They were meant to boost the research of young scientists. “The 2024 scholarships are being handed out now, the 2025 scholarships had not yet been awarded.”
Compensation
UM, like the two other young universities Tilburg and Twente, received additional starter’s grants to compensate for historically lower funding (fixed base) of research. For Maastricht, this amounts to €16 million. “This was an agreement between the three universities, UNL, the society of universities, and the minister. As far as UNL is concerned, this compensation will remain, but how will the minister handle it? There is no final outcome yet.”
Calculations
The board is currently working on scenarios that will be discussed with the deans in late September, early October. Letschert stresses that it is all based on hypotheticals, as much is still unclear. Will there be compensation? How will the Internationalisation in Balance Act (fewer international students, less English-language education) work in practice? What effect will the long-study fine (langstudeerdersboete) have? “We make calculations from the most negative scenario to the most positive.” However, two things are certain: the elimination of the starter’s grants and a large part of the incentive grants will not do the workload any good, Letschert says. And the cuts to the National Growth Fund and, for example, research funder NWO, will definitely have an effect on innovation. “We will see that in a few years’ time.”
Einstein
Good news is the €8.6 million for the Einstein telescope. Most of that will go to the Einstein Academy where skilled workers will be trained. “A very nice development. This shows that the cabinet considers the Einstein project important.”