LEARN! Seed Grants 2025

LEARN! has allocated budget for seed grants to stimulate new collaborations and/or establishing consortia for external grant acquisition. The seed grants have two main goals: to facilitate collaboration across the different LEARN! programmes, and to support successful external grant acquisition in consortia. All LEARN! members are invited to apply for a seed grant by submitting a proposal before April 1^st 2025. Projects that align to one of LEARN!’s strategic focus themes will have priority (see Appendix 1 for the themes to be included in the 2025-2029 Strategy [in progress]). The total budget for seed grants in 2025 is €25.000.

Proposals:

Proposal (500-750 words) should include 1) a brief project description, 2) a description of how the project increases collaborations across LEARN! programs, 3) a description of how the project aligns to the strategic themes (or if it does not, an explanation of why a different theme is chosen) and 4) a budget detailing how the requested funds will be spent. The maximal amount that can be requested per proposal is €12.500. In other words, we can fund up to two bigger projects or multiple smaller ones, depending on quality. Please note that grants of equal quality may be assessed more favourably if they are < €12.500, as this would allow funding more projects.

Eligible costs are: travel and subsistence costs for a working group/consortium meeting; costs involved with pilot data acquisition or existing data mining for the purpose of starting a new collaboration or grant proposal (e.g., participant payment, a student-assistant or equipment/lab-related costs); grant writing support from external grant consultancy or editing/language services.

Procedure:

Please send your application to learn.fgb@vu.nl before Tuesday April 1^st, 14.00.

Applications received before the deadline will be checked for eligibility and reviewed by two independent program leaders. Decisions will be made by the LEARN! board and communicated to applicants before May 15^th. The selected proposals will be presented during the LEARN annual conference on May 22^nd.  

APPENDIX 1

LEARN! 2025-2029 Strategic themes

Although our interdisciplinary research is essentially broad in scope, for the period of 2025-2029 we will focus on specific issues that are especially urgent, to increase our effectiveness in promoting collaboration and joint funding acquisition to address these issues (see forthcoming Strategy 2025-2029). Based on recent stakeholder-driven research- and policy agendas^[1] and after deliberation with the program leaders, senior LEARN! members and the advisory board, we have selected 6 themes as both urgent and aligning with our expertise. The following criteria were used: 1) the theme relates to an urgent and relevant societal and policy issue, 2) we provide cross-program expertise, 3) themes are strategic with regard to external funding opportunities. For the 2025-2029 period, our strategic focus themes are:

1. Performance pressure and resilience. Current trends in declining school-related mental wellbeing in youth and perceived pressure to perform (across all ages) are alarming. Interdisciplinary research questions include how we, as a society, may redefine ‘success’ and ‘performance’, or whether we need to change existing structures around testing and performance indicators (at individual and school levels), and if yes, how. Moreover, it urges rethinking development and learning as cognitive-social-emotional processes that need to be understood and supported holistically to foster (individual) resilience.
2. Digitalization of life, work and education. What are the opportunities and threats of digitalization for children and youth? How can teachers, parents, and policymakers be supported around these opportunities and threats?
3. Persistent declines in achievement and motivation. This theme includes interdisciplinary questions around how to turn around the declining academic achievements and motivation in children, adolescents and students, and how to nurture motivated learners for life. This theme encompasses different trends, from declining reading skills and pleasure across all ages, to specific declines in educational outcomes in vocational education (VMBO). For the science to effectively inform policies, closely collaborating with policymakers is essential.
4. Participation and inclusion of diverse learners. Participation and inclusion of diverse learners in education (including higher education) and work. This is timely both given the shifting landscape of special education, youth- and long term care, as well as the need for more inclusive higher education. 
5. The teacher: wellbeing, autonomy and competence of teachers, educators and caregivers in times of shortages. Teacher shortages remain an urgent problem at the core of many challenges in education. Questions within this theme include the role of stress and workload, and how teachers can acquire the skills and knowledge to feel competence in making the right choices in a complex and changing school environment.
6. The use of evidence in policy-making. In a changing political landscape, how can we safeguard the (correct and transparent) use of evidence in educational policymaking?

^[1] NRO Kennis Agenda, NWA Kennisagenda Jeugd, NWA NeurolabNL-Onderwijs, Kenniscoalitie voor mensen met een beperking, and UNESCO’s International Scientific Evidence-based Education (ISEE) Assessment.