This call for proposals invites you to help strengthen the Twente region’s capacity to act toward a resilient water system. The focus is on learning together how fundamental system choices can be facilitated—and how these choices can subsequently be guided, legitimized, funded and implemented. Researchers and practitioners can jointly submit an application for up to €50,000 per project by September 22, 2026 (2:00 p.m. CET). There is funding available for up to ten applications.
Background
The regional water system in Twente is under pressure due to periodic water shortages, drought and increasing flooding. Climate change is exacerbating these problems. This is causing difficulties for residential areas, agriculture, industry and nature.
Choices that once contributed to a livable and economically strong region are now undermining the resilience of that same region. The existing system is designed to efficiently drain water but does not retain enough of it. Ecological damage, economic constraints and social vulnerability are some of the consequences, which in turn reinforce one another. The current approach to collaboration between science, policy and practice is proving insufficient for making fundamental systemic decisions. Twente faces major challenges.
What are we looking for?
Research projects that, within the framework of this call for proposals, contribute—through co-creation and a learning-by-doing approach—to our understanding of how organization, management and learning might take shape within a predominantly risk-averse and highly siloed system involving various actors. And to our understanding of how water and soil can actually become guiding factors in regional decision-making.
In order to arrive at fundamental system choices, this call for proposals requires researchers, practitioners, policymakers, creative professionals, civil society organizations, and/or companies to collaborate. By learning by doing and doing while learning, knowledge drawn from a broad range of expertise and perspectives can truly make a difference.
A research project can take many forms—ranging from disciplinary, visual, design-based, entrepreneurial, process-oriented and reflective to activist.
This call for proposals includes two subthemes for which applications may be submitted:
- Subtheme 1: System Choices
What are the substantive breakthroughs in the transition to a resilient soil system in which water and soil play a leading role?
- Subtheme 2: Transition, Governance, and Organization
How do we collectively organize change within a long-term, risk-averse system?
A detailed description of each subtheme and more information about this grant can be found in the information document ‘Knowledge in Action – Watertransition Twente’, which can be downloaded from the NWO website via this link.
Who can apply?
A key component of the Knowledge-in-Action grant is that we aim to foster collaboration between academia and the field. The call for proposals therefore challenges civil society organizations and researchers to develop concrete interventions through co-creation and a learning process.
Applications may be submitted by:
- Organizations in the field that are experimenting with the desired transition
- Researchers who want to apply knowledge to achieve transformative, societal impact
- Pioneers who are already working on (sustainable) alternatives
- Anyone who wants to connect academia and practice for climate transition
Applications must be submitted jointly by at least one research institution and one civil society organization.
How do you apply?
The KIN is part of NWO and uses NWO’s application system. Would you like to submit a proposal? Then please read carefully how to do so in 3 steps:
- Download the application form from the ISAAC online application system or from the NWO website (on the page for the relevant funding instrument)
- Fill out the application form; save the form as a PDF and submit it along with the required attachments in ISAAC
- Enter the information requested online in ISAAC
Need more information or have questions?
Do you have a question about this call for proposals? Or about the thematic focus?
Join one of the online information sessions. There is also a pop-up matchmaking event you can attend. Both the online sessions and the event will take place in June:
- June 25 (3:00–4:00 p.m.) via this link
- June 30 online pop-up matchmaking (9:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m.) tbc
- June 30 (11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.) via this link
You don’t need to register; you can join via the link at the time of the session. This is your chance to ask your specific question, listen to questions from others that you may not have thought of yet, or simply get some additional general information.
You can also email your question to programmas@hetkin.nl.
About the Knowledge-in-Action Grant
The Knowledge-in-Action grant mobilizes science and practice to support just climate transitions through learning by doing and doing while learning. Research institutions and civil society organizations can jointly apply for up to €50,000 for transformative, experimental intervention projects to collaboratively explore what the value of transition might look like: which solution pathways, research questions and transition learning objectives can accelerate the desired transition?
The call ‘Watertransition Twente: Toward a More Resilient Water System’ was developed and funded jointly by KIN and the partners of the Water Resilience Initiative (WRI): the Vechtstromen Water Board, the Municipality of Enschede, the Province of Overijssel and the Climate Center at the University of Twente (which also serves as the KIN Hub).