Open Call: Faculty of Impact seeks entrepreneurial researchers in life sciences & health
The Faculty of Impact program is aimed at researchers who want to achieve impact with their research and are interested in setting up their own company. These researchers can now submit a grant application to become a so-called “fellow” at the Faculty of Impact. A maximum of € 185,000 is available per application. The duration of this program is two years. This year offers a unique opportunity for the Life Sciences & Health sector!
Aim
The Faculty of Impact aims to give talented fellows from all disciplines the opportunity to combine entrepreneurship with science. Fellows should have an innovative idea that can potentially create an impact on society. This can be a tool to stimulate behavioural change, a technological innovation, a new business model, consultancy to support not-for-profit ideas, et cetera. However, at this stage, there is not yet a fully working product, service or policy, nor a business selling to customers. This idea has, however, been validated through pilot testing in a lab environment (equivalent to TRL 4) or with relevant stakeholders (equivalent to SRL 42). During the two-year FoI programme, the fellows will be given the opportunity to further develop and scale up their creative and groundbreaking ideas. This includes the societal embedding of the idea as well as the conditions for its implementation and for creating awareness, developing dissemination plans, and finding ways to fund the idea.
The theme of this second Faculty of Impact call is Life Sciences and Health (LSH). We define LSH as all systems, procedures and instruments that are developed to solve health problems and improve the quality of life. LSH focuses on healthcare research and care innovation within the total innovation cycle. This can include, for example, the implementation of new treatments, interventions aimed at prevention or improvements in the structure of the healthcare system. It concerns an area in which all scientific disciplines have made major contributions in previous centuries, from the discovery of penicillin to the development of mental healthcare, and it is an area where we can expect major future contributions to an increased quality of life. It is an area where scientific research can and must make a large impact.
Who can apply
Researchers who want to make an impact with their research and who are interested in starting their own company. Researchers who can submit an application for the Faculty of Impact programme:
- PhD students who have almost completed their PhD research (i.e. PhD students who have already scheduled a date for the defense or who have already submitted their thesis to the reading committee)
or
- Postdocs, university (senior) lecturers or other academic staff (max. scale 11) or comparable positions at a university of applied sciences if they have an appointment at the organizations mentioned in the call for proposals.
What to apply for
For an application within this Call for proposals, a maximum of € 185,000 is available per fellow of the FoI programme. The support program has a maximum term of two years. For this Call for proposals, budget can be spent for the modules 'Personnel costs', 'Replacement' and 'Equipment' (up to a maximum of € 25,000, limited to specified driving and accommodation costs and Project-related goods/services).
Deadline
The deadline for submitting a fully detailed application is Tuesday 31 October 2023, before 14:00:00 CET.
More information
On the Faculty of Impact website there is much more information about the program, candidates can sign up for informative webinars and current participants explain what the program means for their invention as well as for themselves.
Applications go through NWO.
Call for proposals Faculty of Impact
Source: NWO
