SSH Open Competition XS

A deliberately small, deliberately fast grant for testing a promising idea — the Dutch answer to the pilot-study gap. No thematic restriction inside the social sciences and humanities, minimal paperwork, and a distinctive review model in which applicants anonymously peer-review each other's proposals rather than waiting on a standing panel. Useful for a social work researcher who needs to establish feasibility, build a measure, or run a small community study before mounting a full project bid. The 2026 call runs in three rounds across the year.

Indicative award

Amount not published (total award)Maximum EUR 50,000 per project. Euro figures; numeric fields left null.

Timing

Several times a yearSeveral times a year · SepPublished deadline: 2026-09-15 — 31 days awayThree rounds in the 2026 call. The round-3 deadline is 15 September 2026 at 14:00 CEST. Projects must run a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 24 months.

Who can apply

Early-career faculty, Mid-career & senior, Any faculty rank

Eligibility

Single-applicant only, no co-applicants. The applicant must have obtained their PhD at least five years before submission and be employed at an NWO-eligible Dutch research organisation for the whole of the application and project period. Maximum one application per calendar year across all NWO and ZonMw Open Competition XS calls, and you may not hold an active NWO OC XS project when you submit.

SSWR clusters

Topics

pilot research · exploratory study · social sciences · feasibility

Apply at

https://www.nwo.nl/en/calls/ssh-open-competition-xs-2026-round-3

This entry

Curated by the working group. Written 2026-08-07. The funder link has not yet been machine-checked.

Amounts and dates on this page are indicative and are maintained by people rather than scraped. Funders change ceilings, windows and eligibility without notice; confirm all details at the source above before applying.

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SSH Open Competition XS

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