Vidi grant awarded to Sebastian Lequime

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded a Vidi grant of up to €850,000 to Sebastian Lequime. With this grant, he can develop his own innovative research plans and establish his own research group.

Vidi grants are intended for experienced researchers who have been conducting successful research for some years after gaining a PhD. Alongside the Veni and Vici grants, the Vidi grant is part of the NWO Talent Programme. Within this programme, researchers are free to submit their own topics for funding. In total, 778 researchers submitted their research proposals in the hope of acquiring funding during this round of Vidi applications. 149 of these proposals were honoured. This round, NWO has been able to grant additional funds to honor more high-quality proposals. This enables NWO to give talented researchers a helping hand in times of cutbacks in research and science.

How do viruses evolve when they are not alone?

Dr. Sebastian Lequime (FSE - GELIFES)

The rise of viral outbreaks and pandemics underscores the urgent need to understand viral evolution to better prevent and manage viruses' impact on human and animal health. Most studies overlook that viruses often co-infect hosts alongside other viruses and endogenous viral elements—viral genetic remnants embedded in host genomes. How these factors influence viral evolution remains unclear, despite their potential role in shaping epidemic dynamics and drug resistance. This project investigates the role of co-infections and endogenous viral elements in viral evolution, using an experimental model.