Deadline: 25 May 2020
The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has announced a call for proposals “Societal dynamics” within the COVID-19 Programme.
Consortia, research groups and independent researchers from several disciplines can submit ideas for research aimed at the societal effects of the coronavirus pandemic and of the (intended) measures against it.
The COVID-19 Programme
The action and research programme COVID-19 focuses on research aimed at the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the measures taken against it. There are three focus areas:
- Predictive diagnostics and treatment
- Care and prevention
- Societal dynamics
Funding Information
This call for proposals concerns only focus area 3 “Societal dynamics”, and the total budget available for grants is €6.5 million.
Focus area societal dynamics
The focus area “Societal dynamics” concerns broad, societal issues in which several scientific disciplines are involved. For example, it concerns answers to questions such as: What are the societal consequences of the coronavirus crisis? Which social and economic problems have been exposed or have arisen as a result of this? But also: which positive effects does the crisis have? Which restart scenarios exist after a shorter or longer period of economic and widespread societal disruption? What can we learn from the crisis for the future?
Priority Themes
A multidisciplinary expert panel chaired by Jet Bussemaker (former Minister for Education, Culture and Science) has put forward the following priority themes for which proposals on the associated subjects can be submitted:
- Research into the effectiveness and impact of measures/strategies in response to the coronavirus crisis
- Subjects: reliability and legitimacy of the government and science during a crisis, the conditions for technologies, linked to the “opening” of society, the effects of the 1.5 m measure, differences between European countries.
- Research into the resilience of society
- Subjects: vulnerable groups, social inequalities as a result of the measures taken, home education, psychological effects and emotional well-being, citizen initiatives.
- Research into the economic resilience
- Subjects: the economic effects of the lockdown for different sectors, reopening sectors of the economy, working from home.
These things need to be investigated with the highest urgency. Project ideas must relate to one or more of these themes. The themes and subjects are explained in greater detail in the call text.
Eligibility Criteria
With this call for proposals, consortia, research groups and individual researchers are invited to submit ideas for research projects to generate knowledge about the Dutch and worldwide impact of the coronavirus crisis and the measures taken against this. The research focuses not just on the challenges during this pandemic but also on the situation after the coronavirus crisis.
For more information, visit https://www.nwo.nl/en/news-and-events/news/2020/05/covid-19-programme-call-for-proposals-societal-dynamics-now-open.html