Childcare Programme

Career setbacks resulting from reduced ability to travel can impact an entire career. Unfortunately, caring for children can be a major reason for women to miss important events at a crucial point in their work life.

Together with Women in Quantum Development (WIDQ), we want to enable women to attend (international) conferences and other work activities by giving the financial support for appropriate childcare arrangements.

Any mother from the Netherlands’ quantum ecosystem who needs help with childcare solutions in order to attend a quantum-related event or work activity in 2022 can apply for a grant.

For quantum technology to reach its next milestones, we need to invest in a growing, diverse pool of expertise. Unfortunately, women, and mothers in particular, face barriers that we believe can be tackled with creative solutions.

Quantum Delta NL and WIQD have joined forces to help mothers attend quantum-related events and work activities with the childcare pilot programme. The programme aims to remove an important barrier that prevents women from attending industry events or other work activities by providing funding for childcare.

You can send your application to communications@quantumdelta.nl as a PDF and include the following:

• Your name, email, affiliation, and the nature of your position

• A link to your homepage, or a brief CV

•  The proposed dates of travel

• An expense overview, including the total amount you are applying for

• A brief free-form explanation of how you will use the funding, and why this will benefit you.
  
  

Here is an example. Your proposal doesn’t need to follow this exact format.

Every parenting situation is different. Here are some scenarios that we want to support with a grant:

• A PhD student who wants to bring her baby to a conference, so that she can continue to breastfeed. She can apply for funding to fly her partner to the conference to take care of the child while she’s working.

• Two postdocs have a baby together and plan to attend the same conference. They can apply for funding to cover the cost of childcare arranged through their conference hotel so they can take the baby along.

• An assistant professor to a young child who’s invited to speak at a workshop abroad. She’s a single mother who lives in the Netherlands, but her extended family doesn’t. She asks for the financial means to fly a family member to the Netherlands to take care of her child while she is away.