For best experience please turn on javascript and use a modern browser!
You are using a browser that is no longer supported by Microsoft. Please upgrade your browser. The site may not present itself correctly if you continue browsing.
Physicists Janne-Mieke Meijer and Matteo Biagetti both received an NWO Veni grant. The grant provides the laureates with the opportunity to further develop their own ideas for a period of three years.
Janne-Mieke Meijer and Matteo Biagetti. Photo: UvA

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.