Friday, November 07, 2008
Thirty researchers who are at the start of their career have received a Breakthrough Project grant within the Horizon programme supported by the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI). This will enable them during a period of 18 months to pursue a groundbreaking and innovative approach to a specific research question. A maximum grant of €100,000 is available per researcher. This year, NGI will award a total of €3 million in grants. The total budget for the Horizon programme is €20 million.
With its Horizon Breakthrough Projects, NGI seeks to stimulate talented researchers who are at the start of their career to perform challenging research projects. The focus of a Breakthrough Project lies on developing an innovative idea into proof of concept. Besides supporting individual researchers and innovative research, priority is also given to the valorisation of research projects results.
The Horizon programme serves as a breeding ground for talented scientists active in genomics and/or bioinformatics. It is the first time that grants are awarded to 30 researchers at the same time. In four earlier Breakthrough Project rounds, NGI subsidised 10 to 15 researchers per round, representing an average acceptance percentage of 10%. NGI entered its second phase in 2008 and dramatically increased the programme budget for breakthrough research, enabling the acceptance of 40% of proposals in the current round. Proposals were received from a total of 75 researchers (60 men, 15 women). Proposals were evaluated by scientists from the Netherlands and abroad. The laureates scored very good to excellent on all evaluation criteria.
Two more Breakthrough Project rounds will follow. Deadline of the next (6th) round is 2 December 2008. The last Breakthrough Project round is expected to start in mid-2009. From 2010, researchers with proven talent will be given an opportunity to apply for an even larger research grant within the Horizon Programme: the Zenith Project. Having achieved proof of concept is an absolute condition for being considered for a Zenith Project. The idea behind Zenith Projects is to develop proof of concepts into mature research lines.