In the end, I buckled under the allure of the saying that “many hands make light work” and the potential possibility of maybe, I might, likely, perhaps, be in a position to fund another PhD student and a postdoc. Do you realise the tentativeness of the previous sentences? The caveats and the hedges made? Well, I decided to put my hat into the Dutch Research Council’s (NWO) Vidi grant application ring. There are no guarantees except the guarantee that one does not get what one does not ask for. I have therefore decided to ask for possible additional funds to expand my research team by developing a new research line that I had brewing for a while now. This “appears” as the logical next step after I won the first of the three personal (Veni, Vidi, Vici) grant scheme of the NWO – the Veni which funded my project that ended with a celebration in December 2024. Thus, “I came” but can I move on to say, “I saw”?.

BUT! The decision to apply for this NWO Vidi grant hasn’t been a straightforward one. I was planning on applying last year 2024 before I got awarded the ERC Starting Grant. I had wanted to still go ahead with the application but I wrestled with the “morality” of it all as I felt “greedy” for applying for another grant when I have just been awarded a ‘bigger’ one with a higher amount. Of course there was and still is no guarantee that I will get awarded the grant after all the application hoops but I had the initial bit of struggle trying to bring myself to apply. I felt I might be taking away someone’s chance. However, after speaking to (senior) colleagues and others, it became clear that I definitely should consider applying as expanding my team is important for consolidating and expanding the academic and societal contribution of my research programme. I have therefore taken the bait. Let’s see if the Matthew Effect will come into play here😉

So here we are: today 4 November is the closing deadline for submitting the pre-proposal application for the NWO Vidi grant process. For the first time in my grant application experience in the Netherlands, I actually managed to submit my pre-proposal 3 solid days before the deadline. I am pleased with this as I am usually the guy who submit on deadline day with all the chaos and panic this brings. The pre-proposal consist of a couple of main sections: a combined general academic profile in narrative form (narrative CV) and a narrative about leadership and mentorship (experiences) of a max of 1200 words; selection of 10 research outputs of varied types with a max of 750 words justifying the choices; a 150 words description of the potential project idea with title and 5 keywords. There is then the admin details of name and past positions including a calculation of ‘actual’ research years post-PhD studies. The pre-proposal is going to be reviewed by a panel of experts who together will then decide which of the submissions (applicants) can proceed further to fully develop the research idea. This will be the first cut in the process and I think I will get to know by January 2026 if I have been invited to the next round of developing a full proposal for submission. Wish me Godspeed!

I invite you dear reader to join me on this journey of developing a research proposal to apply for a competitive grant. Perhaps we can share some tops and tips together. I’ve decided to ‘diarise’ my grant application journey as much as I can. This will hopefully give some insights into the big chunk of ice that is often hidden when people only see the tip of the iceberg once a grant has been awarded. I hope to share the sweat, tears and frustration of wrestling with ideas, dealing with feedback and making sense of my own thoughts on the research I hope to undertake. If it all goes well, we can then share the elation once I get invited to submit the full proposal and if/when I manage to develop as strong as possible proposal that gets funded. Alternatively, you dear reader will be here to commiserate with me when I don’t get invited to the next stage and/or when I do not get the grant awarded at the end of the long process. However it goes, we can share this experience together, somewhat. I will share a bit more about the research idea in the next instalment of the #NWOVididiaries blog post. Let the adventures begin….