The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) offers two grants that may support PhD candidates.

NWO call 'PhDs in the Humanities'

Up to and including 2024, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) will be working with the ‘PhDs in the Humanities’ funding instrument.

The ‘PhDs in the Humanities’ offers talented researchers a paid PhD position. It is a so-called ‘open’ NWO instrument: applicants can choose their research topic. Applications are granted funding based on the excellence of the candidate and the research proposal. More information on PhDs in the Humanities can be found in the call for proposals on the NWO website.

Every Humanities Faculty in the Netherlands may nominate a selected number of candidates (Leiden University 4.5 FTE; 4 or 5 candidates) for this competition. The Faculty of Archaeology is participating in the Humanities programme together with the Leiden University Faculty of Humanities. The selection of candidates for Leiden University is made by the Committee for the Practice of Scientific Research (Commissie voor Wetenschapsbeoefening) plus a representative from the Faculty of Archaeology. Each Leiden Humanities institute may submit a limited number of candidates to the committee. The deadline for submitting candidates to the Faculty is mid-January. The deadline for submitting at NWO is the beginning of March.

If you want to become a candidate for one of the institutes, you first need to find a supervisor. After the supervisor has confirmed that they are willing to accept you as a PhD candidate, the institute will make a pre-selection. Please check with your institute’s management about the procedure and your opportunities before the end of the (calendar) year.

Doctoral Grant for Teachers

Since 2011, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has made a Doctoral Grant available for primary, secondary, further professional, higher professional and special education teachers. With this initiative, the Ministry aims to increase the number of teachers with a doctorate in the classroom. This will improve the quality of education and strengthen the connection between universities and schools. They can use this grant to do PhD research. Selected teachers are exempted from teaching-related tasks for a maximum of 0.4 FTE over five years. As PhD candidates with an NWO Doctoral Grant for Teachers remain under contract of the school where they teach, they have the status of external PhD candidates at Leiden University.