Amsterdam Cardiovascular Sciences

The ACS Postdoc grant aims to support talented early-career researchers to perform post-doctoral research at Amsterdam UMC or at another (inter)national institute. The grant aims to provide time to collect pilot data and write a (personal) research grant (e.g. Veni, Vidi, Dekker) and support a research line related to an ACS research program within Amsterdam UMC.

ACS Postdoc Grants of €150.000 are used for salary costs for up to 2-year fulltime projects (i.e. maximum 75k€ per year) for an early-career researcher. The post-doctoral scientist needs to be well-embedded in the research group of an ACS PI. All applicants should provide a clear view on how their research project and future application(s) add(s) to ACS and a specific research program of ACS. The grant money should be spent only on salary of the post-doc. Bench fee and additional costs should be provided by the supervising ACS PI or host department.

Application

The ACS Postdoc Grant 2026 call is now open!

To submit an application, please fill in the ACS Talent Grants Application form (link below) and send it to ACS@amsterdamumc.nl. The deadline for submission is Tuesday March 24, 17:00.

Please also include:

• A letter from the supervising PI/department chair confirming that the researcher is endorsed, and that bench fee, travel and extra expenses will be covered by the supervising ACS PI and/or department with a guarantee that this support will be provided for the full duration of the project.

Only applications that are eligible, complete, in the correct format and submitted before the deadline will be considered.

Eligibility requirements

There are three application options (please clearly indicate in the application form which option applies to you) for post-doctoral researchers who:

1. did a PhD or post-doc in Amsterdam UMC and now want to perform research elsewhere (in-out) OR
2. did their PhD or post-doc in Amsterdam UMC and want to perform research at Amsterdam UMC (in-in) OR
3. did a PhD or post-doc outside Amsterdam UMC and want to perform research at Amsterdam UMC (out-in)

For all three options, the following requirements hold:

• PhD needs to be obtained before the project starting date (provide date of PhD defense) and maximally 5 years after obtaining a PhD (We adhere to the NWOExtension clause(Extensieregeling) that gives applicants for personal grants additional time on grounds of care responsibilities, medical training, or sick leave. In case you want to use the extension clause, please contact us via email before Tuesday March 17.).
• The applicant does not has a permanent position at Amsterdam UMC.
• The applicant is not a Principal Investigator (PI).
• The applicant is an ACS member (in-out/in-in applications) or the supervising/supporting Amsterdam UMC PI is ACS member (out-in applications)*

*The applicant needs to be affiliated with ACS in PURE (in case of out-in applications: the host PI needs to be affiliated with ACS in PURE). Amsterdam UMC researchers can be affiliated with max. two research institutes and max. two programs per research institute.

Conditions

The following conditions should be met:

• The grant will only cover the salary of the post-doctoral researcher (Bench fee and additional costs should be provided by the supervising ACS PI or department)
• The project starts in 2026 (no later than 1 December 2025) and runs max 2 years
• The applicant is endorsed by, and will work in, the department of the supervising/supporting PI(in-in/out-in applications)
• The applicant is/will be an ACS member and embedded in at least one of the programs of the ACS research institute of Amsterdam UMC
• The application has a main focus on cardiovascular research and fits within one of the ACS Research Programs
• The applicant can only submit one ACS Talent Grant application per round, i.e. the applicant must choose, if applicable, between an ACS Postdoc or MD/PhD grant
• The applicant provides an overview of other grant applications related to this project, submitted and currently under review. The applicant may need to make a choice between this grant and other grants obtained in the event these grants are overlapping

Please contact ACS via acs@amsterdamumc.nl if you have questions regarding the conditions.

Requirements after obtaining the grant:

• All publications that are a result of this grant should mention ACS in the affiliation address. Please visit the ACS website for more information on the correct affiliation format.
• Within three months of the end of the project, the applicant informs ACS about the results of the project and the future perspectives.
• During or at the end of the project, the applicant can be asked to present or give an update about the project of his/hers application at an ACS event, for the ACS website or other communication channels
  

Criteria and selection

Your application will be judged on:

• Quality of the candidate based on CV (40%)
• Quality and innovative nature of the project that is fitting the applicants expertise (40%)
• Future perspective of the applicant and for funding (20%)

Selection procedure:

• Eligible and complete applications will be reviewed by three internal reviewers
• Based on the internal review reports, the ACS directorate selects applications for presentations
• A selection of applicants present their project during an interview stage for an committee composed of external and internal members.
• The ACS directorate will receive an advice form the committee and make the final decision of the awarding of the grant.
• If it appears that two or more applications cannot be distinguished from each other based on their weighted total score, then there is an ex aequo situation. In order to encourage the alignment with the ACS strategic mission, the application that best fits within the ACS research programs will be ranked highest.

Expected Timeline

Please note that the timeline below is subject to change.