Emergence at all scales consortium receives NWA ORC funding

The emergence at all scales consortium has been awarded funding within the Research on Routes by Consortia (ORC) programme line of the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA). The consortium is coordinated by the University of Amsterdam, and consists of multiple partners within the Utrecht University, amongst which the Freudenthal Institute.

The research consortium will focus on understanding emergence at all scales. From the terribly tiny to the cosmologically colossal. Asking questions like ‘’What are the building blocks of space, time and matter? Can we understand the mind-boggling variation in properties emerging when Lego is played with billions of fundamental particles, atoms, molecules and little chunks of materials?’’ Deep and fundamental questions that aim to discover the general laws of emergence, written in the language of mathematics. A journey spanning sixty-orders of magnitude that is run by citizen-scientists, artists, school-kids, and cool cocktail-mixologists.

The project will receive 7.1 million euros. Researchers within the Freudenthal Institute/UPAC will work together with other colleagues from the Utrecht University. The project carries a special impact factor. PhD students will work on the project; with guidance from the teacher education programme (Freudenthal Institute & ICLON) they will engage with and support teachers in secondary education and inspire students at secondary schools.  

NWA ORC projects are collaboration between researchers, knowledge partners and civil society organisations – a cooperation that ensures a combination of many different areas of expertise. To read more about the other projects awarded funding on the NWA route, review the website of the NWO here.