Universities protest scrapping of starter and incentive grants

The universities still want to receive the money promised for the starter grants and incentive subsidies and feel that the minister cannot simply go back on the agreements made. That is why they are initiating a legal procedure against the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), reported (in Dutch) the Leiden University weekly periodical Mare on Tuesday.

‘Stability and predictability’

The grants were set up in 2022 in an administrative agreement between the former Minister of OCW Robbert Dijkgraaf (D66) and the Dutch universities and universities of applied science. That agreement covered major investments in higher education, intended to create ‘more calm and room’ in the system by reducing the work pressure and the number of temporary contracts, among other measures. The starter grants and incentive subsidies were meant to ensure ‘greater stability and predictability’ of the research funding for the universities.

The grants supplied funding up to €300,000 that tenured researchers could use without restrictions on, for example, research time, doctoral students or facilities. The difference between them lay in the awarding: Incentive subsidies could be awarded to any university lecturer, assistant professor or professor; starter grants were specifically intended for new university lecturers.

Protest or ‘discussion’?

In the agreement, the educational institutions agreed with the minister that the Ministry would set aside €300 million annually for these grants through 2030. In practice, the agreement was not honoured: the successor of Minister Dijkgraaf, Minister Eppo Bruins (NSC), decided to scrap the grants in 2024.

When the Dutch Senate approved the OCW’s budget in April of this year, the scrapping of the grants became a reality, to the great disappointment of the universities. Tilburg University and Radboud University would not accept that, and announced that they would take legal steps against the decision. TU did not feel inspired to follow them at that time. The spokesperson wrote that the university preferred to remain in a ‘discussion’ with the Ministry.

After the Ministry officially decided to scrap the grants this summer, however, TU Delft also lodged an objection, together with all thirteen other Dutch universities. This was confirmed to Delta by Femke van Zijst, interim spokesperson of the umbrella organisation Universities of the Netherlands (UNL).

No clarity yet

When asked, Van Zijst says she does not count on the universities winning, but “there are signals from specialists that we do have a decent chance”. It can nevertheless take a long time before there is clarity about the grants. The universities must submit a ‘supplemental objection’ with their arguments before December 8. Subsequently, the Ministry has until March 2026 to take a new decision. If the universities are still dissatisfied, they can appeal. “Then the case goes before a judge,” explained Van Zijst. How quickly a case can appear before the Administrative Court varies widely, but “it could easily take half a year,” according to Van Zijst. And a final step would be to appeal to the Council of State. Van Zijst added, “So before there really is clarity, we could be looking at the end of 2026.”

It is not known how much money TU Delft will miss out on due to the scrapping of the grants and what the consequences will be for the university and the research groups if the scrapping is reversed. It is also unclear why the university changed its mind about objecting and whether the objection has or had consequences for the budget cut plans for the next few years. None of the questions that Delta presented to the university about this on Tuesday were answered in time for this publication.