Netherlands' €50M Tulp Fund lures 34 top researchers, 29 tied to the US

The Dutch government’s newly created Tulp Fund has awarded its first grants, bringing 34 senior researchers to Dutch institutions. Of those, 29 currently come from or work in the United States — including people at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Yale, and federal bodies like the National Cancer Institute. The mix is largely Americans plus Europeans looking to return, with a handful more coming from Israel, Turkey, the UK, and Singapore. The fund was set up in 2025 by the education ministry (OCW) and research council (NWO) explicitly in response to academic freedom coming under pressure abroad, while also treating the inflow as a boost to Dutch innovation.

Financially, OCW put in €25 million and NWO matched it for €50 million total. Institutions — universities, medical centers, and universities of applied sciences — nominate candidates whose credentials must rank well above their international peer group, and each successful nomination brings up to €1 million over five years, with wide latitude in how the money is spent. Although the fund is formally open to any researcher working outside the EU, EEA, and Switzerland, the ministry acknowledges its strong pull on US-based scientists drawn to Europe’s academic climate. Further awards are planned for 2027 within the current budget.

The recruited researchers cover strategically framed fields: AI, quantum, vaccines (pitched as pandemic resilience and European autonomy), nuclear energy toward 2040 carbon-neutral electricity, plus cancer, mental health, Alzheimer’s, artificial organs, climate, food, astrophysics, and democracy. Officials frame the effort as reducing dependence on other countries and strengthening Dutch and European competitiveness — part of a broader European trend, with comparable schemes already running in Germany and France.