Maaike Kroon will look for new, renewable solvents to allow wastes arising in the processing of biomass to be re-used in a more useful way. This will allow the economic value of biomass waste to be increased. Kroon was the youngest female professor in the Netherlands on her appointment in 2010 at the age of 29. In 2012 she was appointed as a member of Jonge Akademie (Young Academics). Ilja Voets intends to use her Vidi grant to make ‘molecular light switched’ and to build these into materials in a way that changes their elasticity and clarity under the influence of light. Voets, who works at the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS) at TU/e, earlier received grants from ERC (Starting Grant of 1.7 million euros) and NWO (Rubicon and Veni).Timothy Noël will work on the use of light to carry our chemical reactions. This is an often neglected field because of its low efficiency. Noël wants to develop new catalysts that can accelerate and improve photochemical reactions, for example to speed up the production of medicines. Earlier this year, Noël received a grant of 2.25 million euros within the Marie Skłodowska Curie ITN program as leader of a European consortium on the same subject. He has also won a Veni grant (2012) and an ECHO grant (2013).

The Vidi grants are part of the NWO’s Research Incentives Scheme, which consists of Veni, Vidi and Vici awards. Vidi is aimed at excellent scientists who have already completed a number of years of successful research. These researchers are among the top ten or twenty percent in their field. The Vidi grant allows them to develop their own innovative research line and to start their own research group. A Vidi grant is awarded for a period of five years. 

In the 2014 Vidi round, a total of 509 researchers submitted eligible financing projects, of which 87 have been awarded. This represents a success rate of 17% . Of the successful projects, 60 are men and 27 are women. In the past ten years TU/e received at average of three Vidis per year.

Source: TU/e press team