VENI-grant congratulation

I was happily surprised by a letter I received from the rector of the University of Amsterdam. If you click the image you can read it... well, if you speak Dutch. (For the few people out there who don't, it reads as follows:

Dear Mr. Grasman,

On behalf of the Board of Goveners I would like to congratulate you with your recently awarded "VENI-innovation impuls" application. The awardment of your application again shows that research that is conducted within our university is both nationally as well as internationally acknowledged.

I wish you good luck in conducting your research.

Sincerely,

prof. mr. P.F. van der Heijden, rector)

They even announced it on the UvA website, just like the research school and the Netherlands Science Foundation did. It made me realize that I didn't get anything like it from the Psychology department... Not even a single word from the very same person that brought flowers to congratulate Eric-Jan—whom I share a room with—with his VIDI-grant... Even when I expressed my surprise that apparently only VIDI-grant applicants received flowers... Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all bitter .

VENI Award

It is official and definite: I got a VENI-grant! That means getting paid for 3 years of self chosen work at a self chosen institution. Stated otherwise: € 208,000 for my own research... . Well, it is bound by a couple of if's and but's: The 'institution of my choice' holds actually as long as it is willing to accept me (...mmm ...let me think ...I think I will stay at the UvA), and I had to write down the work that I will do on before hand (grant proposal ...yep). Oh, and it has to start within 6 month of the award date (which will be August 1, 2006)... I hope I will be able to keep working on stochastic catastrophy theory, but that's a “luxury problem” I guess. I didn't get any flowers from the Pscyhology department though... A bit strange 2 years ago all VENI awarded researchers received flowers ('een bosje bloemen') in a vase, and this time apparently only the VIDI-awarded researchers got flowers... Anyway, “flowers are for girls” as Wery put it (he also didn't get flowers).