Colonial Collections Consortium

NWO call now open

The expertise of researchers from countries of origin is crucial for the study of objects and collections from a colonial context present in Dutch museums. Partly as a result of these issues, a new call for proposals has now been developed within programme line 2 of the NWA (‘National Science Agenda’): ‘Research on collections with a colonial context’.

This call for proposals was commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, following the recommendations in the advisory report of the Advisory Committee on the National Policy Framework for Colonial Collections. This report indicated, among other things, that the countries of origin would like to cooperate in the research on collections with a colonial context.

In drafting the call, partners and researchers from different countries (including Suriname, South Africa and Sri Lanka, for example) and parts of the Kingdom were consulted, and a scoping workshop was organised with the Indonesian Agency for Research and Innovation to ensure that the call also reflected their wishes and priorities. All these discussions revealed that there is a need for two different types of research. This call for proposals aims to meet this need.

Aim of the call

Two types of research are possible under this call for proposals.

  • The first type of grant involves research in which researchers from the countries of origin carry out short-term research (research exchange) in the collections of Dutch museums and institutions. This could include short-term provenance research, for example;
  • The other type of grant is for larger projects that aim to create sustainable networks (consortium grant). This type of grant can be used to set up a comprehensive programme of research and exchange between a country of origin and (European) the Netherlands, including activities such as setting the agenda and obtaining an overview of the objects in the collections, researching the provenance and significance of the collections throughout history and in contemporary society, and how knowledge about these collections and objects can be made accessible.

Both types of research will be led by scholars from the countries of origin or special municipalities.