts per project are not published on the programme index and must be obtained from the individual call page on Mijn ZonMw.

The small-scale framing of this strand implies that award sizes are likely lower than the Onderzoeksimpuls track, and projects are expected to operate with limited budgets to produce preliminary findings, feasibility assessments, or proof-of-concept results. Applications are submitted in Dutch through the Mijn ZonMw portal. Successful pilots may form the foundation for future applications to the Onderzoeksimpuls or other ZonMw infectious disease strands within the 2025-2030 programme framework.