NWO to support Caribbean research with PhD grants

Research funder NWO is launching special PhD grants to strengthen science in the Caribbean. Until 2019, Caribbean researchers were unable to apply for regular NWO funding.

The new NWO grants are aimed at graduates with a master’s degree who want to dedicate their research to addressing the major challenges facing the Caribbean region. PhD candidates can receive up to 350,000 euros in funding.

A broad range of topics is welcome, but local relevance and connection to the region are central. Researchers must either have been born on one of the six Caribbean islands or be living there; otherwise, the research must primarily take place in the Caribbean region.

Criticism

“With these grants, we are responding to the criticism we have received in recent years”, says Arnold Lubbers, coordinator of NWO’s Caribbean Research programme. This programme was set up in 2013 at the request of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, but “in practice it was often difficult, and for a while even impossible, for researchers from the Caribbean region to apply for funding for their projects”.

Until 2019, researchers at universities in Aruba, Curaçao and St Maarten were not eligible to apply for regular NWO funding. Even within the Caribbean Research programme, this only became possible in 2017.

In addition, Caribbean researchers faced different obstacles compared to European applicants, due to the lower number of support staff at knowledge institutions in the Caribbean.

Perspectives

“As a result, research funded by NWO was mainly led by Dutch scientists”, Lubbers explains. “This led to a lack of perspectives from the region itself. With these new grants, we’re aiming to change that.” Around 2.5 million euros has now been made available for this.

Researchers can submit a letter of intent until Tuesday 24 June, in which they briefly introduce themselves and outline their research idea, PhD position and proposed supervisors. This will be followed by the rest of the application process.