Green Future: The AUF supports projects that contribute to a more sustainable world. We focus on sustainable innovation, climate-resilient solutions and behavioral change in society. These initiatives help protect the earth, develop new technologies and materials, and encourage people to live more sustainably.

Strong society: To make the world more just and prosperous, we seek projects that have a positive impact on a national and/or international scale. Think of initiatives that create equal opportunities and strengthen the rule of law and democracy. Or projects that shape the citizenship of the future. 

Healthy and connected generations: We support projects that contribute to the well-being of young people. This includes initiatives that promote mental, physical and digital health and encourage talent development. We also support projects that help young people better understand themselves and the world, and increase knowledge about our cultural heritage. In addition, projects can compete that focus on intergenerational connections.

The AUF focuses with this call primarily on young, talented researchers:

1. You are employed by the UvA or the Amsterdam UMC.
2. You obtained your PhD no longer than five years ago, i.e. after January 1, 2020. The NWO extension regulations apply

If you meet these requirements, you can submit an application.

To submit an application, the project must meet the following requirements:  

• It is a research or education project of the UvA.
• The project falls within one of the three AUF themes (see Themes AUF Impact Call).
• The project has a duration of no more than two years and a start date in 2025 (no ongoing projects).
• Salary costs of the applicant may not be included as a cost item.
• The grant applied for does not exceed € 25,000.

Applications must be submitted in Dutch or English. Only complete applications submitted before the deadline will be eligible.

Applications will be judged by the following criteria:

• The degree of social impact in relation to the AUF themes (40%).
• The degree to which the research is innovative/distinctive (30%).
• The quality and feasibility of the research design (30%).

If the project has interdisciplinary elements or relevance to multiple faculties, this is an advantage in the assessment.

For this 2024 round an amount of € 200,000 is available. A maximum of € 25,000 can be requested per project. Applications are awarded from the General Fund of the AUF.

An application can be submitted via this AUF website. The deadline is Friday January 31, 2025 23:59 hrs.
A pre-selection of three applications will take place within each faculty in February. The submitted applications will be assessed in March by the Academic Expenditure Committee (ABC) of AUF, which includes a professor from each of the seven faculties. The committee is chaired by a member of the AUF board. The intention is that all faculties get their due when applications are awarded. Applicants will be notified in April 2025 whether or not they have been awarded a grant. The awarded projects will then be announced on the AUF website.

Using the application form on this website, the application should be structured as follows:

1. Research project title.
2. Summary of the research in layman's terms (maximum 200 words).
3. How the project fits in with one of the AUF themes (see Themes AUF Impact Call).
4. Research proposal and design (maximum 1,000 words and three illustrations/graphs).
5. Timeline, including start and end dates.

Required attachments:

1. Budget: overview of costs (own salary costs should not be included) and overview of any other funding in addition to the requested AUF grant
2. Curriculum vitae
3. Proof of PhD date

Application form (PDF)

1. When am I eligible as an applicant?

You are employed by the UvA or the Amsterdam UMC (or Amsterdam Research BV) for the entire duration of the project for which you are applying. Furthermore, you must have obtained your PhD no more than five years ago (i.e. you obtained your PhD after January 1, 2020, the NWO extension regulations apply). The Call is not open to PhD students.

2. I received my PhD more than five years ago, but I have been on leave for a period (due to pregnancy, parenthood, providing care or illness) or have followed specialist training. Am I still eligible?

In accordance with the NWO Extension Regulations, an extension of the term may apply.
For parents: The extension of the period after obtaining the doctorate is 18 months for biological mothers and 6 months for the other parent per child. The maximum total extension per parent is five years. 
In case of care or sick leave: The formal reduction in working hours is compensated, to be demonstrated by means of an overview of the leave registration of your HR department.
In case of specialist training: an extension can be requested on the basis of a completed course or a course that ends before the start of the project. The total accrued time after the PhD that is spent on this training counts as an extension, up to a maximum of five years.

3. Can the financing be used to cover (part of) my salary?

For the project for which you are submitting a proposal, we assume the applicant to be the main person carrying out the research/development work. Applicants should agree with their managers that they will carry out the project within their current employment. It is therefore not permitted to finance one's own salary with the requested budget, which means using the budget for contract extension or expansion of your FTE's is also not allowed. However, part of the requested budget can be used to transfer current tasks to other personnel, to free up the applicant to carry out the project. This does require prior approval from your manager, which must be evidenced by a written statement of approval.

4. What costs can be included in the budget?

The budget can, for example, be used for materials, facilities, equipment, purchase or development of software, training for the project or hiring support staff who will carry out part of the project work (laboratory technicians, statisticians, student assistants, teaching assistants, etc.). You can also use the budget to hire staff to alleviate your other research/teaching activities (i.e. the costs for staff to carry out part of your other obligations during the project period, so that you can be made available for the project work), provided your manager agrees to this in writing. If you plan to hire staff, regular overhead costs apply and must be included in the budget (pension and social security contributions, etc.).

5. Other questions?

If you have any further questions about this project grant round, please email subsidieaanvragen-auf@uva.nl, with reference to AUF Impact Call 2024.