Scholarships Source

The Netherlands Fellowship Programmes (NFP) are demand oriented fellowship programmes designed to foster institutional development. The NFP target group consists of mid-career professionals who are already in employment and who are nationals of and working in one of the selected countries.

The overall aim of the NFP is to help alleviate qualitative and quantitative shortages of skilled manpower and to do so within the framework of sustainable capacity-building directed towards reducing poverty in developing countries.

To maximize the fellowships’ impact on capacity-building, NFP funded training must be linked to the institutional development of organizations. A wide range of organizations are eligible – governmental, private and non-governmental. They can include educational institutions, planning agencies, ministries, community-based organizations, and private enterprises, for example.

The NFP is initiated and fully funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the budget for development cooperation. This ministry has contracted the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education (Nuffic) to administer the NFP.

Download the brochure The Netherlands Fellowship Programmes (NFP) 2009 (855 kB)

Target group

While fellowships are awarded to individuals, the need for training must occur within the context of the organization for which an applicant works. The training must help the organization to develop its capacity. This means that applicants must be nominated by their employers. In fact, an application without the support of an employer will not be considered.

Half of the available funding from the NFP budget should be spent on fellowships for female candidates and for candidates from sub-Saharan Africa.

NFP sub-programmes

The NFP offers the following options:
Individual fellowships for:
– short courses
– master’s degree programmes
– PhD studies

Group training:
– refresher courses
– tailor-made training courses

taken from: http://www.nuffic.nl/nederlandse-organisaties/services/capacity-building/nfp