eScience Center Lorentz Competition 2026: digital sovereignty in research
The eScience Center Lorentz Competition 2026 gives the winning team a 5 day workshop in Leiden and about 400 hours of research software engineering support. Expressions of interest are due 25 October 2026.
The eScience Center Lorentz Competition is a yearly call run by the Netherlands eScience Center and the Lorentz Center. The winner organises a workshop at the Lorentz Center in Leiden and gets research software engineering support from the eScience Center.
The 2026 theme is digital sovereignty in research. The organisers say research depends more and more on infrastructure it does not control, such as cloud providers, publishing platforms and foundation models. The call treats this as a research and engineering question: what a sovereign digital research setup would look like and what it takes to build and keep it going.
The winner gets a 5 day workshop for up to 25 people between September and December 2027. The package includes research software engineering support equal to about 400 hours, travel and accommodation reimbursements, no registration fees and organisational support from the Lorentz Center.
The organisers look for an innovative research problem with a clear need for eScience Center engineering skills, and an open, interactive format with few lectures. The organising team needs at least one scientific organiser based in the Netherlands and one outside it, and at least one from academia and one from the public or private sector.
To apply, send a one page expression of interest to competition@lorentzcenter.nl by 25 October, using the template on the call page. The shortlist follows at the end of November. Full proposals go through the Lorentz Center online portal by 28 January 2027, and the final decision comes in April 2027.
Quick answers
Is the prize paid in cash?
No. The winner gets a workshop at the Lorentz Center, travel and accommodation reimbursements, and engineering support from the eScience Center.
What happens after the expression of interest?
A shortlist is announced at the end of November. Shortlisted teams meet the Lorentz Center and an eScience Center engineer in early December and then send a full proposal by 28 January 2027.