TDCC-NES Challenge Call 2025
This page contains NES-specific information related to the NWO TDCC call 2025. For general information about the call, refer to the link below:
Step 1. Submit idea: February - April
Submission Form
You can submit a project idea through the submission form, where we ask you to describe your concept, explain how it relates to TDCC-NES roadmap challenges, and identify potential project partners.
You will receive feedback from the TDCC-NES Governing Board with a decision on whether you can move forward to step 2. To guide its decision-making, the Governing Board will use a set of project principles and criteria.
Ideas submitted in March and approved for step 2 by the Governing Board will be shared online and presented to the community for discussion on 22-23 May at the event Open and FAIR in NES.
Ideas submitted after March will be considered by the Governing Board at its summer or autumn meetings. Depending on the funding allocation available, time constraints and priorities, these may be fast-tracked for submission in 2025, or held over for the anticipated project call in 2026.
Step 2: Refine project idea: May - September
All project ideas that move onto step 2 will be published on TDCC NES website. By doing so, people from across the NES domain are informed and can offer to collaborate or give input.
A programme of activities to support project development has been planned for the period May to September. We will endeavour to support any relevant ideas that are received after March and to fit them into this programme.
Matchmaking session May
During the Open and FAIR in NES event in Utrecht 22-23 May, people who have proposed relevant ideas will have an opportunity to present them to the community and to the Governing Board, to gain support and collaborative input. This is a great opportunity for collaborative project development at an early stage.
Project initiative meetings
TDCC-NES will facilitate the process of refining the project ideas, after the event in May, by organising and advertising project initiative meetings to engage a broader community, and to create opportunities for involving stakeholders who are not yet part of the proposal (for example individuals/institutions/groups suggested through feedback from the Governing Board). These meetings might be arranged online or in-person.
The final project plans will be discussed, drafted, and agreed by the project team, implementing the Governing Board feedback received in step 1.
When needed, TDCC-NES will help with interpretation of the feedback, give advice on project development, and answer questions that might arise during this process.
Step 3: Proposal Writing: June - September
The project team writes their full project proposal using the NWO application template and guidelines that will be published on the NWO call page. Once completed, the full project proposal is submitted to TDCC-NES office staff by 29 September. The TDCC-NES staff will prepare it for review by the Governing Board on 9 October.
The Governing Board will return comments and suggestions, indicating conditions for approval. When the review comments and feedback have been addressed and implemented into the final project proposal to the satisfaction of the Governing Board, the proposal can move onto step 4.
Step 4: Submission letter: November
All proposals submitted to NWO for TDCC-NES project funding must be accompanied by a submission letter from the TDCC NES Executive Team. As long as the project meets the conditions for TDCC-NES funding and you have completed the open project development process to the Governing Board’s satisfaction, you will be provided with a letter in time for the submission deadline in November 2024.
Step 5. Proposal Submitted to NWO: November
Once your final proposal and submission letter are ready, you submit both to the NWO through the ISAAC online platform. Submissions for TDCC NES projects will be accepted until 20 November 2025, 14:00 CET.
After Step 5: NWO Approval Process from November 2025
NWO will check all applications via an international review committee and then confirm and prepare the NWO approval. We expect this process to take up to five months, counting from the submission deadline.
Please note that this novel project call process is only the second iteration and is still relatively new to us and to NWO. We look forward to working with you and will refine and iterate the process together as we go. Please contact the TDCC NES team with any questions that may remain, by sending an email to nes@tdcc.nl.
