Call for small proposals: Let’s build resilience together!
Deadline: 1 July 2026 (or until funds are exhausted)
Resilience is a collective effort to adapt, innovate and thrive in the face of challenges. From global supply chain disruptions to climate-induced stresses, the need for resilient systems has never been clearer. At 4TU.Resilience Engineering (4TU.RE), we’re inviting you to join us in creating real-world impact through small-scale projects, up to €10,000. Whether you’re an academic, practitioner, or policymaker, your ideas can help shape a more resilient future.
Who Can Apply?
We believe collaboration drives change. That’s why:
- Lead applicants must be 4TU members (PI).
- Co-applicants can include non-4TU partners, e.g., universities, universities of applied sciences (HBO in Dutch), or industry stakeholders.
- Requirements: Each proposal must include at least one 4TU staff member and one non-4TU co-applicant, with a clear connection to resilience.
- Limits: A maximum of 1 awarded proposal per PI and 3 total as (co-)applicant to ensure broad participation.
Funding ideas
With up to €10,000, you can turn ideas into action. Here are some examples of ideas that we would consider:
- Workshops or networking events to connect stakeholders.
- Educational materials or summer schools to inspire the next generation.
- Data collection (e.g., from the Global South) or experiments to address real-world challenges.
- Temporary support, e.g., hiring MSc students or facilitators.
- Travel for external guests to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue.
Note: Funding cannot be used for academic staff salaries or extending PhD/Postdoc contracts.
Proposal Focus:
In light of our understanding of resilience, your project should align with 4TU.RE's core goals:
Build and Strengthen Our Transdisciplinary Community
Our goal is to grow our community in terms of size, connectedness, and influence. We will create diverse opportunities for a wide range of individuals – including MSc students, EngD and PhD candidates, early-career and senior researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from various disciplines and geographical backgrounds – to connect, learn from one another, and find inspiration.
Advance scientific knowledge
Our goal is to facilitate scientific progress alongside societal innovation. Through interaction and dialogue with societal stakeholders, we will develop and test methodological toolkits and knowledge to enhance resilience thinking in design and engineering, measure resilience over time and space, and improve resilience coordination and governance.
Innovate practice
Our goal is to support stakeholders who seek to improve security by making complex systems more resilient. Our focus is on urban, food, water, energy, transport and supply chain systems. We educate students and provide practical and strategic expertise and support stakeholders, for example, in identifying opportunities and trade-offs for improving resilience.
What Should You Deliver?
We’re looking for tangible, realistic outputs that create lasting value. Potential outputs could be:
- A workshop with actionable outcomes.
- A video or toolkit for the 4TU.RE website and/or other platforms.
- A serious game to engage stakeholders or schools.
Be creative and realistic; all outputs should be open-source or justified if not possible.
Evaluation Criteria
Proposals will be reviewed based on:
- Fit with 4TU.RE’s mission: societal impact + community-building.
- Clarity of impact: scientific, educational, or societal.
- Feasibility: budget and timeline.
We strongly recommend to involve (external) stakeholders in your proposal.
Timeline: Key Dates
- Submission opens: 31 March 2026.
- Rolling reviews: Submit anytime - we will try and respond within three weeks.
- Project completion: All invoices must be submitted by 1 December 2026. All output must be made available by 15 December 2026 latest.
Ready to Collaborate?
Your ideas can spark change! Submit your two-page proposal (10pt Verdana) by 1 July 2026 via 4tu-re-secretariat@utwente.nl. Let’s work together to build resilience for a better tomorrow.