Young Scientists Travel with a Rubicon Scholarship

They had to wait a while, but 31 recently completed Ph.D. researchers received a Rubicon Scholarship from the NWO research funder to gain one or two years of experience abroad. One of them holds a PhD from the University of Victoria.

Young researchers will travel to America, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, Canada and several European countries. For example, they are researching building smaller quantum computers, the history of collaboration at sea, and medicine to treat Parkinson’s disease.

The coronavirus can still only throw a wrench in the works. They won’t leave until it’s safe, the NWO reports. The coronavirus appears to be under control in more and more countries, but new variants may emerge.

single wings

With the Rubicon Program, NWO wants to retain the most promising researchers in science. Thanks to the scholarship, they can spread their wings abroad after their PhD.

There are usually three Rubicon rounds a year for about sixty scientists, for which there are a total of seven million euros, but last year everything was different. These 31 scholars are from the second and third rounds of 2020. For this, 94 scholars applied for the scholarship, so one in three applicants got the scholarship.

Rubicon scholarships have been around since 2005 and are very popular. Young Dutch scientists are building a network that will be useful to them for the rest of their scientific career.

Caesar

The scholarships are a starting point for the coveted Veni, Vidi and Vici scholarships. They are named after a statement by the Roman general Julius Caesar. The Rubicon is also associated with him: it is the river he crossed with his armies to seize power.

Rubicon Awards: