Submit your idea for TDCC-NES project program funding

We would like to invite researchers in the scientific domain of Natural & Engineering Sciences and/or professional research support staff to submit ideas for projects, which could potentially be funded under the TDCC NES project program (NWO funding). The overall aim of the projects must be to mitigate one or more challenges that exist in FAIR data and/or Software handling, and their intersection with computation, and have a NES domain focus.

In 2023 the TDCC NES has two funding programs:

  1. One program to finance projects which fall in the defined Bottleneck Projects (see Road Map TDCC NES):
    i. NES Community Building (Workshop, meetings, hackathons, carpentries, online resources, community mapping, etc.)
    ii. FAIR data and software handling training hub (development of training materials, organising training sessions etc.)
    iii. Realising sustainable software and long term software preservation
    iv. Metadata and vocabularies for the NES domain
  2. Projects that address any of the challenges defined in the Road Map (Follow up projects)

Ideas for collaborative, consortia-type projects should be at most 500 words. From the description it must become clear that (use this google form):

  1. The project will focus on the NES domain and on one of the above mentioned bottlenecks or challenges defined in the Road Map.
  2. The idea for the project is supported by more than one research group or organisation (i.e. Supported by a (small) consortium) and/or that you are willing to welcome collaboration with other interested parties on this project (you are encouraged to suggest relevant individuals or organisations, even if you have not approached them yet)
  3. The results of the project will be of interest to (part) of the NES community
  4. The results of the project will be shared with a larger audience by your project team (disseminated)
  5. How much funding you are (approximately) going to request (no justification needed at this point)

We specifically do not ask you to draw up a full project proposal.

After we receive, review and approve your idea for a project, this is what will happen.

Weeks after submissionWhat we will do
2The TDCC NES will contact you and the TDCC NES  will organise  a project initiative meeting.
2-3For this meeting TDCC NES  will invite other members of the NES community. For this meeting TDCC NES will invite other members of the NES community and other stakeholders, if appropriate and relevant (e.g. member of the Research Data Alliance working group, ontology expert, etc.).
4-5The project initiative meeting will be online and take about one to two  hours. We will establish whether the idea is worth a project and who would like to join the initiative.
5-8Following the project initiative meeting the project proposal will be written by you and those who joined the team after the first meeting (there is an NWO project template for this).
8When the proposal is ready, TDCC NES will send the proposal to a small team of experts for feedback.
10After including the feedback your proposal can be submitted. Since the proposal is supported by part of the NES community, there will be no competition and if the proposal meets the NWO administrative criteria your project will be funded.
12-15Project approval

Funding specifications:

  1. The current invitation is for the Bottleneck Projects (in total 950k€) and the first follow up projects (in total 800k €);
  2. No matching (in cash/in kind) is required;
  3. The funding programs will be able to fund support and/or permanent staff;
  4. Restrictions apply in funding of non-knowledge institute staff (like consultants).
  5. More information on the funding and the amount of funding available can be found on the TDCC NES webpages.

Since the call is non-competitive, in case the total amount of project funding requested (and passed the initiative meeting) is more than the amount available, we will act on a first come first served basis.

Please send your idea by filling this Google Form before: April 15, 2023.