Overview of incentive schemes for educational innovation

• Comenius Programme

  The Comenius programme enables lecturers to put their vision of education (innovation) into practice. By visibly valuing excellent and inspired teaching, the government explicitly wants to contribute to more varied careers of teachers and researchers at colleges and universities.

  Three scholarships exist within the programme:

  • Comenius Teaching Fellow: for education professionals with at least two years of teaching experience who want to innovate at course level. The project runs for 18 months and the maximum grant is €50,000. There is no limit to the number of applications that can be submitted for a Teaching Fellow.
    
    Link towards the call for proposals for the Teaching Fellows of 2027 will follow soon.
  • Comenius Senior Fellow: for education professionals with at least five years of teaching experience who want to innovate at programme or faculty level. The project runs for a maximum of 30 months and the maximum grant is €100,000. One application for a Senior Fellow may be submitted per faculty. Enquire about the internal procedure at your faculty.
    
    Link towards the call for proposals for the Senior Fellows of 2027 will follow soon.
  • Comenius Leadership Fellow: for education professionals with at least seven years of teaching experience who will set up and implement an interfaculty project or an institution-level project. The maximum duration is 42 months and the maximum grant is €500,000. One application for a Leadership Fellow may be submitted per educational institution.
    
    Link towards the call for proposals for the Leadership Fellow of 2027 will follow soon.

  Comenius Teaching Fellows and Senior Fellows 2027 - Themes and deadlines

  Applications for Comenius Teaching Fellows and Senior Fellows must be submitted to the NKO within one of the four themes. The themes for 2027 will follow later.

  The deadlines for the Teaching Fellows are as follows:

  (Guideline from last year, new dates still pending)

  Date	What	Who
  To be announced.	Deadline: submission statements of intent	Main applicant
  To be announced.	Deadline: submission pre-proposals	Main applicant
  To be announced.	Deadline: submission full proposals	Main applicant

  The deadlines for the Senior Fellows are as follows:

  Date	What	Who
  To be announced.	Deadline: submission statements of intent	Main applicant
  To be announced.	Deadline: submission pre-proposals	Main applicant
  To be announced.	Deadline: submission full proposals	Main applicant

  Comenius Leadership Fellow 2027 - internal pre-selection process VU Amsterdam

  As only 1 Leadership Fellow proposal may be submitted per educational institution, the VU uses an internal nomination round within the VU. In this internal nomination round, the VU jury Comenius & Dutch Education Award decides which application is most suitable to submit. Interested teams may submit a draft application to their faculty.

  Please note: Each faculty is allowed 1 submission for the VU internal selection process. The Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities are an exception and may make 2 submissions each. As each faculty is only allowed a limited number of submissions for the VU-wide internal selection procedure, it is important that those who are interested make their intention to apply known to their faculty. In case of multiple applicants, the faculty will ultimately decide who will be submitted for the VU-wide internal pre-selection procedure.

  The faculties will submit their chosen draft application to ctlrecognize@vu.nl no later than the 26th of May 2026. The VU jury Comenius & NOP will assess the draft applications and decide who will be nominated to the NRO on behalf of the VU. The winner will then be given time to develop the draft application into a final application and will receive support for this from the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL).

  Planning and procedure from the VU Amsterdam

  Below is the schedule for the internal pre-selection process and support from VU Amsterdam for the Comenius Leadership Fellow of 2027.

  Date	What	Who
  End of February 2026	Call for submission of draft applications by coordinators and to faculty boards/KIK. Interested parties can contact the CTL for substantive	CTL
  March-May 2026	Start disseminating information within faculties - start substantive advice CTL.	Faculties c.c. CTL
  26 May 2026	Deadline for submission of draft applications. Draft applications are submitted to coordinators Education Awards from the CTL.	CTL
  Mid-June 2026	Jury deliberation: preliminary discussion, announcement of shortlist	VU jury Comenius & NOP
  End June 2026	Jury deliberations: Chaired by Chief Education Officer	VU jury Comenius & NOP
  Early July 2026	Coordinatiors Education Awards communicate results of jury deliberations to candidates.	CTL
  31 August 2026, before 14:00 hours	Deadline: leader of selected team submits letter of intent via NRO's electronic portal (ISAAC).	Leader selected team
  From 1 September - mid-October 2026	Winning team develops draft application with help from CTL.	CTL
  First week of October 2026	Agreement on nomination letter by rector magnificus.	CTL
  19 October 2026, before 14:00 hours	Deadline: Leader of winning team submits final application via NRO's electronic portal (ISAAC).	Leader selected team c.c. CTL
  End of January 2027	Follow-up: applicant receives preliminary advice from NRO, drafts rebuttal, and links back to coordinators Education Awards.	Leader selected team c.c. CTL
  End of April 2027	Follow-up: applicant receives notification from NRO and links back to coordinators Education Awards: invited for interview or not?	Leader selected team c.c. CTL
  May 2027	Follow-up: Applicant receives decision from NRO and links back to coordinators Education Award: awarded grant or not awarded?	Leader selected team c.c. CTL

  Guidelines for draft applications Comenius Leadership Fellow

  When submitting the nomination, one provides a completed draft application form. This form is based on - and contains the main elements of - the 2025 NRO official nomination form. The draft application form can be developed by the winner into a complete application after the publication of the new call for proposals and the new 2026 official nomination form. 

  Click here to download the draft application form. Note of importance: since the final application to the NRO for the Comenius Leadership Fellows has to be written in English, this form is only available in English.

  More information and guidance on your application 

  Do you need help while you're writing your proposal for a Teaching or Senior Fellow? Or do you want to know how to make your draft application for the internal selection procedure for the Leadership Fellow as successful as possible? If so, please contact Silvester Draaijer (silvester.draaijer@vu.nl) and Janneke Waelen (j.waelen@vu.nl) of the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) for substantive advice. For more information on the VU's internal selection procedure and the NRO's external selection procedure, contact Amrita Das and Syreen Arens, coordinators of the Education Awards (ctlrecognize@vu.nl).

  Earlier Comenius fellowships acquired by the VU can be found on this page.

• Dutch Education Award

  The Dutch Education Award (Nederlandse Onderwijspremie in Dutch) is the highest award in secondary vocational education and higher education. The award is given to education teams in appreciation of, and as an impetus for, educational innovation and improvement in secondary vocational, higher vocational and university education. Each educational institution may nominate one teaching team.

  Link towards the call for proposals for the Dutch Education Award of 2026 will follow soon.

  Read the call for proposals for the Dutch Education Award of 2025 here.

  Duration and budget

  The premium is awarded annually to teaching teams that have developed an initiative over the past six years that has led to improvement in education.

  The premium totalling €7.5 million will be divided between three teams from secondary vocational education (€2.5 million), three teams from higher vocational education (€2.5 million) and three teams from academic education (€2.5 million).

  The breakdown is as follows:

  • The first prize of the Dutch Education Award is €1.2 million;
  • the second prize is 800 thousand euros;
  • the third prize is 500 thousand euros.

  The Dutch Education Award of 2027

  As each educational institution is allowed to nominate 1 teaching team, VU uses an internal selection procedure.

  Please note: Each faculty is allowed 1 submission for the VU internal selection process. The Faculty of Science is an exception and may make 2 submissions. It is therefore important that interested teams make their intention to submit an application known to their faculty. In case of multiple applicants, the faculty will ultimately decide which team will be submitted for the VU-wide internal selection procedure.

  Interested teams may submit a draft application to their faculty. Faculties may then submit the draft application of their choice to ctlrecognize@vu.nl until Monday 26 May. The VU Comenius/NOP jury will then consider the draft applications and will meet in mid-June to pre-discuss the draft applications. Based on the preliminary discussion,  a winner will be designated. The winning team will have until October to develop the draft application into a final application, and can count on support from the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL).

  Procedure from the VU

  Below is the schedule for the internal pre-selection procedure and support from the VU. Please note: The planning below is a preliminary planning based on the deadlines from last year's call for proposals. Therefore, please note that the schedule below may change after publication of the new call for proposals.
  
  
  TABEL HIER
  

  Guidelines for draft applications

  When submitting the nomination, one provides a completed draft application form. This form is based on - and contains the main elements of - the 2026 NRO official nomination form. The draft application form can be developed by the winner into a complete application after the publication of the new call for proposals and the new 2027 official nomination form. 

  Click here to download the draft application form.
  Please note: as complete applications for Comenius Leadership Fellows can only be submitted to the NRO in English, this form is only available in English.

  More information or help needed?

  • Teaching / Senior Fellow: strengthen your application during the interactive writing sessions. For personal guidance and up-to-date information about the selection process (senior fellow) and external procedure at the NKO, please contact Hilde Remmers (h.t.remmers@vu.nl). 
  • Leadership Fellow: would you like to maximise the chances of your application being successful? Please contact Janneke Waelen (j.waelen@vu.nl, director of the VU Centre for Teaching & Learning) and Silvester Draaijer (silvester.draaijer@vu.nl, programme manager at the VU Centre for Teaching & Learning). They will be happy to help you formulate a strong application. 
  • Process & procedure
    For more information about the internal selection procedure at VU Amsterdam and the external selection procedure at the NKO, please contact Amrita Das and Syreen Arens, Education Awards coordinators (ctlrecognize@vu.nl).

  Previously awarded Comenius grants by VU University Amsterdam can be found on this page.