appeals

objection

Pursuant to the General Administrative Law Act, an interested party may appeal the decision on the grant application. As a grant applicant, you are automatically an interested party. The General Administrative Law Act has made the appeals procedure compulsory as a preliminary stage before going to the administrative court. If you want to lodge an appeal, you can send a letter of appeal addressed to the Fund’s board. The Fund has a permanent independent advisory committee that advises the board on appeals. This appeals committee is appointed by the board, but issues independent advice to the Fund.

The appeals committee reviews the formal and procedural grounds for the Fund’s decision. The committee checks whether all the applicable regulations were followed correctly and whether the decision and the motivation given are clear. In other words: the content of the application is not re-evaluated. The appeals procedure is included in the various grant schemes implemented by the Fund. A couple of elements are discussed below. If you want more information about the regulations applicable to the appeals procedure, please contact the appeals committee’s secretariat. We will gladly assist you if you send us a message via bezwaren@stimuleringsfonds.nl.

appeal

An interested party may submit a letter of appeal to the Fund’s board. If you are the applicant, then you are automatically an interested party. The letter of appeal will be forwarded to the appeals committee. The appeal must be submitted no later than six weeks after the decision taken by the Fund’s board. The Fund works with a digital application system. The date on which the decision is made available to the applicant in this system, will count as the start date of the six-week appeal term. The letter of appeal may be sent signed, also digitally, by email to bezwaren@stimuleringsfonds.nl. The letter of appeal is addressed to the Fund’s board and at least contains:
- the name and address of the objector (the person lodging the appeal);
- the date;
- a description of the decision and the aspect which is being appealed or objected to;
- the grounds for the appeal or objection.

hearing

If you want, you may explain your objection in person during a hearing. In consultation with the objector, the Fund and the committee, the appeals committee’s secretariat will suggest a date for the hearing.

The secretariat collects the relevant data for the hearing. Interested parties may add documents to the case file up to ten days before the hearing. The Fund will write a response to the notice of objection prior to the hearing. This response will be shared with the objector no later than ten days before the hearing. Interested parties will be invited to attend no later than three weeks prior to the hearing. The members of the hearing committee will be listed in the invitation letter.

The hearing committee interviews the objector and a Fund employee in each other’s presence. The hearing committee gives the interested party the opportunity to further explain the appeal and asks questions to both the Fund and the objector. A hearing takes about 45 minutes. The hearing will be concluded with the question of whether all the appeal’s aspects have been discussed and whether the objector wants to say anything else.

audio recording

Sometimes the secretary makes an audio recording (without visuals) of the hearing. This recording serves as a tool for writing the advice or the decision on the appeal. At the start of the hearing, the chair will announce whether a recording is going to be made. If somebody objects to this, the recording will not be made. If the decision on the appeal is recorded, you may ask for the recording of the hearing.

Perhaps you want to make a recording of the hearing yourself. Please discuss this at the start or prior to the hearing, so that others present, the committee members and the secretary are aware of this. Unless there are compelling reasons not to do so, making a recording is permitted. Please note: you have to share the recording of the hearing with the parties present if they request this, so that they can also listen to the hearing again.

You are not permitted to share a recording with others or publish the entire recording or part of it, for example on a website or on social media. The Fund will not share the recording with third parties. The Fund will only do so if those that can be heard on the audio recording consent to publication. When you ask for consent, you must clearly state whether it concerns the entire recording or fragments of it.

duty of the appeals committee

Based on the case file and the hearing, the appeals committee will formulate an advice for the board. This advice will include a summary of the points of view of both the objector and the Fund. The board will decide on the appeal based on this advice. The advice and the decision on the appeal will be sent to you as the objector. At an interested party’s request, for instance yours as the objector or the board’s, the committee will make the audio recording of the hearing available. The audio recording will form part of the appeals file.

advisory committee for appeals:

mr. G.A.J.A. Trapman (chair)
mr. P.M. Bloemers
mr. C. Hakbijl
mrs. C. Sitaram
mrs. A. Verstegen

secretary: Anselm van Sintfiet
deputy secretary: Annique Deneer
deputy secretary: Sean Gilis
deputy secretary: Chloë Neeleman

questions

For more information about the appeals procedure you can contact us via bezwaren@stimuleringsfonds.nl.

revised application

you do not wish to raise an objection regarding the procedure followed but believe that your application did not come out well enough in the assessment and you can put forward new facts and circumstances that may affect your application, or if you wish to adjust your application in response to a negative decision, you may submit a revised application once under certain grant schemes of the Fund. Read more here about submitting a revised application.