Seed funding Urban-Rural Circularity & Circular Safe Hospitals  Call for conference and proposals.

Pressure cooker: 12 June 2025 
Deadline proposals: 19 September 2025 5 pm.
Register for the conference: conference website

The Institute for a Circular Society (i4CS) is excited to introduce the next round of Seed Funding. Are you a researcher at TU/e, WUR, UU or UMCU and passionate about advancing circular solutions through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration and innovative research?  Then this is your opportunity to team up with EWUU colleagues, develop collaborative projects and drive impact in the pursuit for a circular society. 

Aim and approach of the seed call 

With this seed call i4CS: 

• initiates and supports innovative ideas and perspectives on developing circular systemic solutions for future proof regions and healthcare. 

• facilitates and stimulates collaboration with (relevant) societal stakeholders. 

• stimulates inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration including researchers of the four EWUU partners. 

The approach for this call is to challenge researchers to address knowledge gaps encountered by societal partners. This way we aim to inspire academic research with societal impact and the potential to be transformative and drive systemic change towards a circular society. 

This round, a total of €240,000 will be shared among selected projects to support their development and implementation. A maximum of €40,000 per proposal will be granted.

The call covers five topics that were developed with the following societal partners:  

1. URC – Taking biobased materials to the next level:   
   Metropoolregio Eindhoven, Municipality of Helmond, Municipality of Eindhoven and Nationaal Kenniscentrum Biobased bouw (NKBB). 

2. URC – Systemic change in the food system:  
   Bean Deal 

3. CSH – Supporting healthcare professionals in making sustainable decisions:  
   Milieu Platform Zorg (MPZ) 

4. CSH – Anchoring sustainability in Risk management and compliance:  
   UMC Utrecht, department Risk & Compliance, supported by DIF and Procurement 

5. CSH – Harnessing AI to tackle pharmaceutical pollution of water:  
   RIVM 

Preliminary research questions for each of the five topics can be found in the Annex.

Researchers can apply for a seed fund after attending the I4CS conference on the 12th of June (see details below). These questions will be discussed and further developed during the morning part of the conference, together with the societal partners.  

Conference – June 12, 2025 

Researchers from the four EWUU alliance universities are invited to develop transdisciplinary research proposals that contribute to resolving the knowledge gaps indicated below. To facilitate the development of relevant research proposals, i4CS organises a conference where researchers are facilitated to interact with representatives of the societal stakeholders, find other researchers from the four institutes to collaborate with and develop research ideas together and in coherence with the societal stakeholders involved. 

Each of the five topics (see previous page) will be addressed in a separate sub-track in which: 

• Societal stakeholders will present how they (aim to) contribute to a circular society, and provide insight into the knowledge gaps and (research) questions that they encounter in practice. 

• Practitioners and researchers will explore and discuss the presented questions with the aim to supplement and improve them.  

• The resulting research questions are then validated by the societal stakeholders and used as a starting point for the development of project ideas. 

• Researchers from the different Alliance partners and societal stakeholders are invited to join forces, develop transdisciplinary project ideas and do some groundwork at the conference to develop their research proposal. 

Main conditions of the seed fund grant 

• Proposals for one of the seed-fund topics are eligible to receive a grant if: 

• At least two researchers from the submitting team have participated in the conference sub-track related to their proposal. 

• Scientists from different disciplines and from at least two EWUU institutions are involved in the project team.  Involvement of more EWUU institutes and more disciplines will be rated higher in the evaluation.   

• The proposal includes a plan on how the societal stakeholder(s) will be involved in the research project. 

• The maximum budget per proposal is 40 k€, which means that a total of 6 grants can be awarded. The grant money may be used for: 

• Hiring temporary researchers or other relevant staff. 

• Extending research time of existing staff (i.e. financing substitution of teaching); 

• Activities that are relevant to achieve the goal of the proposal such as organising dialogue or scenario sessions, network building, action research, citizen science and stakeholder events.   

• The deadline for submission of proposals is 19 September 2025 before 5 pm. Between the conference and the deadline, a short update meeting will be planned with each team to discuss the progress, the collaboration with the societal partner and to provide further guidance where needed. Further details will be provided at the conference.  

The proposals will be evaluated by a panel with members of at least three EWUU partners on added value of the collaboration, research quality and impact potential. We aim for a decision before 1 October 2025. 

 For detailed call documents, please see:  

• Full seed call text including Annex: research questions and knowledge gaps
• Terms and Conditions 
• Application form 
• Template Budget 

Should you have any further questions at this point, please do not hesitate to contact: 

• Sacha Tensen, program manager Urban-Rural Circularity: s.tensen@uu.nl 

• Karina Neef, program manager Circular Safe Hospitals: k.a.neef-2@umcutrecht.nl 

Feel free to share this announcement with your colleagues.  

This call is organised by the Institute for a Circular Society, an initiative of the alliance of Eindhoven University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research, Utrecht University, and the University Medical Centre Utrecht (EWUU). We aim to do groundbreaking research relevant for practical solutions contributing to a circular society.