Incubator Grants

Prospective teams are invited to send in their idea with tho following information: 

• Title 

• Applicant and interdisciplinary team (if known). Active involvement of scholars from multiple disciplines is encouraged. We can support applicant teams in finding partners, both in the run up to and during the Kickstarter workshop event.  

• Short description of the challenge you wish to address (max. 500 words) 

• Short motivation of why this challenge requires a transdisciplinary approach, reflecting on the expertise, input, faculty and stakeholder involvement that you feel are necessary to help address this challenge (max. 500 words). Note that we do not expect applicant teams to have a complete overview and that the Kickstarter workshop and Incubator process can be used to complement what you know. 

We invite applicant teams to focus on the process of collaboration and on the potential contribution of the project idea to the PtS mission and objectives. 

The deadline for submitting proposals is 15 February. A selection committee composed of three community leaders and three Programme Board members will award up to a maximum of five Incubator ideas. Teams are informed by 4 March.  

The Kickstarter workshop event on 23 April marks the formal start of the Incubators. The Kickstarter workshop is part of the procedure for the Incubator grant and awarded teams are expected to participate and have an open attitude to the process of co-creation that will be facilitated by this event.  At PtS, we believe that such an open process is key to transformative learning. 

In preparation of the Kickstarter workshop event, PtS Communities and Programme Board will help Incubator teams with targeting participants for the workshop sessions (UU colleagues and external stakeholders).  

The Kickstarter workshop event will feature workshops which will enable the selected Incubator teams to develop their ideas in collaboration with others and further build their inter-/transdisciplinary teams. 

• Open and Inclusive Attitude: This workshop event aims to be interactive and dynamic and to assist teams with the co-creation of their project ideas. PtS commits to an open and inclusive design and assessment procedure in which initial ideas may change with the input and integration of various types of expertise. Ideas are welcome from all participants at the event. 

• Community Support: A delegation of PtS community leaders, programme board members and project managers will be present to provide feedback and answer questions. The programme will further offer insights and examples from running and previous Incubators and Signature Projects.  

• Interdisciplinary Teams: The active involvement by scholars from multiple disciplines is welcomed. PtS will support applicant teams in further assembling their team prior to the Kickstarter workshop event. Ultimately, Incubators are led by an interdisciplinary project team comprised of UU scholars from at least three disciplines, with possible collaboration with external scholars and/or stakeholders.

In the months after the Kickstarter workshop event, a meeting will be scheduled between the newly awarded Incubator teams and a liaison contact member from the Programme Board to discuss the activities and latest developments. In this initiation phase, we seek to stay in touch with Incubator teams to provide feedback and guidance where necessary, answer any questions, explore further possibilities for collaboration, and help teams determine the appropriate next steps. Additionally, we aim to follow the incubation process closely for learning purposes, to, in the future, develop tools to facilitate cross-Incubator learning and to improve our procedures. 

Incubator Grants need to be spent within 12 months after allocation. 

The PtS mission is to propel radical innovation in our university practices by creating vibrant communities and fostering new collaborations in research and education, both within the university and with societal stakeholders, to enhance our impact on the exploration and development of pathways to sustainability, guided by the principle that scientific rigor meets societal relevance. This mission is carried out, in part, by funding initiatives that adhere to the principles and contribute to realizing the aims defined in the 2022-2025 PtS strategy:

• Be the driver of change fostering sustainable thinking and practice, via the creation of spaces for innovation, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary interaction, bringing together students and scholars from both early to established moments in their careers working on sustainability issues across the many different institutes and departments; thus
• Fulfilling the critical role that belongs to universities, not only thinking along but also critiquing developments where appropriate and coming up with new imaginative ideas about what sustainable futures may look like and how we might get there.
• Finding new ways to connect our proven excellence in research and education to processes of societal learning, creating more direct links with policy makers and stakeholders and society at large (transdisciplinarity).

To guide both the design of funding schemes as well as the final allocation of funds by the PtS Programme Board, the following principles are followed:

• Applications should contribute to accelerating change through initiatives that are not yet happening elsewhere in UU and/or are not easily funded via other channels;
• Applications will be challenge-based: initiatives are formulated and designed in such a way that they resonate within multiple PtS Communities and inspire collaboration across these Communities;
• Applications will stimulate the integration of different types of expertise through transdisciplinary collaborations;
• Applications should aim to create time and space for (early-career) scholars to make an active contribution;
• Applicants commit themselves to the open and inclusive design process in which initial ideas may change with the input and integration of various types of expertise. They also commit themselves to peer-assessment once they submit an application;
• Trust in our scholars and in the process is key. We aim to facilitate as many promising initiatives as possible. To be able to do so, we encourage applicants to only apply for necessary costs.

Call for ideas 2022: announced in June 2022

• Deadline pitches: 29 August 2022
• Kickstarter launch event: 8 September 2022 [17 ideas pitched]
• Deadline Incubator application: 25 September 2022 [16 applications received]
• Decision programme board: 10 October 2022 [10 Incubator Grants awarded]
• Deadlines Signature project applications: 3 April 2023, or 3 October 2023
• Peer assessments: 5-11 April and 5-11 October

Call for ideas 2023: announced in December 2022

• Deadline pitches: 21 February 2023
• Decision programme board & instructions to pitching teams: 1 week before Kickstarter event
• Kickstarter event 2023: 16 March 2023
• Deadline Incubator application: 3 April 2023 [8 applications received]
• Decision programme board: ~18 April 2023 [2 Incubator Grants awarded]
• Deadlines Signature project applications: 2 April 2024
• Peer assessments: 3-10 April 2024
• Decision Assessment & selection committee: by 26 April 2024

Call for ideas 2024: announced in November 2023

• Deadline for Incubator applications: 15 February 2024 [16 applications received]
• Decision from selection committee/inform successful teams: 4 March 2024 [9 Incubator Grants awarded]
• Kickstarter: 23 April 2024
• Deadline applications for Signature projects: April 2025
• Peer assessments: April 2025 (week following submission)