Large grant for nine UG research projects

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded substantial grants, each amounting to €750,000, to nine UG research projects. These projects focus on topics including millet as a sustainable crop, misleading advertisements and the strengthening of the constitutional state.

The board of the NWO domain Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) has awarded a total of €22 million to researchers who had applied for the Open Competition SSH round in 2020. These funds will give researchers the opportunity to conduct research on a topic of their own choice. UG researchers are involved in nine of the 34 selected projects.

Overview of awarded projects involving UG researchers:

Salt and power. Early states, Rome and control of resources

Prof. P.A.J. Attema

Salt is of vital importance to the human food economy and therefore of state importance. Following their discovery that salt production took place on the coast south of Rome as far back as the Bronze Age, the researchers examine how scaling-up took place and early Rome’s role as the main stakeholder.

Ancient crops for a sustainable future? Millets and culture in India

P. Berger, PhD and prof. R.T.J. Cappers

Millets belong to the founder crops of agriculture. Recently, they are globally promoted as the “smart food” for the future. But how does crop selection relate to culture? Anthropologists and Archaeobotanists combine their expertise to research the nexus of millets and culture, in contemporary India and throughout Indian history.

Also read the article Millets: ancient crops for the future.

The impact of neighbourhood effects and socio-economic status on health over individual life courses

Prof. J.P. Elhorst (RUG) and G.E. Bijwaard, Phd (NIDI)

This project will investigate how the influence of socio-economic status on health is amplified by social relations of people within a neighbourhood. In particular, we look at how this relation develops over the life course of people, from childhood to mid-life to retirement.

How Gullible Are We? When and Why Do Consumers Fall Prey to Deceptive Advertising, Fake news and Misinformation?

Prof. B.M. Fennis

How easily are we deceived by advertising, fake news, and misinformation? Previous research issue has yielded mixed and conflicting results. This project develops and tests a new model that may predict when we are more and when we are less gullible and how we can effectively defend ourselves against deception.

Strengthening the Rule of Law in Europe

Prof. M.L.M. Hertogh

Recent developments in Hungary and Poland have caused a rule of law crisis in the European Union. CITIZENS-LAW provides insight into the social perceptions of law that can explain this crisis. The results are translated into a governance toolkit to strengthen the rule of law in Europe.

Finding Suitable Grounds: Exploiting buried and submerged Mesolithic-Neolithic landscapes to reconstruct the introduction of crop cultivation.

D.J. Huisman, PhD and K.M. Cohen, PhD (UU)

How did crop cultivation start in the Dutch lowlands? We investigate subsurface landscapes that drowned since the stone age. In geological and geophysical datasets we will identify key locations on river levees. Using corings and microscopic and palaeobotanical techniques we investigate how and how quickly crop cultivation was introduced here.

Taking Stock. The Amsterdam exchange, investor behaviour, and Dutch economic growth, 1870-1940

Prof. H.J. de Jong and Prof. A. de Jong (EUR)

Economists consider stock exchanges of primordial importance for economy and society. However, we simply do not know whether the world’s oldest exchange, Amsterdam, served Dutch needs properly. We therefore conduct fundamental research into the exchange during a highly dynamic period of both fast growth and deep crisis.

Empowering women by relieving economic and psychological barriers

Prof. B.W. Lensink

This project will develop a combination of economic and psychological interventions to improve women’s empowerment. The impact of the newly developed interventions will be evaluated by organising a randomised controlled trial with a microfinance institution in Vietnam.

What is replication?

M. Derksen, PhD (RUG) and prof. A.J. Pols (AMC)

If research cannot be replicated, does this mean that the original findings were false? Scientists, philosophers and policymakers debate these fundamental questions. This project furthers the debate about the meaning and usefulness of replication by analysing how replication research is being conducted.