In November 2025, the National Research Foundation of Ukraine (NRFU) and the Dutch Research Council (NWO) launched the second round of the “NWO Hop-On Call for Researchers Based in Ukraine” within the framework of the NWO–NRFU partnership initiative.
This initiative offers ongoing NWO projects the opportunity to add a qualified researcher from Ukraine to their project team. The initiative is intended to support Ukrainian researchers in expanding their professional network within the Dutch academic world. Project teams can contribute with advice, mentorship and other forms of guidance.
This is the second grant round within the collaborative initiative between the institutions. In the first grant round held in 2023, 13 projects were awarded a total of € 250,000.
With an increased budget of € 480,000, this round offers new opportunities for knowledge exchange and strengthening scientific partnerships.
As a result of the competitive selection, held in 2025, 20 Ukrainian researchers were selected as successful applicants and joined the funded NWO projects, which will be implemented in partnership with colleagues from the Netherlands.
The selected projects stand out for their interdisciplinary scope and address a wide range of pressing scientific and societal challenges – spanning advanced materials, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and medical technologies, as well as climate resilience, social transformations, archaeology, and philosophy.
The geographical reach of this collaboration is equally significant. The call has brought together researchers from leading universities and research institutions across the Netherlands and Ukraine, highlighting a strong and diverse network of academic partnerships and a shared commitment to advancing international scientific cooperation.
Distribution of winning projects by geography
Representation of Ukrainian institutions in winning projects
List of Funded Projects
- Bringing molecules together: Photoredox chemistry squeezed into small pores
Principal investigators: Dr. B. Baumgartner (University of Amsterdam) & Dr. O. Kulyk (State Scientific Institution “Institute for Single Crystals” of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).
- Safety solutions for autonomous vehicle integration in urban mobility: efficient and reliable acting in an uncertain and unreliable world
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. S.M. Bohté (CWI – Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica) & Pprof. Dr. A. Popov (Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute).
- CaRe-NLP: Human-Centric and Responsible NLP methods for Dutch healthcare
Principal investigators: Dr. I. Coimbra Alvas Cavalcanti Calixto (Amsterdam UMC) & Dr. O. Turuta (V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University).
- Working Democracy. A philosophy of work for democratic societies
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. L.M. Herzog (University of Groningen) & Dr. T. Stepura (Lviv Polytechnic National University).
- ANION: Advanced nano-electrochemistry Institute of the Netherlands
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. M.T.M. Koper (Leiden University) & Prof. Y. Kalyuzhnyi (Yuknovskii Institute for Condensed Matter Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).
- MetaFlow: Phononic subsurfaces for controlling flow and reducing flow-induced vibrations
Principal investigators: Dr. A.O. Krushynska (University of Groningen) & Dr. Y. Zagumennyi (Institute of Hydromechanics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).
- Hop ON – Resilient Hydro Twin Project: Flood resilience through participatory Digital Twins
Main applicants: dr. R. Kuttantharappel Soman (Delft University of Technology) & Prof. Y. Dorofieiev (National Technical University, Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute).
- Intelligent Wastewater Treatment: Distributed Digital Twin for Clean Water (DDTclean)
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. A. Lazovik (University of Groningen) & Dr. O. Melnikov (National Technical University, Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute).
- The Ruisdael Observatory for atmospheric science: collaboration with Kyiv Aviation Institute
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. H.W.J. Russchenberg (Delft University of Technology) & Dr. O. Pitertsev (State University Kyiv Aviation Institute).
- Foundations of stochastic partial differential equations
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. M.C. Veraar (Delft University of Technology) & Prof. Dr. A. Murach (Institute of Mathematics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).
- Senior Expert Better Diets and Nutrition: Sociological consumption perspectives for inclusive sustainability governance
Principal investigators: Dr. S.C.O. Wertheim-Heck (Wageningen University & Research) & Dr. M. Ruda (Department of Environmental Safety and Nature Protection, Lviv Polytechnic National University).
- The language and argumentation of Russian propaganda
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. E.L.J. Fortuin (Leiden University) & Dr. V. Grekov PhD (National Science Center, Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology).
- Materials also need sleep – Next generation of High-performance and Sustainable Composite Materials
Principal investigators: Dr. M. Fotouhi (TU Delft) & Dr. V. Zhitkovsky (National University of Water and Environmental Engineering (NUWEE)).
- Precision medicine for agriculture: harnessing peptide-producing microbiota for sustainable crop protection
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. M.H. Medema (Wageningen University & Research) & Dr. O.M. Gromyko (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv).
- Drivers for infection dynamics and spread of zoonotic flaviviruses in wild bird reservoirs
Principal investigators: Dr. R.S. Sikkema (Erasmus MC) & Dr. N. Muzyka (National Scientific Center “Institute of the Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine”).
- Neandertal Legacy. Contacts and interactions in Europe 40,000 years ago
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. M.A. Soressi (Leiden University) & Dr. V. Stepanchuk (Institute of archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).
- Ageing Right Care(fully) – a system approach to understanding, redesigning and futuring integrated care for older adults ageing in place in the Netherlands, Israel and Sweden
Principal investigators: Dr. J.L. Sturge (University of Twente) & Dr. O.O. Filipets (Bukovinian State Medical University).
- Restoring balance: Specialized Proresolvin mediators for resolution of Inflammation and Vascular Repair in humans at high cardiovascular risk – RESPIN-VAR
Principal investigators: Dr. M.M.J. van Greevenbroek (Maastricht University) & Dr. M. Cherska (Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Ukrainian Academy of Medical Sciences, Kyiv).
- Cyber-criminology and Cybersecurity: Bridging divides through an empirical case study of hacking
Principal investigators: Dr. M. Weulen Kranenbarg (VU Amsterdam) & Dr. Y. Zavhorodnia National University Odesa Law Academy).
- A new in situ NMR method for understanding lithium-mediated ammonia synthesis
Principal investigators: Dr. E.W. Zhao (Radboud University) & Dr. V.I. Ruzaikin (O. M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv).
The National Research Foundation of Ukraine expresses its sincere gratitude to the Dutch Research Council and PIs of NWO funded-projects for their support of this initiative, their openness to international cooperation, and their consistent efforts to expand opportunities for Ukrainian researchers. We highly value this partnership which contributes to strengthening scientific ties between Ukraine and the Netherlands and to the development of joint research projects.
