Gratama Science Award

Description

The Gratama Science Award is an incentive award for young and active academics from the universities of Groningen and Leiden, who distinguish themselves through innovative, societally relevant, and remarkable research.

The award is given for research that they have conducted within five years after finishing their PhD. Although it is not required for the research to have been carried out at the universities of Groningen and Leiden, the researchers must be affiliated with one of these universities at the time of their nomination. The nomination must be made within seven years after finishing their PhD, and candidates may not be older than 40 years at the time of the nomination.

Relevant academic fields

The Gratama Science Award covers the full breadth of academic research at both universities. In the absence of nominations of sufficient quality, the award may be withheld.

Nomination

In the year in which the Gratama Science Award can be awarded to a candidate from the university in question, any faculty of the University of Groningen or Leiden University can nominate one candidate for the jury (see under 'Jury’ below).

Nominations must be submitted in Dutch.

The closing date for submitting the nominations is 28 February and the call for nominations takes place around 1 November of the year prior to the award ceremony.

Jury

The assessment of the nominated candidates is based on the recognition of their research achievements, which must not only be of high quality, but must also satisfy three main criteria: innovative, societally relevant, and high-profile.

Nominations from the University of Groningen are assessed by the Groningen University Fund, whereas nominations from Leiden University are assessed by the Committee for Academic Expenditure of the Leiden University Fund.

These bodies must, each for their own university and in the year in which the prize may be awarded to their university, submit a non-prioritized nomination of three candidates to the board of the Gratama Foundation before 1 April, based on the nominations submitted by the faculties.

A jury, consisting of this board and its two scientific advisors, affiliated to the universities of Groningen and Leiden respectively, will choose a winner from the nominations.

Award ceremony

In even-numbered years, the award ceremony of the Gratama Science Award takes place in Groningen and in uneven-numbered years, it takes place in Leiden. The time and location of the award ceremony is determined and communicated annually. Following the announcement of the three nominees and in the period around the Gratama Science Award ceremony, publicity is generated for both the winner and the two other nominees.

Amounts and expenditure conditions

The Gratama Science Award is €20,000 and the winner must spend it on a purpose that contributes to their further academic development. Personal expenditures are therefore not permitted. However, the prize money may be spent on, for example, a study trip and accommodation, documentation, equipment, and/or student assistants for research. The Gratama Foundation pays the amount to a bank account specified by the university in question. The university is subsequently responsible for monitoring the expenditures.

The other two nominees each receive €2,500 which they can spend on their further academic development.

Nominees

In the year in which the Gratama Science Award can be awarded to a candidate from the university in question, any faculty of the University of Groningen or Leiden University can nominate one candidate for the jury. The winner receives €20,000, and the other two nominees each receive an amount of €2,500 to spend on their further academic development.

Gratama Science Award application form