Vici grants for a total of four Groningen-based researchers

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded Vici grants worth € 1.5 million to three Groningen-based researchers. The laureates can use the funding to spend five years developing their ideas for research. Earlier this year, the NWO had already awarded a Vici grant to professor Lude Franke.

Rector Magnificus Cisca Wijmenga: ‘A Vici grant is the jewel in the crown for the work of these three laureates from the University of Groningen and the University Medical Center Groningen. It gives them an opportunity to continue developing their innovative lines of research. The Board of the University is enormously proud of these high-flying researchers and wishes them and their research teams all the very best with shaping their new plans.’

Dr L. de Jong

The advent of Rome meant new ways of presenting the dead in cemeteries in the Near East. This project explores the ways in which trends in epitaphs, portraits and decorative monuments were incorporated into local burial rites. This will provide new insight into cultural change.

• More information about Dr L. De Jong's research

Dr Jingyuan Fu

Dr Jingyuan Fu’s research focuses on decoding the human genome and metagenome in cardiometabolic diseases. She will use the Vici grant to set up a new research project in this field. As with DNA, thousands of genomes in our intestinal bacteria encode the proteins that can contribute to the development of diseases. In this project, the researchers are identifying variations in bacterial genomes and their interactions with the human genome in order to identify the role that they play in individual risk of cardiometabolic diseases.

For more information about Jingyuan Fu’s research, go to:

• €2 million ERC Grant for research on modulating the gut microbiome to improve drug efficacy
• The gut microbiome: stable or unstable over time?
• ERC Grant for JingYuan Fu

Dr Inge Zuhorn

Dr Inge Zuhorn is conducting research into ways of enabling drugs to penetrate the brain. Brain tumours are difficult to treat because drugs cannot easily penetrate the brain. She will use this Vici grant to study the use of nanoparticles. Although nanoparticles may be the solution, they must be able to change in shape and size after they have been administered to the patient. The research project involves developing nanoparticles that can change their form inside the patient.

• More information about Inge Zuhorn's research

About Vici

Vici is one of the largest personal academic grants awarded in the Netherlands, and is aimed at experienced researchers who are free to put their own research project forward for funding. Alongside the Veni and Vidi grants, the Vici grant is part of the NWO Talent Programme (formerly known as the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme). Vici grants are intended for highly experienced researchers who have successfully proved that they are able to develop their own innovative lines of research, and who also act as coaches for younger researchers. The funding offers researchers the opportunity to create their own research groups, often leading to a structural professorial post.