Innovational Research Incentives Scheme Veni - Social Sciences and Humanities
Veni is part of the NWO Talent Programme. It allows researchers who have recently obtained their PhD to conduct independent research and develop their ideas for a period of three years.
The Veni target group consists of researchers at the stage of transitioning towards independence. The Veni grant can contribute to the researcher’s development in this area. The Veni grant is aimed at researchers with academic qualities that clearly exceed what is customary. The Veni grant is intended to finance academically innovative research and to give these researchers the opportunity to develop themselves as independent researchers.
Purpose
The aim of the NWO Talent Programme is to provide creative space for adventurous, talented, pioneering researchers to do research of their choice, develop their own line of research and further develop their talen.
Who can apply
Applications can be submitted by candidates who have obtained their PhD, irrespective of whether they hold tenured positions and of whether they come from the Netherlands or abroad. Candidates may only submit an application if they have obtained their PhD in the three years preceding the reference date of this round, 1 January 2025, or between 1 January 2025 and 2 September 2025. An extension to the above career-dependent submission period may be possible under specific circumstances (see Section 3.4.2 of the Call for proposals).
What to apply for
For an application in this Call for proposals, a maximum of € 320,000 can be applied for. The maximum duration of the proposed project is three years. The duration of the project can be lengthened proportionally in case of part-time research by a maximum of one year (from three to four years). If the proposed research is of shorter duration, the maximum amount will be reduced accordingly. It is also possible to carry out the research part-time without extending the duration of the project. Part-time appointments of less than 0.4 FTE are not permitted
When to apply
- The deadline for submitting pre‐proposals is 2 September, 2025, before 14:00:00 hours CEST.
- The deadline for submitting full proposals is 27 January, 2026, before 14:00:00 hours CET.
Assessment
Criteria
The pre-proposal submitted within this Call for proposals will be substantially assessed on the basis of the following criterion:
- Quality of the researcher.
The applications submitted within this Call for proposals will be substantially assessed on the basis of the following criteria:
- Quality and innovative character of the research proposal (75%) ,
- Scientific and/or societal impact (25%).
Procedure
- submission of the pre-proposal;
- admissibility check of the pre-proposal;
- assessment of the pre-proposal;
- provisional advice assessment committee;
- possibility to submit a request for a correction of a factual inaccuracy in the negative provisional advice
- decision-making pre-proposal;
- submission of the full proposal (only possible if you have received a positive decision on the pre-proposal);
- admissibility check of the full proposal;
- assessment of the full proposal;
- review by committee (for domain ZonMw);
- peer review by referees (for domains Science and AES only);
- rebuttal (for Science, AES and ZonMW only);
- provisional advice assessment committee (all domains);
- interview selection (ZonMw only);
- interview and meeting of the assessment committee (all domains);
- decision-making
More information on the procedure and the timeline per domain can be found in the Call for proposals.
The assessment of pre-proposals and full applications within SSH takes place in six panels. The allocation of proposals to a panel is determined by the applicants themselves. Please note that candidates submit their proposal to one of these panels in ISAAC. You can find the panel structure under ‘prepare’.
The panels assess the applications in all phases. In the SSH domain, NWO does not ask external reviewers to assess applications. Therefore, applicants are advised to take notice of the interdisciplinary character of the evaluation committees.
More information
Embedding guarantee
Op deze pagina vindt u een overzicht van de meest gestelde vragen over het NWO-Talentprogramma, zoals vragen over de indieningstermijn (en eventuele uitzonderingen hierop) en de inbeddingsgarantie.
Freqeuntly asked questions
On this page you will find an overview of the most frequently asked questions about the NWO Talent Programme, including questions about the set time limit to submit a proposal (and any exceptions to it) and the embedding guarantee.
