Vici, for researchers who want to further develop their leadership and research group

Vici is a funding instrument from the NWO Talent programme (previously the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme). The NWO Talent programme offers individual grants to talented, creative researchers. The funding instrument makes it possible to do research of one's own choice. Since the NWO Talent programme was set up in 2000, nearly 2000 talented researchers have received funding. The NWO Talent programme is funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

The aim of the NWO Talent programme (Veni, Vidi and Vici) is to provide creative space for adventurous, talented, groundbreaking researchers in which they can do research of their own choice, advance their own line of research and further develop their talent. With an individual grant, the researchers can develop their own innovative line of research that can acquire a structural embedding within the research institute.

The Vici target group consists of researchers in the stage of consolidating and further developing their leadership/research group and a Vici grant contributes to the development of researchers in this area. Researchers who are eligible for a Vici grant must possess exceptional academic qualities that clearly outdistance standard abilities, and proven leadership and mentorship qualities.

NWO is organised in 4 domains:

• Science
• Social Sciences and Humanities;
• Applied and Engineering Sciences; and
• Healthcare Research and Medical Sciences (ZonMw).

ZonMw realises the NWO Talent programme (Veni, Vidi and Vici) for the domain Healthcare Research and Medical Sciences on behalf of NWO (Dutch Research Council). 

• The Vici grant round is open for researchers who, on 1 March of the year of submission, gained their PhD no more than 15 years ago. The Vici grant is intended for the funding of innovative scientific research, and thus provide researchers with the opportunity to expand their research group and further develop the line of research they are pursuing.
• The Vici researcher can set to work with a maximum grant of €1,500,000.
• Researchers may submit a proposal for Vici on a maximum of 2 occasions.
• Foreign researchers can also apply for this funding.

For general information, please see the NWO Talent programme and the programme page on the NWO website

For more information about the Vici programme, visit on the NWO website.

The research domain Health Research and Medical Sciences (ZonMw), just like the other NWO research domains, works with broadly composed committees of researchers who provide recommendations about the quality and ranking of the proposals.