UU gets 23 of the 188 Veni grants conceded

This is published on the NWO website. For many scientists, a Veni grant is a great start to their scientific careers, and so, NWO receives many applications each year. However, the budget is limited. On its website, NWO apologises for the low acceptance rate, and acknowledges that often, great research projects don’t get financed. Together with the universities, NWO is working on a ‘healthier research climate’, in order to alleviate some of the pressure on applicants, and to raise the acceptance rate to at least 25 percent.

NWO has also looked into whether there’s a difference between accepted applications of male and female scientists; this round, that is not the case. NWO received 792 applications from male scientists, and 648 from female scientists. For 22 applicants, no sex was registered. The acceptance rate this round was a little higher for women (14 percent) than for men (13 percent). In the technology and exact sciences disciplines, the acceptance rate for women was even higher this year.

Remarkably, there were almost the same number of applications from men and women alike. That has been quite different in the past. In the 2017-2022 period, two thirds of all applications were sent in by men. This also led to more men receiving Veni grants.

The University of Amsterdam has the highest number of Veni grants: 18 in all. TU Delft is also notable: the university of technology is in second place, with 17 grants.

This year, Utrecht University received 14 Veni grants. Of those, five are for Sciences, four for Geosciences, two for Humanities, two for Social Sciences, and one for Veterinary Medicine. Furthermore, the UMC Utrecht hospital received six, two are for the Princess Máxima Centre, and one for the Hubrecht Institute.

Of these 23 grants in Utrecht, 13 were for men, and 10 for women. The UU site has posted an overview of the research these scientists will be working on.