NWO grants for three UG researchers

Three researchers from the Faculty of arts, Prof. dr. Daan Raemaekers and Dr. Julia Costa López, have been awarded the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research’s (NWO) Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) grant and the Veni grant within the framework of NWO’s Innovational Research Incentives Scheme.

The projects

Prof. dr. Daan Raemaekers (Archaeology) and Dr. Canan Çakirlar (Zooarchaeology) have received €745,000 for their project ‘The Beginning of Dutch Animal Husbandy: Chronology, Nature, and Impact.’ The start of animal husbandry is of major importance for the culture and natural environment of Europe. This project studies the start of animal husbandry in the Netherlands using various new techniques and will lead to a better understanding of the way in which prehistoric people interacted with their livestock.

The Veni grants are awarded every July by the NWO and this year Dr. Julia Costa López (International Relations, Faculty of Arts), who was among the 166 candidates, has received €250,000 for her project ‘A definition of the people: Ideas of community in the late Middle Ages in meetings along the African Atlantic coast.’ This research project aims to study how we came to think of a world organized in nations and how/if we can imagine political communities without the nation. This project looks for answers by tracing how the idea of a political community evolved in the contacts between European and African peoples in the later Middle Ages.

About NWO Open Competition - SSH

The aim of the Open Competition – SSH is to facilitate excellent, non-programmed, curiosity-driven research that primarily addresses a social sciences or humanities research question and research problem. Researchers can apply for funding for different types of research: small or large research projects, and for individual projects or for research groups. Research can have a disciplinary, interdisciplinary or cross-domain character. The research can be aimed at international collaboration between researchers and/or research groups. The NOW’s SSH grant is intended to facilitate excellent, non-programmed, curiosity-driven research that primarily addresses a social sciences or humanities research question and research problem. The SSH grant of up to €750,000 makes funding available for the best research projects in the humanities and social sciences, without any thematic limitations to be developed over the next five years.

About the Veni

Together with the Vidi (for experienced postdocs) and Vici (for senior researchers) grants, the Veni grants form part of NWO’s Innovational Research Incentives Scheme. The Veni grants are designed for outstanding researchers who have recently gained a PhD. Within the Scheme, researchers are free to submit their own topic for funding. In this way, NWO wishes to stimulate innovative research driven by curiosity. NWO selects the researchers on the basis of their quality, the innovative nature of the research, the expected societal impact of the research proposal, and the possibilities for knowledge utilization. The Veni’s are intended for researchers who have recently gained a PhD and have significant and original talent for innovative research. The Veni’s grant of up to € 250,000 offers young researchers the chance to further develop their ideas over the next three years.