The Dutch Research Agenda (NWA) is revising its 'Research on Routes by Consortia' (ORC) program based on feedback from the previous year. The ORC program will now involve networks within each of the 25 routes proposing a theme every two years. The Art Route Management and Steering Committee have analysed various aspects to suggest the preliminary theme for the 2024 round: 'The power of artistic and design research.' See Below. We invite members of the Art Route network to provide feedback and ideas via info@routekunstnwa.nl before September 1, 2023. The Steering Committee values constructive thoughts and may arrange a meeting if desired.

Your input is appreciated.

Theme: The Power of Artistic and Design Research

The Netherlands will face several major challenges in the coming decades. The climate crisis is unfolding, while the demand for resources continues to increase. There is a war raging that directly threatens our national security, while within our nation the distrust in public and political institutions is growing increasingly widespread. Moreover, the growing socioeconomic inequality leads to a divided society where not all citizens feel equal.

In situations of great societal uncertainty, artistic and design research can enrich the intellectual and creative landscape surrounding pressing societal issues. The research methods employed by artists and designers go beyond traditional academic research approaches: they embrace the power of expression and place experience at the centre of knowledge production, to arrive at different perspectives on the complex challenges faced. While artistic research utilises imagination to provide new perspectives, questions, insights, and modes of communication in response to societal challenges, design research leverages its capacity to creatively address problems and explore alternative possibilities. By combining creativity, critical thinking, and experimentation, artistic and design research not only push the boundaries of knowledge production, they also enable the step from knowledge to innovation, imagination and transformation.

Therefore, the NWA Art Route calls on consortia for research proposals that harness the power of artistic and design research to address pressing societal challenges and/or contribute to further enhancing the development of that power. Interdisciplinary collaborations with artists and designers to promote innovation and societal transformation, as well as interactions with audiences to stimulate societal imagination are encouraged.

The preliminary theme aligns with the cluster questions posed to the Kunst Route. When formulating research proposals, it is essential to consider these cluster questions and make explicit which of them are addressed by the research proposed. It is also important to take note of the game-changers formulated by the Art Route: art as a driver for innovation and reflection in a high-tech society, art as an alternative form of knowledge production, and art as a source of inspiration for education and lifelong learning. These principles are supported, substantiated, and reinforced by theImpact and Innovation in the Arts manifesto.

The Society of Arts and The Young Academy are calling on the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science to establish a national fund dedicated to experimental research and projects that bridge the gap between art and science.

The proposed arts and science (AxS) pilot fund would run for three years with a budget of €11 million, in cooperation with the state cultural funds, NWO, and Taskforce for Applied Research SIA. The Society of Arts and The Young Academy found that current funding schemes for culture or science do not adequately support the innovative collaborations between artists and scientists. With the right resources, they believe the fund will accelerate promising initiatives, expand the innovative capacity of the Netherlands, and encourage the sustainable growth of cross-disciplinary work.

The Society of Arts and The Young Academy are both part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and have previously founded the Mingler network to promote collaboration between artists and academics.

Read the full story here: akademievankunsten.nl/nieuws/2351046.aspx

Attention researchers and social organisations! Don't miss the chance to join the Open Call for "Building Transformation Capacity Through Arts and Design".

The aim of the call is to support and accelerate the transformation to a sustainable, climate-neutral and just future by means of creativity, imagination and culture.

This call is part of the prestigious Horizon Europe program and Taskforce for Applied Research SIA is making €600,000 available for the participation of universities of applied sciences. The application deadline is April 25, 2023. Register now via the link below!

https://jpi-urbaneurope.eu/calls/building-transformation-capacity-through-arts-and-design-unlocking-the-full-potential-for-urban-transitions-btc-enutc/

Good news! Our ‘Small Projects’-application 'Bit by bit, or not at all', consisting of three sub-projects, has been granted funding. The sub-projects were selected after an online meeting with potential co-applicants in April 2022, led by our new Figurehead Michel van Dartel and an external advisor. The 'Bit by bit, or not at all' project aims to demonstrate the significance of 'art as an alternative form of knowledge production' in shaping a sustainable future in the face of the climate crisis. The three sub-project coordinators are ArtEZ University of the Arts, Leiden University, and Gerrit Rietveld Academy.

One of the sub-projects, 'A Cosmic View: Contemporary and historical Art x Science,' (Leiden University) is an experimental and innovative project bringing together artists and scientists to explore questions of scale and connectedness. Another sub-project, 'Polyphonic Landscapes,' (ArtEZ Hogeschool voor de Kunsten ) aims to explore how sound and listening can foster a more embodied, inclusive, and reciprocal connectivity to the environment. The third sub-project, 'Climate Imaginaries at Sea,' (Gerrit Rietveld Academy) invites artists to research rising sea levels, paying special attention to voices and knowledges often missing from mainstream climate debates.

Follow the hashtags #BitByBit and #RouteKunstNWA on social media for project updates. For more information, visit: nwo.nl/en/news/funding-25-projects-nwa-routes

The Artists Community Knowledge (ACKnowledge) research project, funded through a previous ‘Small Projects’-call, has been completed. The overarching research question was, "How can we unlock knowledge embodied in contemporary art practices and share it with a wider audience?"

The findings emphasised the persistent misconception that the knowledge of the artist community is project-based, which in turn leads to precarity on several levels. The report recommends further research into building new infrastructures and institutions to support the long-term involvement of the artist community and its knowledge.

The final report can be found at: artistcommunityknowledge.org

Mariana Lanari co-founded Archival Consciousness in collaboration with graphic designer Remco van Bladel. The project, set to investigate new publishing methods for cultural libraries and archives, was founded in 2019, and has received, among others, funding within the call Small projects for NWA Routes. The exhibition Catching Up in the Archive at De Appel in Amsterdam puts the project and the methodology into practice. We visited the exposition and spoke with the artists.

When entering the exposition, you are overwhelmed by the number of books that are displayed in the space. Catching Up in the Archive is a major exhibition showcasing the evolving infrastructure of De Appel's Archive. Displaying more than 16 000 objects in de Appel's Aula and launching an interactive online environment. Catching Up in the Archive leads to public gatherings, ear-opening encounters, and ‘moving’ situations with special guests and curious passers-by.

AN EVOLVING PIECE OF ART
'Everyone is an archivist', it says on De Appel's website. The phrase serves as a subtitle to the exhibition. Catching Up in the Archive can be viewed as an evolving piece of art that constantly changes shape on the basis of visitors' participation. With the funding received via the Art route, Lanari and Van Bladel were able to create mobile archive units (a.k.a Silverfish) that can identify archival objects, scan materials, and instantly display them on bibliograph, the exhibition's online environment.

These new machines can be used by visitors as well. They are invited to browse, read, scan, and annotate items they choose themselves. Through this interaction with the work, visitors learn about the Archive’s infrastructure and participate in shaping De Appel's dynamic and growing digitised collections. What's more, visitors can create their own personal archives. "A lot of people experience it as a trip down memory lane", Van Bladel tells me. "Visitors recognise books and publications that they have come across earlier in their lives. People really have fun with it."

The exhibition has already welcomed many visitors and yielded a lot of positive reactions. Writer Abdelkader Benali for instance called it 'an exciting project' on Twitter and assistant professor Colin Sterling (department of Memory & Museums at Universiteit van Amsterdam) tweeted: "Loved this installation/intervention/actual working library by Mariana Lanari. Something very fun about standing in a semantic web."

ABOUT ARTISTS COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE (ACKnowledge)
In 2020, the funding application Artists Community Knowledge (ACKnowledge), consisting of three sub-projects including Catching Up in the Archive, received funding in the call 'Small projects for NWA Routes'. The three sub-projects were selected by the members of the Art route-steering group and the other applicants to the call.

ACKnowledge investigates art as an alternative form of knowledge production, which is defined as one of three 'game changers' within the Art route. The three subprojects within it focus on three different types of art practices: art libraries, artists' self-organized communities/collectives and artists' material craft practices.

The three subprojects deal with the development of new concepts and new knowledge in contemporary art practices that are also potentially significant for other societal areas. Their overarching research question is: How can we reveal knowledge that is embodied in contemporary arts practices and share it with a larger public?

The deadline for submitting proposals within the call Small projects for NWA routes 21/22 has passed. There will be another call next year.

WRITTEN BY Yolanda Bartman
THANKS TO De Appel, Mariana Lanari, Remco van Bladel

Within the call NWA-ORC 2022, the matchmaking meetings will be held on 24, 28 and 29 March 2022. On 29 March at 2:30-4:30 PM the Art route will come together to offer a stage to the initiatives that are submitted within this route. The meeting is organised for submitters of initiatives and others who have not submitted an initiative but who are interested in the Art route.*

INITIATIVES
All of the initiatives are published online so that potential partners can register with the initiatives and thereby join a consortium. The initiatives for route Art can be viewed via this link.

It is possible to browse through all the initiatives via this link.

PROGRAMME OF MATCHMAKING MEETING
The meeting programme is entirely online, via Zoom. During the matchmaking meeting, submitters of initiatives can find new consortium partners and connect with the network of the route. If you are not yet involved in any initiative, there will be sufficient opportunity for you to talk with and possibly join a consortium.

Each meeting programme will contain at least the following elements:

• Plenary opening by NWO: brief explanation of the call and the Impact approaches;
• Presentation by the route management: participants will be given the opportunity to learn about the current position of the route, and submitters of initiatives can explore the relevance of their initiative to the route;
• Pitches from initiatives in various breakout sessions: connections can be made with new parties within the network of the route or possibly with similar initiatives from the route.

There will be sufficient break time between the different parts of the meeting. Each meeting will have a maximum duration of 3 hours.

*Interested parties who have not submitted an initiative (but are interested in the Art route) can register via the NWO website.

TIMELINE
The deadline for submission of pre-proposals is on 9 June 2022 at 14:00:00 CET.

The deadline for submission of full proposals is on 24 January 2023 at 14:00:00 CEST. A full proposal may only be submitted if a pre-proposal has previously been submitted

Read the full call on the NWO-website.

Janneke Wesseling will soon retire and has therefore recently resigned from her duties as figurehead of the Art route. She proposed Michel van Dartel as her successor, a proposal that was wholeheartedly supported by the steering committee of the Art route. Van Dartel is director of the platform for art and media technology V2_Lab in Rotterdam and lector at Avans Center for Art Design and Technology.

Van Dartel supports the goals of the NWA (De Nationale Wetenschapsagenda) and the mission of the Art route as formulated under the chairmanship of Wesseling. "The confidence that the route instills in me is an enormous stimulus, also for the work that I do as a director and lector," says Van Dartel.

HUMAN COGNITION AND THE ROLE OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BODY AND ITS ENVIRONMENT
Van Dartel has a background in cognitive science, in which he progressed from a study in cognitive psychology to a PhD in artificial intelligence. "Within that PhD I focused on empirical evidence based on robotics research for the proposition that cognition can only be explained on the basis of interaction between brain, body and environment.” The fact that our bodies and the environment in which we find ourselves (also) matter in explaining things such as thoughts, perception and memories was mainly fodder for philosophers at the time. And for artists, I gradually realized."

Van Dartel's interest in human cognition and the role of the relationship between body and environment in explaining it has translated into a more specific interest in how technology intervenes in and changes that relationship. "If you embrace the idea that our cognition arises from interaction between our brain, body and environment, then you also realize how great the impact is of technology that intervenes in that interaction, on our thinking, perception, memory, et cetera." The lector indicates that he finds scientific research limited in what it has to offer in this area. "Or rather, there is still much that science can learn from the arts."

THE TRANSITION FROM SCIENCE TO ART
Despite the fact that Van Dartel has been active in the culture and events sector since his teenage years, it was only during his PhD research that he realized that many artists explored the same questions and reflected on them in ways that were much more in keeping with his views. "At that time I experienced a lot of resistance in my attempts to involve artists in my PhD research and I experienced first-hand how science looks down on art. At the time, that forced me to make the switch from science to art, but I have always continued to work as an ambassador for improvement in that area."

Van Dartel does this in the first place by devoting himself, as director of V2_Lab and as a lector, to the development of artistic research and the creation of new opportunities for artists to conduct research. In addition, he is a member of various forums and committees. Within these he sees opportunities for research for and by the arts or opportunities to improve the quality and status of artistic research. "For example, as a member of the Taskforce Professional Doctorate Kunst+Creatief, I am currently committed to expanding the PhD opportunities for artists and I joined the Art route in 2020."

TAKING THE SOCIAL IMPORTANCE OF ART SERIOUSLY
Besides the fact that Van Dartel sees the arts as complementary to science, he has become very aware over the years that the arts themselves also develop and therefore need to be researched, he says. "Art is always in flux because artists are constantly seeing new urgencies, but if you really take the social importance of art seriously, you also have to support the development of its aesthetics, forms of expression and practices with research."

"That is what I hope to convey as the figurehead of the Art route", he says. “Given my background, you can count on me to pay particular attention to research into the aesthetics, forms of expression and practices needed to interpret and visualize the impact of technological progress."

Image: Michiel Walrave.

Concepts are theoretical tools. They “do work” as they carve out phenomena or objects, and propose a perspective on the phenomenon or object thus established. As such, concepts are inherently creative and potentially critical: they provide meaning, establish connections, and generate reflection and perhaps debate. In this workshop all participants will partake in a collective concept-building exercise.

The workshop Creative Concepts is organized on the occasion of the publication of Critical Concepts for the Creative Humanities by Iris van der Tuin and Nanna Verhoeff. The workshop if offered by NWO and will be held on February 17 2022 2 - 5:15 pm.

The world today invites us to dwell on the role and use of concepts as we try to grasp the phenomena that we are also part of. A growing number of publications and projects across academia and the arts are accompanied by glossaries, dictionaries, or lexicons. What if contemporary academic and artistic contexts or in the world at large, necessitates the curation of, and with, new or modernized vocabularies? What can be done with concepts and what are the limits of concepting?

The above observations and questions form the starting point for the Creative Concepts workshop. It starts off practically by inviting all participants to partake in a collective concept-building exercise according to a pre-set script. After the exercise, Kitty Zijlmans, Lonnie van Brummelen and Femke Herregraven will provide reflections on concepting across academia and the arts.

After the reflections, participants are invited to partake in another round of the collective concept-building exercise, now inspired by the reflections on concepting.

For whom?
This workshop is mainly meant for academics, postdocs and PhD/MA students, artistic researchers, and artists interested in concepts and concepting.

Please register by sending an e-mail to: creativeconcepts@nwo.nl.

Creative Concepts is a spin-off of the successful The Postresearch Condition (EARN/NWO Smart Culture) conference (January 2021; organized by Henk Slager with Odile Heynders, Janneke van Kersen, Iris van der Tuin and Kitty Zijlmans).

The deadline for submitting proposals within the call Small projects for NWA routes 21/22 has been postponed. This means that the timeline as a whole changes. Below you can find the new dates.

Routes can apply up to a maximum of €300.000. Within the proposal by route Kunst three small projects with the size of a maximum of €90,000 each kan be included. The remaining budget of €30,000 is for overhead costs, such as administration, evaluation/intervision and accountability by the route-management. The maximum duration of the total project is 2 years. 

We ask researchers who want to submit a proposal to inform route coordinator Stella Blom about their plans via e-mail stella.blom@routekunstnwa.nl no later than 2 MARCH. A message with the names of the applicants and the working title of the project is sufficient.

TUESDAY 22 MARCH 2022 is the latest date to submit a project proposal. You do this by submitting a proposal that matches the criteria of the call to Stella Blom stella.blom@routekunstnwa.nl.

TEMPLATES:
You can find a template for the proposal here (the proposal can be max. 2 pages long): section-3-template-for-subprojects.docx
You can find the budgetform here (you only have to provide 1 subproject tab): budget-form-kleine-projecten.xlsx
Here is an example of a proposal that has been approved: voorbeeld_nwa-route-kunst-project_gehonoreerde_aanvraag_21.pdf

The research proposal is logically in line with the nature of the route; the role of the artist and the art practice is paramount. Information about the principles of the Art route can be found on our website.

On WEDNESDAY 6 APRIL 2022 there will be a meeting where the initiators will pitch their proposal to an external panel. The external panel advises the route management on the selection of projects for the final proposal.

On WEDNESDAY 20 APRIL the results will be shared with the applicants.

On TUESDAY 10 MAY the final proposal will be submitted to NWO.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CALL
Within the call for proposals Small projects for NWA routes 21/22 the route management of each NWA route can apply for funding for up to 3 small projects. These projects focus on an innovative idea, promotion of utilization of existing knowledge or synthesis of existing knowledge.

For the subprojects the choice can be made:

• Innovative: explore a new, out-of-the-box idea or;
• Synthesis: merging of existing knowledge to arrive at new insights which contribute to the knowledge agenda, ambitions and/or game changers of the route;
• Knowledge utilization: (research into or for the purpose of) knowledge utilization, valorization and implementation of existing knowledge.

Read more about the call on the NWO-website.

Last month you could read on our website that the NWA-ORC call 2022 is open. Would you like to know more about the NWA research programme Research along Routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC)? Or you are considering submitting an initiative? Then join the webinar on the NWA-ORC on Tuesday, 18 January 2022 from 09:30 to 11:30 hours.

This webinar will gather researchers, companies and societal organisations who want to know more about the objective and approach within the NWA-ORC. After general presentations on the NWA-ORC round 2022, there will be ample opportunity to pose questions in breakout rooms where NWO employees will provide all the answers. After the webinar, questions and answers will be published online in an FAQ document.

The webinar will be held in English and will entirely take place online.

You can register for the webinar via this link.

More information:
Via nwa-orc2022@nwo.nl you can ask questions about the NWA-ORC round 2022 (Nienke Klomp) or request more information about the webinar (Jan-Joost de Man ).

The Dutch Research Agenda - Research along Routes by Consortia 2022 (NWA-ORC 2022) call for proposals is open. In the annual ORC funding round, consortia can submit proposals that provide a joint expression of the breadth and innovative character of the NWA. The funding round is aimed at facilitating research that leads to scientific and/or societal breakthroughs.

The NWA-ORC 2022 funding round has three phases and therefore has three deadlines:

• The deadline for online submission of an initiative via the NWO-website is on 1 February 2022 at 14:00:00 CEST.
  Submitting an initiative is required to be able to submit a pre-proposal. After submission of the initiative, the main applicant - or another participant in the consortium - has to take part in a matchmaking event of the indicated primary NWA-route.

• The deadline for submission of pre-proposals is on 9 June 2022 at 14:00:00 CET.

• The deadline for submission of full proposals is on 24 January 2023 at 14:00:00 CEST. A full proposal may only be submitted if a pre-proposal has previously been submitted

Read the full call on the NWO-website.

We will keep you informed of the developments surrounding the call via this website.

Update January 28: The deadline of the call will be moved by 5 weeks, to May 10, 2022. Read the new timeline for this call here.

The call for proposals 'Small projects for NWA routes 21/22' is open. Within this call for proposals, the route management of each NWA route can apply for funding for up to 3 small projects. These projects focus on an innovative idea, promotion of utilization of existing knowledge or synthesis of existing knowledge.

Routes can apply up to a maximum of €300.000. A small project has the size of a minimum of €50,000 and a maximum of €150,000 each. The maximum duration of the total project is 2 years.

For the subprojects the choice can be made:

• Innovative: explore a new, out-of-the-box idea or;
• Synthesis: merging of existing knowledge to arrive at new insights which contribute to the knowledge agenda, ambitions and/or game changers of the route;
• Knowledge utilization: (research into or for the purpose of) knowledge utilization, valorization and implementation of existing knowledge.

The dates below have changed, read the new timeline for this call here.

TUESDAY 1 MARCH 2022 is the latest date to submit a project proposal. You do this by submitting a proposal that matches the criteria of the call to route coordinator Stella Blom stella.blom@routekunstnwa.nl.
The research proposal is logically in line with the nature of the route; the role of the artist and the art practice is paramount. Information about the principles of the Art route can be found on our website.

On WEDNESDAY 18 MARCH 2022 there will be a meeting with the members of the Art route steering group and selected initiators about this call. For a process that is as transparent as possible, we share the proposals with all participants prior to the session. During the meeting, everyone votes on each other's proposals according to criteria. You are not allowed to vote for your own proposal and the figurehead and coordinator cannot vote themselves.

Read more about the call on the NWO-website.

To our great regret, we have to cancel the symposium of Art route on Friday 26 November. Due to the situation surrounding the increasing corona infections, it is not responsible to let people come to the Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam. The symposium was designed to maximize live interaction and create new contacts and networks. We have explored the possibilities of translating this into an online version of the event, but we ran into problems. We are considering a different form and date for this symposium.

[Update 17 November: unfortunately we had to cancel this symposium due to the corona situation]
Art route invites researchers in the arts to a dialogue about the conditions for proposals in the Dutch National Research Agenda (NWA). How can the likelihood of granted research applications from the Art route be increased?  Below you can read the programme (subject to change):

Reception (10.00–10.30)

Impact and innovation in the arts:

• 10.30–10.50 Introduction Impact and innovation in the arts – Janneke Wesseling
• 10.50–12.00 Presentations & panel conversation – Anna Harris, Marcel Cobussen, Micha Hamel and Janneke van Kersen
• 12.00–12.30 Q&A

Break (12.30–13.30)

Parallel Sessions:

• 13.30–14.15 Round I
  Impact with Bregje van Eekelen
  Methodology with Nirav Christophe
  Consortia with Peter Peters

• 14.25–15.10 Round II
  Impact with Bregje van Eekelen
  Methodology with Nirav Christophe
  Consortia with Peter Peters

• 15.15–15.30 Roundup parallel sessions

Wrap-up & drinks (15.30–17.00)

We still have a few spots available. Register by sending an email to info@routekunstnwa.nl.

[Update 17 November: unfortunately we had to cancel this symposium due to the corona situation]
Art route invites researchers in the arts to a dialogue about the conditions for proposals in the Dutch National Research Agenda (NWA). How can the likelihood of granted research applications from the Art route be increased? 

During the symposium, the concepts 'impact' and 'innovation' which play a significant role in the valuation of research proposals, will be discussed and questioned through the experiences of researchers. The text Impact and innovation in the arts, written by the Art route steering committee in 2020, will be a point of departure. It contains a proposal to redefine the aforementioned concepts, thereby doing justice to the intrinsic value of research in the arts. Research in the arts means research conducted by artists and designers in and through their artistic practice. 

Collaborations between higher education institutions (HBO & WO) and societal partners play a crucial role in NWA research proposals. How do these collaborations feature in applications submitted through the Art route? In what ways can the position of artists and designers be foregrounded and strengthened in these collaborative submission processes? These and other urgent questions will be examined during parallel sessions and panel talks. 

With contributions by: Anna Harris, Marcel Cobussen, Janneke Wesseling, Micha Hamel, Janneke van Kersen and Anne Stalinski. Bregje van Eekelen, Nirav Christophe and Peter Peters will moderate the parallel sessions.

REGISTER
[UPDATE NOVEMBER 11: We only have a few spots left. Register by sending an email to info@routekunstnwa.nl.]
We invite everyone engaged in research in the arts to join the symposium on November 26 from 10.00 - 17.30 at the Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam. You can register by sending an e-mail to info@routekunstnwa.nl. Please include your job title and if relevant the organisation/institution you work for. You will receive a confirmation e-mail.

Please note: when entering the Tolhuistuin, you will be asked to show a QR code via the Corona-Check app, with a valid vaccination, recovery or test certificate.

[Update 17 November: unfortunately we had to cancel this symposium due to the corona situation]
A symposium will take place on Friday 26 November, organized by the steering committee of the Art route. Collaboration between HBO and WO and the likelihood of proposals via the Art route are central themes during the meeting.

How do researchers in the arts realize research via the Art route? Major research proposals, such as large NWA-calls, involve lengthy, complex processes with no guarantee of success. How do researchers work their way through the forest of application forms? What does it take to commit a successful proposal? Are the ideas and needs from the arts field reflected in the application process? During the symposium we try to find answers to these and other questions.

The Art route invites researchers to collectively change course on 26 November and reflect on the conditions imposed on the arts in proposals. During both plenary and parallel sessions NWA's application criteria such as impact, valorisation and output are discussed and questioned on the basis of the experiences, positive and negative, of researchers.

The Art route points out the landscape of the National Science Agenda (NWA) to promote the emancipation of research in and into the arts. It is important that the likelihood of research proposals is increased. The Art route mainly focuses on proposals through partnerships between HBO and WO in which researchers in the arts play an active role.

We will keep you informed about the latest news about the symposium on this page.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) is the most important science funder in the Netherlands and regularly publishes calls to submit research proposals (call for proposals). A committee consisting of scientists and experts from various fields assesses the appropriateness and quality of these proposals. The selection is careful and strict; often only a small number of projects are eligible for funding.

For a balanced assessment of the proposals, it is of great importance that representatives of the humanities, as well as representatives of the relatively new field of research in the arts, are part of the assessment committees. The steering committee of the Art route therefore calls on representatives of research in the arts to register.

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES?
By participating in an assessment committee, you gain insight into NWO's working methods and procedures and you get to know the research field better. You also get the chance to gain knowledge about writing a good proposal. In addition, you gain more insight into the developments within your own field and you can expand your network.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
If you have experience and/or affinity with interdisciplinary research (fundamental, applied and/or practice-oriented research), please let us know. At the moment there is no specific assessment committee that members are being sought for, but we would like to build a list of names of people who are interested. Send an email to info@routekunstnwa.nl and we will contact you as soon as an assessment committee is sought.

The programme Museum Grants shapes the possibility to do short-term research in one of more than 400 museums in the Netherlands. The research is headed by museum expert and takes place in collaboration with university researchers. The results will be published in an article that will be made available in open access form. The intended aim of the Museum Grant is to explore and shed more light on the ideas, materials and objects in museum collections. The second sub-round is currently open: you can submit your proposal for research funding until 21 September 2021.

DIVERSITY OF TOPICS
In April 2021, the first five projects from sub-round I were awarded funding. The five projects cover a diversity of subjects and thus already provide insight into the wealth of possibilities of research in Dutch museum collections, read more.

SUBMIT A PROPOSAL
A Museum Grant stimulates museum professionals and offers them creative space to conduct scientific research. New research applications can be submitted for the second sub-round until September 21, 2021. Interested parties can apply for up to €25,000 for a short-term scientific project with which they can research, deepen and clarify the objects, materials and ideas from the museum collection. Read more about the possibilities and conditions of Museum Grants.

NWO was hit by a hack in the weekend of 13 and 14 February 2021. On Friday, March 12, NWO, NRO and SIA have announced that they will resume the grant process in the week of March 22. At that time, that process was halted for five weeks. The deadline for submitting full applications is now October 7, 2021 at 2:00 PM. Read more.

Good news! The application from Artists Community Knowledge (ACKnowledge), consisting of three sub-projects, has been approved. The three sub-projects were selected after the online meeting of September 4th by the members of the Art route-steering group and applicants.

ACKnowledge (Artists Community Knowledge) investigates art as an alternative form of knowledge production, as defined as one of the three 'game changers' within the Art route. The subprojects focus on three different art practices: art libraries, artists' self-organized communities/collectives and artists' material craft practices.

The three subprojects deal with the development of new concepts and new knowledge in contemporary art practices that are also potentially significant for other societal areas. Their overarching research question is: How can we reveal knowledge that is embodied in contemporary arts practices and share it with a larger public?

Read more about other projects that are receiving funding within the programme Small Projects for NWA Routes 2020 from the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA).

Researchers and partners
The following researchers are involved in ACKnowledge: Remco van Bladel (ArtEZ University of the Arts), Dr. Florian Cramer and Simon Kentgens (Willem de Kooning Academy, Hogeschool Rotterdam), Dr. Josué Amador (Codarts University of the Arts), Johan Oomen, M.A. (Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid), Prof. Dr. Alec Badenoch (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities, Art and Culture) and Mariana Lanari (Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture, Universiteit van Amsterdam).

Collaboration partners: Kunstinstituut Melly/Formerly Known as Witte de With, Het Nieuwe Instituut, De Appel, Casa do Povo, EUScreen, Re:vive, Dropstuff, AVA_net

Artistic research
The goal of this project is to literally ACKnowledge these new forms of knowledge. The sub-projects will translate implicit, embodied and situated knowledge in art practices into explicit and more generally accessible knowledge and investigate underlying concepts.

The subprojects will be done as artistic research – i.e., following Borgdorff's definition, as "research in and through art practice" which "unites the artistic and the academic in an enterprise that impacts on both domains. (1) The overarching research question for the three subprojects is: How can we reveal knowledge that is embodied in contemporary arts practices and share it with a larger public?

The researchers are pleased that their application has been approved and look forward to putting their plans into practice.

NWO is looking for members for the selection committee within the NWA-ORC 2020/2021. This committee assesses the appropriateness and quality of the applications, with the help of external advice from experts and an interview with the applicant. The committee then determines a prioritization of the applications. Based on this ranking, the NWO Executive Board decides which applicants will be awarded funding.

In order to achieve a balanced assessment of the applications, it is very important that representatives of the humanities, as well as representatives of the still relatively new field of research in the arts, are part of the selection committee. The committee is also explicitly open to lectors.

Are you interested? Then you can register via this form. Contact the coordinator of the NWA-ORC 2020/21, Varsha Kapoerchan, for more information via: nwa-orc2020@nwo.nl, (0) 70 349 44 42.

Update: NWO was hit by a hack in the weekend of 13 and 14 February 2021. On Friday March 12, NWO, NRO and SIA announced that they will resume the grant process in the week of March 22. At that time, that process was halted for five weeks. The deadline for submitting full applications through is now October 7, 2021 at 2:00 PM.

Update: The digital matchmaking meeting took place on 6 NOVEMBER. The information below is still relevant, but some dates have already passed.

The deadline for submitting initiatives for the big NWA-ORC call 2020 (1 October) has now passed. The initiatives have been placed online, so it's possible to prepare for the matchmaking meetings. A new element this year is that the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) is making participation in a centrally-organised matchmaking meeting compulsory for those submitting initiatives.

On Friday 6 NOVEMBER 2020, from 10:00 AM till 12:20 PM, the Art route and the NWO will be organising a central matchmaking meeting. It will be a digital matchmaking meeting, which will take place via Zoom. During this meeting, initiators will pitch their plans and there will be the necessary space for making each other’s acquaintance and consultation about possible collaboration. Please note: The NWO is making participation in the matchmaking meeting compulsory for everyone who has submitted an initiative.

Are you not submitting an initiative yourself but would you possibly like to join someone else's initiative? Then you can also participate in the session. Please send an email to nwa-orc2020@nwo.nl, stating the name of the route, your name and email address, and the topics you are interested in.

The preliminary registrations must be submitted to the NWO by 14 JANUARY 2021.

Please find below the (indicative) schedule for the NWA-ORC 2020:

• 1 October 2020: Deadline for submission of initiatives
• 6 November 2020: Matchmaking meeting
• 14 January 2021: Deadline for submission of concise applications
• End March 2021: Applicants will receive advice about submission of full application
• 24 June 2021: Deadline for submission of concise applications
• June – September 2021: Assessment by experts and reply
• November 2021: Selection for interview phase by assessment committee
• December 2021: Interviews
• January 2022: Decision by NWO executive board on remuneration

Update: on 4 September, we had an online meeting with the members from the steering committee and initiators regarding this call. Three subprojects were selected. The information below is still relevant, but a number of dates have already passed.

At this time, a call for 'small projects for NWA routes 2020' is open. With this call, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) wants to offer the NWA routes the opportunity to be involved in concrete terms with applications within their own field and to increase the chance of applications that are relevant to their own field, namely by financing small projects for the NWA routes. Submission for this call are possible via three small applications of €50,000, or a combination thereof.

The projects can focus on an innovative idea within the specific field of the arts or on utilisation of existing knowledge in the field of the arts. The small projects must, in this way, contribute to subjects relevant to the route and increase the scientific and/or social impact of the route. We kindly ask initiators of small applications to inform the route coordinator stella.blom@routekunstnwa.nl of their plans no later than 17 August.

As communicated previously, we have a meeting with the members from the Art route steering committee and initiators regarding this call on 4 September. Due to the developments regarding the coronavirus, a decision has been taken to hold this meeting entirely online, vie Microsoft Teams. The time has also been changed: from 13:00 to 15:00, initiators will give a presentation further to their research plan.

To ensure the most transparent process possible, we will share the applications with all participants prior to the session. On 4 September, everyone will vote on each other’s proposal in accordance with criteria that can be found below. The research proposal ties in logically with the nature of the route; the role of the artist and the artistic practice is of paramount importance. You may not vote on your own proposal and the figurehead and coordinator will not vote themselves. In this way, the route community will choose the project that is going to be submitted. Submission of the application to the steering committee and participation in the online session are conditions for participation in the application.

Please register for the session by sending an email to stella.blom@routekunstnwa.nl.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

I. Connections

a. Degree to which the subprojects contribute to new and unexpected connections

b. Degree to which a transparent process has been followed in order to arrive at a selection of the proposed subprojects with broad backing and support has been created
II. Relevance

a. Degree to which the subprojects give substance to subjects relevant to the route

b. Degree to which the subprojects increase scientific and/or social impact of the route
III. Project structure

a. The proposed subproject has a structure/form as a result of which the proposed idea can be executed

b. The proposed project budget is realistic and supports the structure of the project
c. The subprojects are interrelated.

The call is already open and the deadline for this call is 29 October 2020, at 14:00. You can find more information about the call on the NWO website via this link.

IMPORTANT CONDITION FOR ADMISSIBILITY

The call concerned states that an important condition for admissibility of the application to be submitted is consulting and involving a sufficiently broad community connected to the Art route. In our opinion, the members of the steering committee have an important role to play in order to guarantee this. The steering committee has been expanded one year ago with representatives from various research associations/knowledge institutions/disciplines/fields. We can also well imagine that the big NWA ORC application previously submitted provide a basis for smaller subprojects. That application was prepared with input from various parties. Together with the procedure that we followed with each other as research steering committee in the past year, insight has been gained into what the field needs and when application tie in with what's going on in the field. At the same time, the call is open to new ideas and collaborations, and the projects can broaden the reach of a (potential) community.

SUITABILITY OF THE APPLICATION

Figurehead Janneke Wesseling and coordinator Stella Blom from Art route consider 'suitability' to be an important criterion. Moreover, the uniqueness of the arts research and the extent to which it ties in with a specific discourse in the arts field are an important criterion. They pay attention to the role of the arts and artists in terms of the theme, the problem definition and the execution/relevant cooperation partners. Wesseling and Blom think that the route is helped most with applications that fulfil these criteria, because it offers a unique opportunity to advance the specific discourse of arts research and the contribution of artistic practices in research.

Forty research proposals from individual researchers will be financed from the Idea Generator of the Dutch National Research Agenda. Unfortunately, none of the applications from the Art route were granted. We like to learn from feedback, so that applications in the next call are actually successful.

At the request of the NWO, applicants for the Idea Generator have assessed each other's project proposals anonymously. Each assessor made a ranking of the applications and wrote an explanation with each ranking. These substantive motivation texts were sent to the applicants. The NWO cannot disclose the texts to us, but we would like to learn from the comments that the applicants have received.

Did you submit an application to the Idea Generator that was not granted? We kindly ask you to share your experience with submitting the application and the result with the route management: Stella Blom, coordinator Art route
 (stella.blom@routekunstnwa.nl) or Janneke Wesseling, figurehead Art route (janneke.wesseling@routekunstnwa.nl).

We will, of course, treat the information confidentially and not share it with third parties without the permission of the applicant. If you, as reader of this message, know someone who made an application, could you please forward this request to him or her?