ZonMw Open Competition is intended for excellent research teams to innovate their research lines in terms of both content and collaboration. The goal is to create space for team science leading to synergistic, groundbreaking science of exceptional quality in the field of fundamental research into health care and innovation.
Who can apply
Pay attention! Submitting a full proposal is exclusively possible when a pre proposal for the Open Competition 2026 was submitted and received a positive decision to submit a full proposal.
ZonMw Open Competition is specifically designed to initiate and establish new lines of research by encouraging original and creative pooling of expertise that do not naturally enrich each other. For such innovative and curiosity-driven team science, it is important to properly describe the synergistic composition and diversity of a team with respect to experience, gender, and affiliations. Here complementarity in (technical) skills and expertise of individual team members is also important. (Additional) conditions for principal and co-applicants can be found in section 3.1 of the Call for proposals.
What for
The goal of ZonMw Open Competition is to create space for curiosity-driven, creative collaboration leading to groundbreaking science of exceptional quality in the field of health research. ZonMw Open Competition has no thematic restriction and focuses on potentially groundbreaking research proposals in all scientific disciplines with a question or problem in the (frontier) area of fundamental (bio)medical research into health care and innovation.
The expected outcome of a research proposal is primarily fundamental scientific deepening (knowledge advancement, model and theory building) within an innovative collaboration between research groups (team science). In addition, knowledge utilization/participation are important criteria (see also Call for proposals section 4.3).
What to request
A maximum of €800,000 can be requested for an application in this Call. In addition, it is possible to submit an optional investment module of minimum €100,000 to maximum €250,000 on top of the maximum grant that can be applied for. The maximum subsidy amount to be applied for applications with an investment module is therefore € 1,050,000. The duration of a project is a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 5 years.
When
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Deadline submission full proposal | 15 September 2026, 2 PM CEST |
| Referees comments received | End of October 2026 |
| Deadline submission rebuttal | Beginning of November 2026 |
| Interview selection and decision category ‘highest ranking proposals' | End of January 2027 |
| Interview day (physical attendance, Utrecht) | 3 February 2027 |
| Decision | End of March 2027 |
| Latest start date | No later than 6 months after decision |
An interview is part of the assessment process for your grant application. The interview will be audio recorded. The audio recording will be destroyed after the assessment procedure is completed.
For more information, consult section 2 To prepare.
Would you like to submit? The complete Call for proposals can be downloaded as a pdf. It contains all the specific information about this call. All the documents you need for your full proposal can be found here. You can submit your full proposal through the My ZonMw digital window until 15 September 2026, 2 PM CEST.
Downloads voor uw aanvraag
Checklist for applying for your grant:
The full proposal includes at least:
- The completed full proposal form (in pdf)
- Obligatory in case of the investmentmodule (in-cash): Signed Matching Declaration for investment (in pdf)
- Budget form (Excel)
It is not necessary to submit a printed signed application or statement of agreement.
It is not allowed to submit letters of support or other unrequested attachments.
The main applicant can submit the full proposal until 15 September 2026, 14.00h CEST.
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Features
- Opening date: 23 June 2026
- Budget subsidy round: € 25.000.000
- Budget per application: € 800.000
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For whom:
By invitation
- Part of programme: