The Veni grant is awarded by NWO every year. A total of 1,115 researchers submitted an admissible research proposal for funding. 154 of these have now been granted, including the proposals of UvA-Institute of Physics researchers Janne-Mieke Meijer en Matteo Biagetti. The grant consists of a maximum amount of €250.000 per proposal.

Big consequences of small defects

Janne-Mieke Meijer's research proposal was called Revealing big consequences of small defects. Defects can always occur in any crystalline material. Even the smallest defects can completely change the behaviour of the bulk crystal. To improve crystalline materials, Meijer will combine smart particles and new microscopy techniques to unravel how defects form, move and interact on the smallest scale.

Cosmic fingerprints

Matteo Biagetti's project is called Looking for cosmic fingerprints from billions of years ago. Billions of years ago, the Universe expanded exponentially, giving rise to countless spinning particles. Biagetti and his fellow researchers will look for imprints of those primordial particles in today’s astronomical observations, testing theories of cosmic expansion and opening a window to our early Universe.