Now reading problems don't come to light until children are eight or nine years old. That's too late, because the earlier you spot them, the less affected children are. Bonte and colleagues are therefore going to design special tasks and chart children's individual development through learning performance and brain activity. All this should culminate in a digital test that predicts who will develop reading problems and thus could use a helping hand.
Bonte, personal professor at the faculty of psychology and neuroscience, is one of the 34 laureates. In total, NWO received 266 applications.
A frequently heard criticism of the talent programme is that it demands a great deal of time and effort of researchers to write research proposals, the majority of which will not be successful. This time, 13 per cent were successful, as against 11 per cent in the Vici round of 2021.
NWO also considers that too little. “We want 25 per cent of the grant applications in open competition and in the talent programme to be awarded grants”, NWO chair Marcel Levi said last year. “That’s a lot. In some programmes we are currently closer to 10 per cent.”
The Vici grant will enable the recipients to carry out research for five years. The fields covered include how galaxies are formed, the effect of traumas among refugees on their ability to learn the Dutch language, and the collaboration between nerve cells and immune cells in eliminating inflammatory pain.
HOP/Maurice Timmermans