KIEM (Creative Industry / Applied Research Seeds)

KIEM is NWO's small applied-research grant family in the Netherlands, delivered by Regieorgaan SIA for practice-oriented projects that bring researchers and industry together. The 2026 family includes seven variants: KIEM HighTech, KIEM Logistiek, KIEM GoFood, KIEM MV, KIEM GoChem, KIEM Defensie, and KIEM Arbeidsbesparende AI. Each call caps funding at €40,000, with continuous submission and September 2026 deadlines across the variants. The programme is open to starting researchers, applied sciences researchers, interdisciplinary teams, and industry collaborations, with participation from universities, research organisations, nonprofits, and companies registered and operating in the Netherlands. The award is deliberately modest, which makes it suited to early exploratory work rather than larger development programmes. KIEM fits teams that need a first public-private research step and can show a clear knowledge-use case in a specific innovation domain. Its value is speed and focus: the programme is most credible when the proposal can show a practical research question, a working partnership, and a realistic route into later development rather than a broad technology roadmap.

Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.