The Vici grant worth a maximum of 1.5 million euros is intended for ‘advanced’ scientists, giving them the opportunity to work on a five-year project with their research group. Three TU/e researchers have been awarded this grant.

Tom de Greef of the Department of Biomedical Engineering has been awarded the grant for research into a new generation of micromaterials for reading and manipulating data stored on DNA. “The developed technology will establish a fundamental new paradigm in DNA data storage based on novel conceptual and experimental advances that integrate material science, robotic automation, micro-engineering and molecular editing of DNA,” the Dutch Research Council (NWO) website reads.

De Greef still can't quite grasp it. "It really feels like a recognition. The excitement still has to wear off, but now the joy is kicking in. Storing data on DNA is still in its early stages, but with this we can make some really great strides." This is not the first time De Greef has won a prestigious grant. Previously, he was also awarded Veni and Vidi grants. "I did the math: the chance of getting all three is 0.0003 per cent."

Ice

Even smaller is the chance of two researchers at the same university getting this milestone of winning all three grants in their careers. The second researcher, Ilja Voets of the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems and , has also succeeded in doing so. She has been awarded the grant for her research into the regulation of ice formation and binders that enable ice growth. This may lead to the design of new materials that can protect concrete, body cells, foodstuffs, and other things against freeze-thaw damage.

Voets: "It makes so much new stuff possible. We have been looking at materials that adhere to ice for a long time. With this, we can realise a whole new cluster of materials, map why certain materials do well and why not. And, of course, modify materials so that they function better. This is really great news."

The third researcher is Rudie Kunnen. He and his team at the Department of Applied Physics will investigate how turbulence organizes itself. Using smaller-scale experiments and computer simulations, the researchers intend to learn how turbulence forms and behaves. This is essential for modeling large-scale flows, such as the motion of liquid iron in the Earth’s core, the source of the geomagnetic field. "This is a topic that has fascinated me for a long time and in which I have been active since my own PhD project. I can now strengthen my research line and group."

More women than men

With twenty Vici grants, women researchers are well-represented this year. Men submitted more proposals, but were less successful: 8 percent was awarded a grant, versus 14 percent of the women.

Recently, three professors calculated that the chances of securing a Veni grant for recently graduated PhDs has historically been higher for women than for men. It would appear that NWO overshot its target of eliminating the disadvantage for women, the trio asserted. They were unable to demonstrate this for the Vici grant.

AI

A lot of money is going to AI research as well: one grant recipient wants to harness its computing power to gain “transformative insights” in mathematics and physics; another wants to use it to investigate how our brain makes predictions. A third wants to deploy AI for making more reliable literature reviews in science.

Two Vici grants have been awarded to scientists at the Leiden Observatory who intend to research “mysterious supermassive black holes” and stellar winds that carry away exoplanetary atmospheres.

For this Vici round, NWO received 337 pre-proposals. 110 researchers were allowed to draft an elaborate application and 11 percent ended up getting a grant. Last year, 13 percent of the requests were honoured.

See below how many Vici grants have been awarded to Dutch universities and research institutes.