Vici Grant for Willem Frankenhuis

Max Planck Researcher receives prestigious grant from Dutch Research Council

Willem Frankenhuis has been awarded a Vici grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The criminologist and psychobiologist will receive funding for his research project on mental abilities in stressful environments. 

Willem Frankenhuis, Professor of Evolutionary Psychobiology at the University of Amsterdam and Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, is the recipient of a Vici grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

The grant supports his research project entitled “Mental abilities in stressful environments”. This project investigates how stressful upbringings can negatively impact development and learning, while also examining how individuals may develop adaptive and sometimes enhanced mental abilities in response to such challenging conditions.

Previous research has shown that specific task contents—such as money—can either enhance or impair performance in individuals from stressful environments. Through specially designed tasks that reveal both positive and negative effects on performance, Willem’s current project will explore how task content influences three key cognitive abilities essential for goal-directed thinking and action: attention, memory, and inhibition. The results will inform innovative applications in education, policy-making, and intervention strategies.

About Vici:
Vici is one of the largest personal scientific grants in the Netherlands and is aimed at advanced researchers. The funding instrument enables scientists to develop their own innovative line of research and set up their own research group. In 2025, 39 of 384 proposed research projects received a Vici grant. Each researcher receives a maximum of €1.5 million from NWO.