Free Competition

The Free Competition is intended for innovative and risk-laden research with a high-quality research question and scientific or practical urgency.

Proposals must be demonstrably important to one or more of the disciplines astronomy, computer science or mathematics.

Within the Free Competition, the GBE wishes to encourage a number of specific aspects:

• Risk-laden research
• Research of practical relevance
• Multidisciplinary research
• Research by female applicants.

The GBE therefore invites researchers to submit proposals which address one or more of these aspects, to which extra attention will be devoted during the assessment phase.

The Free Competition is organized across the entire division. Proposals will be assessed by a committee which includes representatives of all disciplines. In keeping with the NWO Code of Conduct on Conflicts of Interest, the GBE will consult external (international) experts as necessary and appropriate.

Who can apply

Applications can be submitted by researchers from any Dutch university or research institute which is affiliated with NWO or KNAW. Each application is to be formally submitted by a single named researcher (the ‘principal applicant’) on behalf of a team comprising researchers from one or more institutes. The principal applicant is also the proposed project leader. A copy of the application should also be submitted to the director or dean of the relevant institute. Applications are accepted on the understanding that the institute has been informed of the proposal, and that it accepts the conditions attaching to any grant awarded.

Further requirements:

The principal applicant should:

• hold at least a master’s degree or equivalent qualification
• have demonstrable research experience
• be able to remain effectively involved in the research project throughout the funding period.

Further conditions:

• The principal applicant may submit only one application in that capacity.
• The simultaneous submission of identical or very similar proposals is not permitted. Proposals submitted to more than one competition (e.g. the Free Competition and the Innovation Research Incentives Scheme) can be awarded funding only once.
• A researcher who still has a vacancy to fill within a project funded by the Free Competition may not submit a further application.
• Proposals which have been submitted on a previous occasion will be considered only if they were assessed as ‘Category B’. A proposal may be submitted no more than three times. Proposals which have previously been rejected on the basis of their content will not be considered in the same form.

Eligible expenses

Research proposals

You can apply for a grant to cover the staffing costs of one research position (PhD student or postdoc) and up to €50K to cover additional resources and expenditure. The standard grant is therefore payable in respect of:

• the costs of engaging a PhD student (for the duration of the research project) or a postdoc researcher (under a two-year or three-year contract), assuming fulltime employment. An individual bench fee (€5,000) will be awarded to this researcher as a contribution towards travelling expenses, the costs of printing a thesis and other approved expenditure.
• project-related equipment and software, where the cost exceeds €5000. This equipment must be intended for use in the project described in the proposal. Both the relationship with the project and the necessity of the equipment must be justified. Equipment or software with a purchase price of less than €5000 is deemed to form part of the standard infrastructure of the research institute and is therefore ineligible for funding under the Free Competition.
• travel expenses incurred by the holders of the funded research positions, where not covered by the bench fee. The necessity of any travel undertaken in connection with the project, particularly that by the holders of the funded research position, must be justified.
• other project-related expenditure such as the travel and accommodation costs of guest researchers, attendance at conferences, costs incurred in defending a doctoral thesis, etc. Again, all such expenditure must be justified.

Small investments

Funding to cover ‘small investments’ may also be requested. Attention should be devoted to the following points:

• Ideally, the application should be embedded within a full research proposal. This is not a firm requirement.
• There should be a clear link between the purpose of the investment and the research project itself (the ‘science case’). The relevance and necessity of the investment must be justified.
• The choice of equipment, as opposed to any available alternatives, should be explained.
• The suitability of the equipment (in relation to the science case) should be explained.

A small investment is defined as an amount between €50K and €110K, including VAT where applicable. No grant is payable in respect of equipment or software which would generally be considered part of the standard resources of the university or research institute. If the application is embedded within a full research proposal, the total grant payable remains limited to the staffing costs of one research position plus no more than €110K, with a subsidy period not exceeding four years.

When can be applied

• Closing date for submitting proposals was 15 February 2012, 11:59 hrs

Criteria

An application will be accepted for consideration only when all the following conditions have been met:

• The application must be made in the prescribed form.
• All required information must be provided. 
• The application must be made by a researcher who is affiliated with a recognized and accredited research institute.
• The application is appropriate to the aims of the funding.
• The application is for an amount within the prescribed minimum and maximum limits.
• The application has been submitted through Iris, the online grant application system used by NWO.
• The application has been submitted on time.

If the application fails to meet any of the above requirements, the EW Office will contact the principal applicant with a view to resolving the problem. Applications with serious errors or omissions may be disqualified.

The GBE reserves the right to apply a pre-selection procedure in accordance with Art. 2.6 of the NWO Granting of Subsidies Regulation.

Assessment

Assessment Proposals which satisfy the above conditions are accepted for further consideration by the assessment committee, which will base its deliberations on the content of the application, the opinions of the referees, any response from the applicants, and the expertise of the committee members themselves. If a significant number of applications has been received, the assessment committee will not undertake a full discussion of those deemed to have little chance of success.

The assessment is based on criteria which fall under four main headings:

1. Objective and impact.
2. Scientific approach and methodology.
3. Innovation and challenge: is the proposal ‘groundbreaking’?
4. The research team and resources.

The assessment committee will therefore consider the following points.

1. Objective and impact

• The degree to which the proposed project is appropriate to the research framework of this Call. 
• The timeliness and impact of the proposed project, in scientific, social and/or economic terms. 
• The potential applicability of the research outcomes. The assessment committee will attach particular weight to this aspect where appropriate.

2. Scientific approach and methodology

• The practicality of the work programme.
• Contingency: have potential problems in the approach been identified and alternative methods proposed?
• Originality of the scientific research question and proposed research method
• Clarity of the proposal.
• Quality of the research.
• Multidisciplinarity: does the research transcend the traditional boundaries of the individual disciplines of astronomy, computer science and mathematics? The assessment committee will attach particular weight to this aspect where appropriate.

3. Innovative, groundbreaking and challenging

• Are the project aims original and challenging, serving to push back the boundaries of existing scientific knowledge? 
• The risk level of the research: does it explore uncharted territory whereby the chance of success is lower? Conversely, if successful, can the results be regarded as ‘groundbreaking’ (high risk, high return)? The assessment committee will attach particular weight to this aspect where appropriate.

4. Research team and resources 

• The competence of the research team to conduct the proposed research and to supervise the researcher to be appointed using the subsidy funds. The assessment committee will attach extra weight to proposals submitted by a female principal applicant.
• The relationship between the subsidy amount and the research objectives, with particular reference to cost-effectiveness: the balance between the objectives on the one hand and the cost of the research position and resources for which funding is requested on the other.

Procedure

Prioritization

In the first instance, all applications are assessed by a departmental assessment committee with the help of the referees’ findings and any response from the applicant. The committee ranks applications within its own discipline according to their scientific quality. This assessment is based on four main criteria, as explained in Section 4.2. The prioritized list produced by the departmental committee is then passed to the division-wide assessment committee which advises the Board of the Division for Physical Sciences (GBE) accordingly. This assessment committee is made up of equal numbers of representatives of all the departmental (single discipline) committees.

The GBE takes the final decision on whether funding is to be provided. It does so based on the recommendations of the assessment committee. In principle, the GBE will not reduce the amount of the grant requested, i.e. it will not offer a partial grant. If the explanation of the balance between the amount requested and the scope of the project (‘cost effectiveness’) is deemed inadequate, the project proposal will simply be given lower priority. The GBE strives to make a decision within six months of the proposal’s submission. However, it will exceed this self-imposed deadline if it considers doing so necessary to ensure that the proposal is assessed with all due diligence. The progress of the assessment procedure can be followed using the Iris system.

Committees

Each assessment committee is responsible for ranking proposals based on the opinions of referees and the members’ own expertise.

Budget

The total available budget for this (first) round of the Free Competition 2012 is five million euros. This amount has been reserved for proposals deemed ‘excellent’.

Financiers

NWO Division for Physical Sciences

Contacts

• Dhr. drs. S. (Sjoerd) Meihuizen
  phone: +31 (0)70 - 344 07 10, e-mail: s.meihuizen@nwo.nl