RSA CE&C 2015-2021

5. Evidence and accomplishments 33 In summary, the department has been able to strengthen its foundation, rooted in the thematic domains of molecules, materials and processes in the application areas of energy, circularity and health, by reinforcing staff with early-career and experienced hires, promoting promising researchers to the rank of full professor and establishing a more diverse staff. As science and education are strongly intertwined, the investments described above allow our scientists to educate students and young researchers for their future responsibility of solving the emerging societal challenges in these domains. The importance of this is specifically highlighted in case studies 1 and 2 in Appendix B. Science Despite COVID-19 and the increasing level of competition over the years, the department is and remains successful in acquiring substantial highly competitive research grants from the Dutch Research Council (NWO; e.g. excellence programs (Gravitation programs) and up-and- coming talent programs (Talent Scheme)), European Union programs (FP7, Horizon 2020; including ERC and EIC programs) and contract research through public-private partnerships (Chemelot InSciTe, ARC CBBC, DPI, ISPT) or bilateral contract research with private partners (see societal impact). The table below summarizes the major research grants obtained in scientific competition during the review period. The large impact of such grants to perform research at the forefront of science and technology and its importance in educating and inspiring young people is highlighted in case study 2 in Appendix B. As evidenced in Tables 2 and 3 in Appendix B, scientists in the department are highly valued in a national and international context given the extensive number of marks of recognition received from peers and their memberships of prominent organizations and scientific committees. Table 5: Selection of most prestigious scientific research grants acquired during the review period. Grant description Recipient (year) Spinoza Prizes (NWO) Prof. René Janssen Spinoza Prize (2015) Prof. Jan van Hest Spinoza Prize (2020) Gravitation program (NWO) MCEC Netherlands Center for Multiscale Catalytic Energy Conversion (2014-2024) Principal investigators: Hans Kuipers, Rutger van Santen, Emiel Hensen FMS Functional Molecular Systems (2013-2023) Principal investigators: Bert Meijer, René Janssen, Jan van Hest IPM Interactive Polymeric Materials Research Center (2022-2032) Principal investigators: Jan van Hest, Patricia Dankers (Department of Biomedical Engineering) Talent Scheme (NWO) Vidi Ilja Voets (2015), Timothy Noël (2015) Veni Danqing Liu (2016), Koen Hendriks (2017), Mark Vis (2017), Ivo Filot (2017), Ghislaine Vantomme (2017), Mengmeng Li (2018), Antoni Forner-Cuenca (2019), Anat Akiva (2019), Roderick Tas (2020), Fabian Eisenreich (2021) ERC grants (European Union) ERC Advanced Grant Dick Broer (2015), Jan van Hest (2016), Bert Meijer (2018), Nico Sommerdijk (2018) ERC Consolidator Grant Evgeny Pidko (2016), Ilja Voets (2021) ERC Starting Grant Antoni Forner-Cuenca (2021) ERC Proof-of-Concept Grant Ilja Voets (2017), Volker Hessel (2017), Ilja Voets (2019)