Promising young researchers receive Veni grant to further develop their data-driven research

The Dutch Research Council  (NWO) has awarded a Veni grant up to 250,000 euros to 24 highly promising young scientists from Utrecht University, UMC Utrecht, the NIOZ and the Hubrecht Institute. At least four of the awarded projects are ‘driven by data’. The researchers that proposed the projects show the broad scope of data-driven research: from combining machine learning with pedagogics, to developing new techniques to make Artificial Intelligence systems understand human language.

Veni offers promising young scientists the opportunity to further develop their own research ideas for three years. NWO selects researchers based on the quality of the researcher, the innovative nature of the research, the expected scientific impact of the research proposal and possibilities for knowledge utilization.
 

• Learning meaning from structure

Dr. M. (Meaghan) Fowlie, Faculty of Humanities

Personal digital assistants like Siri highlight the possibilities and challenges of building a computer that interacts with people using natural language. This research will create computer algorithms that automatically find sentence meanings by combining state-of-the-art ”deep learning” techniques from computer science with linguistic work on structure and meaning of sentences.
 

• What do u mean? Socially intelligent language processing

Dr. D. (Dong) Nguyen, Faculty of Science

Automatically analyzing human language plays a key role in many Artificial Intelligence systems. The researcher will develop new techniques to make computers understand the social aspects of language. The project will lead to more effective systems to automatically analyze and generate human language and new methods to study social phenomena.  
 

• Improved projections of future Antarctic surface melt rates

Dr J.M. (Melchior) van Wessem, Faculty of Science - Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht (IMAU)

Uncertainties in sea-level rise projections largely come from the role of surface meltwater in affecting Antarctic deglaciation. In this project I use a polar climate model to simulate the complex interactions of the UU -atmosphere and underlying snow layer to better simulate contemporary and future meltwater production.
 

• Will the kids be alright? Predicting emotional development in adolescence

Dr C. J. (Caspar) van Lissa, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences – Methodology & Statistics

Adolescence is an important phase for learning to deal with emotions, but not all youth do so successfully. Some experience emotional problems, which undermine their relationships and mental health. I combine pedagogics and machine learning to predict which youth are at-risk for emotional problems, and investigate what role parents play.
 

Veni

The Veni is awarded by NWO every year. A total of 1,151 researchers submitted an admissible research proposal for funding. 166 of these have now been granted in the Netherlands. That comes down to an award rate of 14%. The submissions were assessed by means of peer review by external experts from the disciplines concerned. In this Veni funding round, NWO is investing a total of 41,5 million euros in free and curiosity-driven research. Together with Vidi and Vici, Veni is part of NWO’s Talent Scheme. Veni is aimed at excellent researchers who have recently obtained their doctorate. Researchers in the Talent Scheme are free to submit their own subject for funding. NWO thus encourages curiosity-driven and innovative research. NWO selects researchers based on the quality of the researcher, the innovative character of the research, the expected scientific impact of the research proposal and the possibilities for knowledge use.