International researchers bag EU grants for the Netherlands

Fifty-one young academics at Dutch universities and research institutes will receive a European Starting Grant of an average of 1.5 million euros. Two-thirds of the winners are international researchers.

The European Research Council (ERC) had €780 million in Starting Grants to award this year. Out of nearly 3,500 applications, 494 (14.2 percent) were granted.

With 51 grants, the Netherlands had another banner year – second only to Germany, which secured 87 grants. Large countries like the UK (50), France (49), Italy (41) and Spain (33) were less successful.

International researchers

Of the grant winners in the Netherlands, 33 are international researchers and 18 have Dutch citizenship, the ERC revealed.

In total, there are 24 Dutch grants winners, six of whom are affiliated with a foreign knowledge institution. The Dutch came in seventh in this year’s ‘nationalities ranking’, behind the Germans (94), Italians (61), French (44), Spanish (36), Israelis (30) and British (27).

Just like last year most ‘Dutch’ grants were won by researchers currently attached to the universities of Leiden, Utrecht and Delft. But grants are awarded to individuals, not institutions, which means that winners can still decide to take their budget to another institution, here or abroad.

While the current government is wary of the internationalisation of higher education and research, knowledge institutions stress that the Netherlands actually owes a lot to foreign researchers.

3,000 new jobs

Starting Grants are intended for postdoctoral researchers at the beginning of their academic career, allowing them to set up their own team and spend five years doing research. The ERC expects the grants to create 3,000 new jobs.