Criteria
Our criteria for new calls are:
Impact
Impact comes first of course. So we are looking for societal challenges where science can make a contribution.
Researcher interest
We need enough researchers in a specific field to be interested in turning their research into impact.
Quality of the research
It’s not just about enough researchers and related to that the volume of research, but also about the relative quality of the research. For areas where the Netherlands has a strong position we expect more potential for impact.
Absorption capacity
Lastly we look at the capacity of customers (which can be consumers, but more often they will be businesses and the public sector) in specific sectors. A high absorption capacity lowers the barrier for introducing innovations that make impact.
Themes we explore
Life Sciences and Health
Together with NWO, the association of Dutch academic hospitals (NFU), Biotech Booster and experts in the field we are looking at what would be the best setup for a fellowship. Part of that conversation is also the theme. Life sciences and health is a very broad category, so there is certainly room for several groups, with a different focus.
AI
Together with the Dutch AI coalition we are looking at the potential for an Artificial Intelligence – focused group. Of course AI is a tool that can be applied to many different sectors (like energy transition for instance), but there is also the option of an ‘AI tech’ dedicated cohort, where we focus on the development of next generation AI tech.
Food and Agriculture
The Netherlands has a high research volume in food and agriculture, so certainly an interesting area to explore the potential for more impact. Again the category is so broad that we can probably need to make the call more focused, for instance focused on sustainable proteins or next generation agriculture tech.
We hope to open two new Faculty of Impact calls at the end of 2022.