Institute Gak-KNAW Award

Talented early-career researchers may apply for a three-year appointment as a post-doc researcher at an Academy institute to conduct research on the labour market and social security in the Netherlands. Potential subjects include trends and developments in sickness absenteeism and incapacity for work, labour market shortages, the mismatch between education and the labour market, and the implementation of social security programmes. The research must be of relevance to society and display a demonstrable interest in societal impact.

Apply:Open till 5 January 2026

Research synopsis form (Dutch only)

The application procedure has changed. You must first submit a research synopsis; see ‘About the procedure’.

The research proposal should be submitted in Dutch.

Subject areas

Social security and the labour market. The participating institutes are the Huygens Institute, the International Institute of Social History and the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute.

Who is it for

Postdoc researchers who obtained their PhD no more than five years ago or will receive their PhD not later than April 2026 and who are conducting innovative research that will improve our understanding of trends and developments in social security and the labour market in the Netherlands.

The appointment to the Academy host institute will be at salary scale 11 and no higher than grade 6, in accordance with the salary scales used by the Dutch Research Council.

See the Regulations for the terms and conditions (Dutch only)

About the procedure

Applications will be considered in two phases:

Phase 1

• You must submit your research synopsis no later than 5 January 2026 using the form provided on the Academy’s website (see above).
• The research synopsis will be reviewed and it will be decided whether your proposal is in line with the objectives of the Instituut Gak-KNAW Award and shows enough potential to be developed in more detail.
• You will be notified no later than 12 January 2026 whether or not your application qualifies.

Phase 2

• If your application qualifies, you will receive a form for submitting a detailed research proposal.
• Contact the intended guest institute before continuing to write the detailed proposal.
• You may submit the detailed proposal until 27 February 2026 by emailing it to wetenschapsfondsen@knaw.nl, together with the Formulier Inbeddingsgarantie (embedding guarantee form, Dutch only) signed by the host institute.
• You will receive notification about the status of your application late April 2026.

About the Instituut Gak-KNAW Award

The Instituut Gak-KNAW Award was established in 2019 by Instituut Gak and the Academy and is conferred annually. The award is made possible by Instituut Gak (Dutch only), an equity fund that seeks to contribute to the quality of social security and labour market policy by offering financial support for socially relevant projects and research and by establishing (endowed) chairs and a research professorship.