Three UG researchers win Vidi grants

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded an EUR 800,000 Vidi grant each to 86 experienced researchers. Three of these conduct their research at just one faculty at the University of Groningen (UG): the Faculty of Science and Engineering. The grant will enable the researchers to set up their own novel research lines and even a research group.

The Vidi-laureats of this year are: dr. Anastasia Borschevsky, prof. dr. Giulia Fulvia Mancini and dr. Steffen Müller.

Dr. Anastasia Borschevsky, Van Swinderen Institute for Particle Physics and Gravity: High accuracy calculations for fundamental research with atoms and molecules

Atoms and molecules can act like tiny laboratories for sensitive experiments that probe the fundamental structure of matter and search for new laws of physics. Scientists will develop a novel method of unsurpassed accuracy and use high performance computing to calculate parameters needed to support and interpret these experiments.

Dr. Giulia Mancini, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials Nanophysics/technology: Watching nanomaterials respond to light

Intriguing properties of materials can be understood watching their building blocks interact with light. Experimental scientists create new powerful microscopes to watch and control such very small and very fast movements to develop novel materials for sensing, switching and optoelectronics.

Dr. Steffen Müller, Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence: Global points via locally analytic functions

An equation given by a polynomial in two variables with integral coefficients looks simple, but how many rational solutions does it have? This problem has been at the heart of number theory for millenia. The project will develop new methods to understand many of these equations in theory and practice.

Innovational Research Incentives Scheme

The Vidi grants are awarded annually by NWO. Vidi is aimed at researchers who have several years of research experience after their PhD. Alongside the Veni and Vici grants, Vidi is part of NWO’s Innovational Research Incentives Scheme. Researchers are free to submit their own funding proposal within the scheme, which thus encourages curiosity-driven innovative research. NWO selects researchers on the basis of their quality, how innovative the research is, the expected scientific impact and the possible applications of the knowledge.

A total of 443 researchers submitted an admissible research project for funding during this Vidi funding round. Eighty-five of these have now received grants. That amounts to an award rate of 19%. See the online list of awarded grants for the 2018 round which contains the names of all of the laureates and brief summaries of their research projects.