Current research projects:

• ‘Investing in “Welcoming Spaces” in Europe: Revitalising shrinking areas by hosting non-EU migrants’ (2020-2024)
  Funding: European Commission Horizon 2020 (2019)
  Co-Investigator and of the Dutch team (Project Coordinator), member of the overall Management Team with Annelies Zoomers, Bianca Szytniewski, Karin Geuijen, Marlies Meijer, and other team members from The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland. https://www.welcomingspaces.eu/
• Tackling the Corona and climate crises with vulnerable groups in risk-prone areas in Europe and Africa: Establishing a network of citizen-based learning labs for co-creating the conditions for a globally just energy transition.
  Funding: Seed grant (competitive) from the strategic theme Institutions for Open Societies (IOS), Utrecht University (2020)
  Co-Investigator, with Annelies Zoomers (Principal Investigator), and other team members.
• [COVID] Countering the Virus: Discrimination and protestation in multicultural Europe.
  Funding: Seed grant (competitive) from the research focus area Migration and Societal Change, Utrecht University (2020)
  Principal Investigator, with Rick Dolphijn and Özge Bilgili.
  Check out our short film on COVID-related discrimination: Covid19 doesn't discriminate
• ‘Development of a Master Degree programme: Democratic Governance and Human Rights (MsDemos&Rights)’ (2020-2023)
  Funding: Erasmus+ Key Action2 ‘Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education’ (2019)
  Co-Investigator, leader of the Dutch (Utrecht University) team (with Gery Nijenhuis, Tine Beneker and Annelies Zoomers). With colleagues from Greece, Lebanon, Morocco (Project Coordinator), Spain and Tunisia.
• ‘The Lives Of Deltas: Sustainability, Technology, And The Urban Imaginary’
  Pathways to Sustainability Acceleration Grant, Utrecht University (2019)
  For the development of the interdisciplinary Sustainability Leadership Program with colleagues at The University of Hong Kong. Co-Investigator with Rick Dolphijn (Principal Investigator).
• ‘Encounters in the field: a playful approach to the development of intercultural competences’
  NWO (The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) Comenius programme (2019)
  Member of the Utrecht University project team, with Gery Nijenhuis (Principal Investigator), and other team members from Utrecht University. https://www.nwo.nl/en/research-and-results/research-projects/i/27/33527.html

Selected completed projects:

• ‘Cross-border schooling: strategies and materialities of children’s educational mobilities’.
  Department of Human Geography and Planning Strategic Research Fund, Utrecht University (2018)
  Co-Principal Investigator, with UK Co-Principal Investigator Johanna Waters, University of Oxford.
• ‘Knowledge in migration: Deskilling and skill development among Indonesian care workers in the Netherlands’.
  Toyota Foundation Research Grant Program (2017)
  Principal Investigator, with Rika Theo and Yasmine Soraya
• ‘EduHubMig Knowledge migration flows in the United Arab Emirates: Mobile students enrolled at Indian and British branch campuses’
  Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships, European Commissions (2017) Project coordinator and supervisor of fellowship-holder Jill Ahrens.
  https://ec.europa.eu/knowledge4policy/projects-activities/eduhubmig-knowledge-migration-flows-education-hubs-mobile-students-enrolled_en
• ‘Lost in migration: A study of formal and informal institutions in producing and preventing ‘brain waste’ among migrants in the Netherlands’
  Seed grant (competitive) from the strategic theme Institutions for Open Societies (IOS), Utrecht University (2016)
  Co-Principal Investigator, with Gery Nijenhuis and Marcel Coenders.
• ‘Ethiopia: Feeder road development for inclusive productive employment’
  Productive Employment: Research for Inclusive Development in Sub-Saharan Africa, NWO (The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) WOTRO Science for Global Development (2014)
  Principal Investigator (with colleagues at Bureau of Construction, Road and Transport, Tigray Regional National State, Ethiopia; Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK; Mekelle University, Ethiopia; MetaMeta Research, NL; The Horn Economic and Social Policy Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia).
  https://www.nwo.nl/en/research-and-results/research-projects/i/98/12198.html
• China-Zambia knowledge mobility (PhD: Peter Schumacher)
  Aspasia research grant, NWO (The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) (2012). Principal grant holder and supervisor.
• Unravelling Indonesian Student Mobility to China : Politics, Identities, and Trajectories (PhD: Rika Theo)
  Aspasia research grant, NWO (The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) (2012). Principal grant holder and supervisor.
  http://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/364517
• ‘Transnational mobility, capital production and knowledge exchange: A study of research visits of Chinese scholars to Germany’.
  General Research Fund, Hong Kong Research Grants Council (2009-2011)
  Principal Investigator.
• ‘Industrial heritage in Hong Kong: A Pilot Study’.
  General Award, The Lord Wilson Heritage Trust (2009-2011)
  Principal Investigator.
• ‘Joint initiatives between UK and Hong Kong higher education institutions: An examination of student and employer perspectives’.
  Joint Research Grant, Economic and Social Research Council and Hong Kong Research Grants Council (2009-2011)
  Co-Principal Investigator (with Johanna Waters).
• ‘Refabricating the Hong Kong story: A study of industrial heritage and its valorization’.
  Hui Oi Chow Trust Fund, The University of Hong Kong (2008-2009)
  Principal Investigator (with Dietrich Soyez)
• ‘Transnational Chinese migrant businesses and Chinese out-bound tourism in Europe’.
  Humboldt Research Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany (2006-2007)
  Principal Investigator.