Density functional calculations are employed to simulate the deposition of an isolated Ni atom and a Ni10 particle on the stoichiometric and reduced anatase TiO2 (101) and tetragonal ZrO2 (101) surfaces. The main purpose of this work is to study the modification of the electronic structure of the oxide induced by the metal, aiming at the understanding of the physical properties of new catalysts for biomass conversion. When the adsorption of a Ni atom takes place on stoichiometric surfaces, no major charge transfer is observed. On reduced titania, and more pronouncedly on reduced zirconia, the Ni atom is negatively charged, provided that the vacancy is in direct contact with the adsorbed metal atom. For Ni10, on titania the bonding is dominated by the hybridization of the metal and the oxide states but we did not find evidence for a direct reduction of the oxide via formation of Ti3 + states. For Ni10 on zirconia, the metal particle is positively charged on the stoichiometric surface and negatively charged on the reduced one but, again, there is no indication of a direct reduction of the oxide. Finally, the reverse oxygen spillover is considered as a possible route to reduce the oxide support. The result is that Ni10 promotes oxygen spillover on titania almost spontaneously, while on zirconia this process is thermodynamically unfavourable.