Eleven Utrecht researchers receive NWO subsidies from SSH Open Competition M programme
NWO has announced 59 allocations for the SSH Open Competition M programme: among them are eleven Utrecht researchers. The grants are meant to encourage experimentation and innovation and the projects last for a maximum of five years.
More information about the researchers and their projects:
Dr. Rense Corten (Social Sciences)
Behavioral sociology outside the lab: studying cooperation and cohesion with panel-based interactive experiments
Our ability to address societal crises is limited by a lack of understanding of the complex behavioral processes involved, in particular the interplay between social cohesion and cooperative behavior. This project addresses the methodological limitations faced by scholars and policymakers in evaluating the behavioral components of these complex dynamics, leveraging innovative infrastructure to run large-scale behavioral experiments within panel surveys. By combining the strengths of experimental research and surveys, we address limitations of traditional lab studies. The project will equip policymakers with a scientifically validated tool to evaluate policies aimed at resolving urgent societal issues.
Dr. Anne-Rigt Poortman and Dr. Anne Brons (Social Sciences)
Money in postdivorce families
Families play a crucial role in the redistribution of income and wealth. Partners pool income and assets, and parents make financial transfers to their offspring. However, in divorced families and stepfamilies, such resource redistribution is less straightforward. Partners in stepfamilies may be reluctant to pool their income and savings to preserve funds for their children from previous relationships. And parents may donate less to their adult children if they also have stepchildren. This project uses rich panel data, administrative data and new qualitative data to examine resource pooling and financial transfers to children across various postdivorce family types.
Dr. Helen Vossen (Social Sciences)
Redesigning Social Media: How social media platforms can make it harder and easier for young people to stop scrolling?
In collaboration with Sindy Sumter from the University of Amsterdam
Social media are purposely designed to keep young users hooked, often making them spend more time online than they actually want. To tackle this issue, we need theoretical insights and empirical evidence on the connection between how these platforms are designed and the problem of overuse. This project aims to pinpoint effective design elements that help teens take back control of their social media use.
Dr. Inge Wissink and Dr. Isabelle van der Vegt (Social Sciences)
Taking the Deep Dive: Understanding and Addressing Cyberhate
Many adolescents have experienced cyberhate, as witnesses, victims and/or perpetrators. This has profound negative effects on their wellbeing, and potentially lead to acts of violence and social fragmentation. This project examines who is vulnerable to cyberhate victimization and perpetration (Study 1), how it develops (Study 2), under what circumstances cyberhate becomes more likely (Study 3), and what can be done about it in schools (Study 4). The project's results will generate important new knowledge on the understudied topic of cyberhate, which can help generate solutions for preventing and solving this global issue. Dr Hanne Duindam is involved in the project as co-project leader.
Dr. Frans Adriaans (Humanities)
The discovery of two languages by bilingual infants
Many infants around the world grow up in a bilingual language environment. Bilingual infants have astonishing learning capabilities that allow them to learn the sound properties of two different languages in the first year of life. But how do infants discover the presence of two languages in their speech environment? This project will study how the sounds that infants hear at home guide their discovery of two languages. Taking a new approach, the project will collect and analyze bilingual infant-directed speech, test infants’ reliance on sound cues, and use computer models to simulate the learning of two languages from speech.
Dr. Carine van Rhijn (Humanities)
Author Unknown. Anonymous Knowledge in the Early Middle Ages (750-1000 CE)
In collaboration with Prof. dr. I. van Renswoude from the Huygens Instituut
How did people in the early Middle Ages engage with knowledge when a text’s author was unknown? While many anonymous works survive from this period, research has mostly centred on well-known authors, giving us a limited view of early medieval culture. This project seeks to bring these anonymous texts into the picture. By studying five early medieval library collections, we will look for patterns in how authorship was attributed and explore readers’ notes to see how anonymous knowledge was valued and used.
Dr. Kim Loyens and Dr. Lode De Waele (Recht, Economie, Bestuur en Organisatie)
The merits and limits of ethics practices in organisations: understanding their impact and unforeseen effects
Public organizations are increasingly required to implement integrity policies to promote ethical behaviour among civil servants and discourage unethical behaviour. These policies are becoming stricter and more repressive, yet few studies examine their effects. Three issues stand out: first, implementation and enforcement are often lacking, which can lead to cynicism. Second, policies are rarely tailored to the specific context. Third, an excessive focus on ethics can lead to negative effects, such as exclusion and a culture of fear. This mixed-methods study aims to provide more insight into the effects of integrity policies to prevent negative outcomes and encourage positive ones.
Kim Loyens: "This research is extremely important, because it is crucial to look beyond the good intentions of integrity policy. Using different methods, we will investigate what really works in a specific context and why. We also have an eye for unintended negative effects of integrity policy, such as demotivation, cynicism and a culture of fear. This allows us to help public organisations develop integrity policies that do justice to the complexity of work practice."
Lode De Waele: "Strengthening integrity is valuable, but not without considering certain trade-offs: the more you focus on control and compliance, the more you paradoxically increase the risk of distrust, rigidity and loss of humanity. Because of this alienation, we often see integrity problems increase. It is therefore not about more rules, but about the right balance between procedures and the people who work with them. It is precisely that balance that is often missing—and we want to change that with this research."
Dr. S.M. Labib (Geosciences)
Crisis Ready: More Than Just Backup Power
In collaboration with Dr. S. Hinrichs-Krapels from TU Delft
Healthcare systems depend on critical infrastructures—transport, energy, water, internet, and supply chains—essential for effective service delivery. While hospitals often prepare for isolated disruptions, the compounded risks of simultaneous events, particularly in climate-related disasters, are poorly understood. HEALTH-RES will investigate these interdependencies and their associated risks. This project will develop indicators to measure the impact of disruptions on care access and quality, promoting data collection for enhanced preparedness. By integrating co-design, health services research, and geospatial data analytics, with Dutch health organizations, HEALTH-RES aims to strengthen healthcare system resilience during crises.