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Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC) Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC)
ABC Grants

ABC Grants

General information

ABC Grants

The Brain and Cognition research priority program of the UvA, ABC, provides funding to promote innovative and excellent research in the area of brain and cognitive sciences.

ABC grants are intended to stimulate interfaculty research collaborations that are of an interdisciplinary nature. The overall mission is to come to a better understanding of the mechanisms of cognition, from perception to decision making, from language to music, and from memory to consciousness. The ABC encourages collaborative projects in which more than one faculty is involved and where there is an integrated plan of how to address a key question in the brain and cognitive sciences in an innovative and interdisciplinary fashion.

  • The ABC supports 3 different types of grants, and one Award.

For all four funds, only members of ABC with a completed PhD, and who have at least 0.5 FTE appointment at the UvA or AMC, can apply. Proposals for each of these grants need to be supported by one of the host institutes in the UvA who have committed themselves to provide matching funds when such are necessary for the successful completion of the proposed project.

  • Proposals have to be written in an accessible way, for a broad panel of experts from ABC who will serve as evaluators.
  • By accepting the grant, ABC Grant winners make themselves available for an ABC pool of experts. This pool serves as a source for the composition of ABC Grant evaluation committees. This form of reciprocity is an essential element of the ABC community.

In principle, the grants should start within one year after reception.

Decision Procedure

The Board of Directors will make decisions for the ABC VIP grant, as well as for the ABC Award.
Independent Evaluation Committees, consisting of ABC members, will select the Project Grant and Talent Grant winners.

  • 1. ABC Project Grant

    An independent committee of experts in the involved disciplines will assess the submissions for the ABC Project Grant. The ABC board has no involvement in the evaluation of the ABC Project grant submissions, but will implement the ranking provided by the independent committee, dependent on the available funds.

    In the review process the following weights will be used: quality of the proposed research: 0.5, interdisciplinary focus: 0.3, quality applicants: 0.2.  Female PI’s are especially encouraged to apply.

    ABC Project Grant 2020

    1 postdoc or 1 PhD student for 2 years*, max. 250k€

    Deadline: January 31, 2020
    Aim:         funding new interdisciplinary research projects
    Criteria:

    • The proposal should be submitted by a full ABC member (not the to be appointed postdoc) and include information about the content and innovativeness of the project, possible collaborations within the ABC and in which faculty the postdoc will be appointed.research proposal with an interdisciplinary focus, involvement of at least 2 different faculties
    • Innovative research
    • fit with one of the research programs in ABC
    • postdocs are preferred, but a case can be made for a PhD student proposal (the maximum funding will be the same, however, €250k)
    • if the to be appointed post doc is already known, their cv should be added
    • *In case of clinical research with patients, a request can be made to extend the funding to a longer period. This should be included in the budget estimation.

    Proposals will only be considered if there is no ongoing ABC Project or Talent funding.

    The grant consists of a lump sum of €250k. The faculty where the postdoc will be appointed should match any exceeding of this budget.

  • 2. ABC Talent

    (postdoc) for maximally 1 year, 125k€

    Next deadlines:      15 April 2020, 15 September 2020
    Aim:                        The grant offers a bridging period for high potential postdocs who aim to apply or have applied for an external research grant.
    Who can apply:    ABC members, not the to be appointed postdoc

    Criteria:               

    • completed PhD (within 3 years since graduation)
    • excellent cv (comparable with VENI criteria)
    • fit with one of the research programs in ABC
    • requirement to apply for a research grant (e.g., VENI NWO, EU)
    • intention to spend this grant on research at the UvA

    A postdoc can only receive an ABC Grant once.


    To be appointed postdocs, who already hold a permanent position at the UvA are not eligible.
    Proposals will only be considered if there is no ongoing ABC Project or Talent funding.
    In the review process the different elements in the proposal will be weighed as follows: cv: 50%, proposal: 30%, interdisciplinary nature: 20%.

  • 3. ABC Visiting Professor (VIP)

    costs for travel and accommodation, max. €7,500

    Deadlines:             15 April 2020, 15 September 2020
    Aim:                        Increasing the visibility and (inter)national reputation of ABC
    Who can apply:     ABC members
    Criteria:              

    • visiting professor is an innovative international researcher
    • visiting professor engages in long term collaboration with one of the research programs of ABC, e.g. by supervising PhD students or postdocs
    • the hosts commit themselves to organize an ABC conference or workshop involving multiple disciplines crossing multiple faculties with visiting professor as key note speaker
  • 4. ABC Award 2020

    Deadline:         01 June 2020
    Who can apply: ABC members
    Aim:                 Awarding excellent and motivated members of ABC, who have shown great commitment and involvement in the development of Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, and are examples for conducting interdisciplinary research in the field of Brain and Cognition. 

    • In 2020 ABC will reward two grants, one Junior and one Senior Award, at € 5,000 each.

    Who can nominate:   ABC members

    Selections will be based on nominations by fellow ABC members.

    Criteria:

    • The interdisciplinary nature of the nominated ABC member’s research.
    • The nominated ABC member’s active contribution to the ABC community.