Apply for an interdisciplinary research project and work with 2 student assistants!
Deadline June 15th (Monday), 2026 at 23.59 pm
The Network Institute’s (NI) Academy Assistants program (NIAA) is now entering its 16th year. Initially funded through a KNAW grant and aimed at combining social sciences and computer science research, it has since been adopted by the Network Institute and opened up for other interdisciplinary projects which fall within the NI’s research themes. The Academy Assistants program aims at promising high-potential master students who want to conduct scientific research and possibly pursue an academic career. As in previous years, this year the program will also be able to fund at least three proposals.
Accepted proposals will start in November 2026. The program aims to bring together scientists from different disciplines; therefore, the projects must combine methods and themes from two different disciplines affiliated with the NI. For each awarded project, the program will fund two student research assistants (0,2 FTE) for a period of ten months. The expected outcome of the project is a published paper and/or research proposal. In addition, at the end of the project (July 2027) we will publish all project final reports on the website.
This call is aimed at VU researchers who are willing to cross the boundaries of their own discipline, and who have a research topic in mind that would benefit from such an interdisciplinary approach. We especially encourage early career researchers, including post-docs and PhDs, to apply for this funding.
Applicants should send us a short research proposal as outlined in the template proposal below. Send the completed proposals to: akademiestudent.fsw@vu.nl, before June 15th 2026 at 23.59. An independent review committee will evaluate the proposals based on interdisciplinarity, quality and fit to the NIAA program (i.e., centered on student development of research interest and competence). The successful projects will be announced early July 2026. All submitted projects are invited to attend the NIAA end-of-year event, where this year’s projects will be presented (June 30th 2026, 3-5pm).
Find the full call here and the application template here.