{"id":165958,"date":"2024-04-03T11:52:52","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T09:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=165958"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:16","slug":"how-covid-support-grants-permanently-changed-the-work-of-researchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2024\/04\/03\/how-covid-support-grants-permanently-changed-the-work-of-researchers\/","title":{"rendered":"How COVID support grants (permanently) changed the work of researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Dutch government decided to allocate 42 million for research into urgent COVID issues. Due to the significant time pressure involved, the funds were allocated differently than usual. EUR, which included Erasmus MC, did well in terms of the applications it submitted. Five Rotterdam researchers and the funding body ZonMw look back at this unique period and its legacy.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEva Gomb\u00e1r-Krishnan<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Psychiatrist Manon Hillegers has a vivid memory of sitting at the kitchen table watching her own children. Her daughter would be skipping her final exams and her sons, ordinarily athletic boys, were stuck at home. \u201cI was hearing the same stories from my friends and thought: all young people are a high-risk group now. We\u2019re all at risk, because we live in a high-risk, frightening time; we don\u2019t specifically need to have family-related difficulties or chronic illnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

That year, Hillegers, who is the head of the child psychiatry department at Erasmus MC, would go on to conduct research on the mental well-being of young people during the lockdowns. The COVID pandemic turned the lives of most Dutch citizens upside down. However, for scientists like Hillegers, the pandemic simultaneously presented a unique opportunity. When the government announced that it would free up 42 million for research into the most pressing issues related to COVID-19 at the end of March 2020, hundreds of researchers immediately fired up their computers to write their grant application.<\/p>\n

In addition to funding for research into the social impact of COVID measures, funding was made available for fundamental studies into the nature of the virus itself and for medical research into types of treatment. Now that the studies have been completed and the scientific findings have been published, five Rotterdam researchers and ZonMw\u2019s Director of Programmes look back on this unique period. How did the projects benefit the researchers and what lessons can be learned from the way the money was allocated?<\/p>\n

No time for inertia<\/h2>

Ordinarily, a funding round at ZonMw would easily take several months to three-quarters of a year to complete. Any application would initially be put to a committee responsible for advising on whether to take the application further or to refrain from participation. The detailed application would subsequently be reviewed by experts in the field. The submitting party would be given an opportunity to respond to their assessment, after which a ZonMw committee would make a final decision. \u201cThis is all done at a leisurely pace, meaning that no one gets overworked and everyone has time to do their job properly\u201d, says Hannie Bonink, who was Director of Programmes at ZonMw at the time.<\/p>\n

The modus operandi is designed to ensure that grants are allocated as fairly as possible and that quality prevails over simply knowing the right people. During the pandemic, however, there was no time to observe protocol.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the very first phase of our COVID programme (end of March 2020, EV), we set up expert groups to advise us on what genuinely needed to be done urgently and who could do it\u201d, says Bonink. \u201cNormally everyone gets a chance to submit an application, but on this occasion the experts simply said: this needs to be studied and that\u2019s the person you want for the job. By April, we had already made the first payments. It was completely contrary to standard procedure, but we couldn\u2019t afford to take any more time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time constraints also had an impact on the applicants. Of the scientists who responded to the very first request for research proposals, many recall drafting an application in a frenzy over the course of a few days or, in some cases, even hours. Often these applications related to studies that were going to take place anyway, albeit in slightly different forms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been developing a mobile phone application aimed at very troubled young people for some time\u201d, Hillegers says, citing an example. \u201cThe Growit! app was finshed just as the COVID pandemic unfolded and focused on identifying emotional problems. At the same time, it includes a type of intervention to help young people develop resilience through a range of tasks.\u201d Hillegers and her project partners decided to make the app available to all young people, not just the usual high-risk group.<\/p>\n\n\t

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