Section 5 Research – global impact

Sector plans

Over the year, the EUR faculties worked on an elaboration based on the sector plans in the context of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science administrative agreement. Within the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) domain there were three sub-plans: one for the humanities (faculties of ESHCC and ESPhil), one for the social sciences (faculties of ESSB and ESHCC) and one interdisciplinary plan for the entire domain (faculties of ESPhil, ESHCC, ESSB, ESL, ESE and RSM).  

Unlike most other universities, the latter plan was the biggest at EUR. The plan focuses on the social consequences of digitalisation, particularly in relation to work, wellbeing and entrepreneurship. Digitalisation offers new opportunities, but also creates risks, for instance for the labour market and the nature of our work. EUR provides a great deal of expertise on this subject, contributing to the socially responsible adoption of new digital technology. A joint faculty work group got going in the last months of 2022. As many as 36 new assistant professors worked on the digitalisation programme. They promoted an interdisciplinary dialogue on this subject. The sector plan covers the period up to the end of 2028. 

Evaluating Societal Impact, broadening the focus

Evaluating Societal Impact (ESI) is one of the initiatives within the Fostering Societal Impact pillar. The Executive Board instructed ESI to broaden the scope at the start of 2022. Alongside the development of tools and methods to adopt a structured approach to creating societal impact, the project now also focuses on facilitating and advising on the development of a governance structure that supports activities aimed at impact within EUR. 

The Executive Board allocated additional budget to the ESI project to expand the project team. The team current consists of a number of experts in impact evaluation and governance, a number of junior and senior researchers and a design researcher. This multifaceted team has helped various faculties (RSM, ESE and ESHPM) and joint research projects (Erasmus Initiatives, Healthy Start) to develop their impact ambitions and strategy. The support took the form of workshops, focus groups and interviews, which took place in co-creation. The first steps were also taken to evaluate the societal impact of the work of the department of Social Obstetrics at Erasmus MC and the Erasmus Initiatives. Funds were also invested in the creation of sustainable tools and methods (for instance the Theory of Change game) that help and support the EUR community in creating more impact.

Refining the definition of Impact

 The ESI project refined EUR’s definition of societal impact in 2022. The importance of this is emphasised by the EUR slogan: ‘Creating positive societal impact’. A shared definition of this impact is vital and results in greater visibility and a stronger message. 

The document ‘Defining our societal impact at EUR. A common framework for our impact strategy’ contributed to the definition. This document was produced in consultation with a number of experts and discussed within a number of forums at EUR. The outline provides a framework that is rigid enough to determine a clear direction and broad enough to accommodate differences between disciplines, types of, and routes to impact through research, education and social engagement. The document was adopted shortly after the reporting year and resulted in a number of actions. Examples include the definition of impact ambitions and strategies at faculty level, the organisation of the portfolio around social engagement in research and education, the promotion of an ongoing dialogue on impact and the involvement of the broader internal and external community in the process of becoming an impact-driven university. 

Impact journey

The year 2022 saw the start of the Erasmus Impact Journey, an initiative of Erasmus Research Services (ERS) that supports researchers in making research aimed at current societal challenges impactful, visible and tangible. Seventeen researchers from various EUR faculties underwent coaching in the autumn, including in the form of workshops. The five best pitches received further guidance plus funding for the further development of their ideas:

• Dr Rodrigo Mena (ISS), ‘Ensuring the safety and security of researchers when carrying out research in crisis and vulnerable conditions’ train the trainer programme; 
• Daphne Voormolen (ESHPM), ‘Better healthcare outcomes called the WIX’ tool; 
• Femke Truijens (ESSB), ‘Qualitative research methods for mental healthcare’ training platform; 
• Rianne Kok (ESSB), ‘Evidence-based knowledge and alternatives for parents to reduce their reliance on lying to their children’ knowledge platform; 
•   Michelle Rasch, ‘Community- and bystander-based sexual violence prevention’ programme.

Erasmus Initiatives

The Erasmus Initiatives consist of four programmes aimed at increasing the social and economic impact of education and research. The connection and interaction between science and society, between theory and practice, is in EUR’s DNA. The Erasmus Initiatives join forced for science that matters. The four programmes:

 ‘Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity’

The Erasmus Initiative ‘Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity’ (DoIP) looks at how as many people as possible can benefit from growth in prosperity whilst minimising the negative impact of this growth. The growth in prosperity requires constant alignment of the changing interests and values of government, the business community, the general public and entrepreneurs. Scholars in the faculties of ESL, RSM and ESPhil have teamed up in a multidisciplinary partnership to gather information about this dynamic field. 

For the Erasmus Initiative DoIP, 2022 was a year full of new projects. The gradual disappearance of COVID-19 measures meant that it was not only easier to bring meetings between EUR researchers back to previous levels and thus develop many new ideas, but also to further shape new collaborations. This enabled us to forge ahead with our policy of developing partnerships with a wide range of social stakeholders both in the Netherlands and abroad. The collaboration with TU Delft was intensified through projects on inequality in physical living conditions. A project was launched with Handheld University in South Korea to compare forms of inclusive prosperity in Europe and Asia. Outside the academic world, public sector activities included a project with the municipality of Helmond. This project will explore ways of making the increasing digitalisation of government and government services inclusive. On the one hand, digitalisation offers many opportunities to tighten the bond between citizen and government and to accelerate procedures, however this also carries a risk of exclusion. This risk affects people who are dependent on traditional forms of communication and physical contact in an office. DoIP also worked with a consortium of companies to set up a project on ‘economics of mutuality’ in small and medium-sized enterprises. Based on knowledge of business administration and commercial law, the project involves working in close collaboration with the relevant companies to answer the question of when a business is making sufficient profit, taking into account the interests of all stakeholders. All of this shows a dynamic that reflects society’s growing focus on the importance of inclusive prosperity. 

‘Smarter Choices for Better Health’

 EUR aims to contribute to the health of the global population by making smarter choices in health care. Because health and health care are complex themes, the Erasmus Initiative ‘Smarter Choices for Better Health’ (SCBH) focuses on long-term, multidisciplinary research. 

The Erasmus Initiative SCBH entered the second phase of the programme in 2022 against the backdrop of a considerably heightened global awareness of the importance of sound health and health care decisions in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. SCBH still focuses on prevention, efficiency and inequality in relation to health and care, building on the results achieved since the start in 2017. New PhD students and new post-docs are taking part in the second phase. More external parties became involved in the research over the course of 2022, ranging from hospitals to municipalities and from insurance companies to organisations such as the Trimbos Institute and the Health Council of the Netherlands. 

Researchers within EUR have shown a strong interest in starting joint faculty projects on this subject. The approach of the Erasmus Initiatives is also attracting attention beyond EUR, particularly in terms of the joint faculty collaboration and working method. For this reason, SCBH held a workshop in 2022 for faculties of economics and business administration of other universities on boosting societal impact. The University of Southern Denmark paid a visit to EUR in this context, with the aim of sharing knowledge about developments at the interface of public health and social sciences. 

'Vital Cities & Citizens'

The Erasmus Initiative Vital Cities & Citizens (VCC) carried out a number of activities to encourage interdisciplinary work with a focus on positive societal impact. Once such activity was an ‘Open door call’ by the VCC to stimulate interdisciplinary work between faculties. This resulted in the launch of seven post-doc projects involving nine faculties (including the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences/Erasmus MC) and institutes. The projects started in September and will continue until the end of 2024. The research projects focus on the four key themes of VCC: resilience, smart city, inclusion and diversity, and fair sustainability. For more information, visit: https: /www.eur.nl/en/research/research-programme/vcc-projects-page.

The project ‘Mijn Stad Rotterdam’ (My Rotterdam) exemplifies what VCC stands for. In this project, residents themselves state what is important for a high-quality urban life. Thorough insight was gained into the interests of the various stakeholders using the Q methodology for systematic policy description. The results will be presented and discussed with the municipality of Rotterdam, directors, academics, residents and students in spring 2023. VCC has also been involved in a number of curricula and initiatives, such as the ‘Tackling Inequalities’ Master’s honours programme, the ‘Shared and Smart Cities’ minor (in collaboration with Leiden University and TU Delft), the ‘Urban Governance’ and ‘Metropolitan Challenges’ Master’s programmes and the EUR-wide ‘Societal Transitions’ transdisciplinary Master’s programme. 

'Societal Impact of AI (AiPact)'

Societal Impact of AI (AiPact) concerns innovative and interdisciplinary research and education in Artificial Intelligence (AI), in which society plays a central role. Together with the key stakeholders, the frameworks are being defined for the use of AI in a way that benefits humans and society.  

The AiPact project focuses on four important domains in society, in which various hot topics are discussed such as urban AI, AI street art, sustainability, equal opportunities, and diversity and inclusion. An interdisciplinary team of top young talent, the ‘AiPack’ consists of five PhD students and four post-doc researchers and concentrates on AI in four social domains (art and culture, communication and change, health care, and work and the labour market). The teams work with academics from various faculties (RSM, ESSB, ESHCC, ESE and ESHPM). The Convergence partners (TU Delft and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences/Erasmus MC) collaborate within the Convergence Health & Technology, AIDA and Centre for Bold Cities initiatives. At national level, too, EUR academics are involved in various AI initiatives and dialogue tables.

In order to broaden the subject matter of AiPact both inside and outside EUR, AiPact played a major role in the development and execution of the opening of the academic year under the theme ‘AI & Us: Imagining the Future’. With the help of the Social AI Research Seminars (ESSB/ESE), the AIDocs Film Festival and involvement in the AI in Society minor (ESHCC), an emphatically broad connection has been established with employees, alumni and students. The AiPact Spore Fund was launched in order to further strengthen the network. This fund supports EUR academics in innovative research and networking activities that align with the AiPact objectives. Examples include the contributions to the Surveillance & Society Conference (by ESHCC) and the AI World Summit (by RSM). Finally, the AICON art project initiated by AiPact engages in a dialogue with society. Within AICON, artists, academics and Rotterdam residents look together at the possibilities and challenges presented by AI in our society, in which art and AI help to establish connections. This cross-sectoral co-creation, which can be followed through blogs, podcasts and videos, will result in an interactive AI artwork in the public realm, scheduled in autumn 2023.  

2022 was also a successful year when it came to raising funds to further consolidate the AiPact initiative in both the short and longer term. AiPact supported three initiatives of Erasmus Trust Fund Foundation (Stichting Erasmus Trustfonds ), including a study by ESSB and ESHPM aimed at computerisation and the role of platforms in nursing. The Steering Committee was actively involved in the successful acquisition of the Health & Technology Convergence flagship project ‘Consultation Room 2030’ on the future of the consultation room. A sum of € 21.3 million was awarded to the Gravitation programme ‘Public Values in the Algorithmic Society’ (algosoc). EUR was one of the main applicants. The algosoc programme develops interdisciplinary insight into the growing use of algorithmic decision making and AI. With a national consortium of five universities, AI will help to contribute significantly to research, education and societal impact over the next decade. This will significantly enhance AiPact. 

All AiPact activities and developments are actively shared on social media to encourage discussion on the societal impact of AI both inside and outside EUR’s walls.

Convergence

The complex challenges facing today’s society, including climate change and urbanisation, the impact of digitalisation and the larger role of technology and the tenability of our health care system, require cutting-edge scientific insights and a holistic approach. It was for this reason that EUR, TU Delft and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences/Erasmus MC entered into an intensive, interdisciplinary and inter-institutional partnership: the Convergence EUR-TUDelft-Erasmus MC. This partnership brings together knowledge and expertise on socioeconomic, medical and technical sciences. The result is the research and educational infrastructures and even new disciplines needed to understand and solve complex societal problems. 

In 2022, Convergence continued to build upon the foundations laid. A great deal has been achieved within the Convergence community thanks to the joint efforts of all involved. In this exploratory phase, academics and professionals from various disciplines and institutional cultures with different modi operandi experimented with cooperative approaches. This yielded many new projects. Existing cooperative arrangements were also strengthened and new partnerships were formed. New curricula were developed and launched, and well-attended events, conferences and workshops were organised. 

These efforts demonstrate how the Convergence can help to solve complex, urgent social problems by breaking down borders between institutions and disciplines and bringing together researchers, medical experts, policymakers, professionals from the business community and society, entrepreneurs and students. 

The efforts did not go unnoticed. In November 2022, the mayors of Rotterdam and Delft signed a partnership with the Convergence to work ‘with the city, for the city’. This will involve the co-creation of demand-driven research, in which the city is used as a living lab for the challenges faced by metropolitan areas. 

2022 also saw the first step towards the further organisational development of the Convergence. We will lay the foundations for the next stage in 2023. Representatives from academic circles and professional services from all levels of the three Convergence institutions are drawing up a ‘2023-2026 Convergence Work Agenda’. A key part of this is the start of the Schools of Convergence pilot. By bringing together research, education and valorisation in a more tangible organisational form, we will make the ecosystem, the context in which we work together, stronger. 

2022 saw further progress in the development of transdisciplinary education and research within the five programmes and themes that form the basis of the Convergence partnership. 

A status update for five programmes: 

1. and 2. Resilient Delta and AI, Data & Digitalisation introduced new minors: ‘Impact Space’, ‘Engineering with AI’ and ‘AI and/in society’. The research partnership of AI, Data & Digitalisation was rewarded with two labs in the area of ethical, legal and societal aspects (ELSA) of the Dutch Science Agenda for the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO-NWA): the ELSA Defence Lab (Delft, Leiden) and the ELSA Lab AI for Multi-Agency Public Safety Issues (Rotterdam, Delft). A big step forward within the Resilient Delta theme is the grant awarded by the Dutch Research Council to the PATH2ZERO programme on the transition to zero-emissions inland shipping. 

3. Health & Technology is off to a good start with the launch of ten Flagship projects.

4. The Convergence Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness Center started recruitment for the Frontrunner projects: the kick-off to the long-term research agenda. The five research projects were officially launched after the reporting year on 31 January 2023.

5. Healthy Start held six ‘Sandpits’ with academics in the fields of medicine, technology and social sciences, social partners partners and young people. These events established a basis for six specific projects that directly affect young people, the city and society. One outcome is the appointment of the first interdisciplinary Convergence PhD student. Another development was the introduction of the first Convergence Fellow, which connects academia with society. 

To establish links with the region and society, the Convergence organised events and conferences that brought together academics, medical experts, policymakers, professionals from the business community and society, entrepreneurs and students. Examples include the International Redesigning Delta Conference organised by Resilient Delta together with Redesigning Delta partners, as well as workshops on socioeconomic inequality and climate. The event was organised in collaboration with the municipality of Rotterdam and the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences Knowledge Workshops. In June 2022, Health and Technology held the Science, Education & Innovation Festival.

The participants included more than five hundred academics, medical experts, policymakers, professionals from the business community and society, entrepreneurs, students and other colleagues from the Convergence community.

The festival, which was opened by Minister Mark Harbers (Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management), presented a unique opportunity to gain inspiration for change and to create new, design-based pathways for urgent problems for the delta. These include climate change and rising sea levels.

Politicians, the government and the business community showed a great deal of interest in the Convergence in 2022. One of the results was a collaboration with the municipalities of Rotterdam and Delft for the co-creation of demand-driven research under the title ‘with the city, for the city’. As part of this project, the cities act as a ‘living lab’. The Minister of Education, Culture and Science and the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport visited the initiative. Minister Conny Helder (Health, Welfare and Sport) delivered a speech at the

Health & Technology Battle of the Minds Hackathon. Barbara Goezinne, Director of Curative Care at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, opened the Health & Technology datahub. Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf (Education, Culture and Science) visited the Health & Technology ‘Circular Intensive Care’ project.

Within the Convergence, EUR, TU Delft and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences/Erasmus MC work together in operational management work groups. New initiatives have also been set up to keep both internal and external stakeholders better informed of what is happening within the Convergence. Other events included an offsite retreat attended by the entire boards of the three institutions. The drafting of a work agenda is a priority for the foundation stage and the progressive move towards Schools of Convergence.

LDE partnership

EUR has teamed up with Leiden and Delft in the LDE partnership. The LDE Centres and the LDE PortCitiesFutures programme were reviewed in 2022 by a committee led by former chair of the Dutch Research Council Stan Gielen. The committee took a positive view of the energy, commitment and enthusiasm of the staff. The centres play a unique and important role in the implementation of innovative interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary cooperation in research and education. By offering mid-career researchers with a permanent post the scope to carry out innovative research based on team science, the centres’ interuniversity research appears to be taking root within the faculties.

The LDE Centres and programmes continued their work, presenting the research results in White Papers. The first White Paper dealt with critical measures, the energy transition and geopolitics. Critical materials are scarce and important for the energy transition. A

second White Paper dealt with the healthy society. Researchers from various disciplines are engaging with each other on this topic.

A new programme is the LDE Global Research and Education with the Majority World. The three universities within LDE endeavour to be socially relevant in their own region and worldwide. Collaboration with the Majority World is essential for the latter. This led to the creation of a federation of various existing initiatives (including TU Delft Global, LUMC Global, LDE Centre for Frugal Innovation, Leiden Regional Policy, Delft Regional Policy, ISS, IHS, the African Studies Centre, and the Rotterdam Global Health Initiative). The experience gained shows that there is enthusiasm for this programme and significant demand for the available resources. One example of an activity is the Academy organised by LDE in collaboration with the national scientific organisation BRIN in Serpong (Indonesia) on the Smart, Sustainable and Healthy City in Post Covid 19 Indonesia. The results will shortly be published in a book.

Collaboration with Rotterdam

The partnership with the municipality of Rotterdam entered a new phase in 2022. This was the result of a previous evaluation of this partnership, which concluded that stronger ties were needed between the various alliances, for example through knowledge workshops, the Convergence, UNIC, Culture&Campus (see

later in this section) and other programmes in the context of the impact mission. Discussions on how this will take shape started in 2022. The focus lies on establishing and embedding connections and making these connections visible.

The Rotterdam Thesis Prize was awarded for the tenth time. This prize is awarded to a Master’s thesis with a mark of 8 or above, on a subject that is relevant to Rotterdam. The jury consists of professors and associate professors from all faculties, representatives of the municipality of Rotterdam and a municipal council member.

University of the Arts Rotterdam: Culture&Campus

On 20 January 2022, the governors of Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences/Willem de Kooning Academy, Codarts University of the Arts and EUR signed a letter of intent to give a major boost to arts education in Rotterdam, by forming a new entity that will be affiliated with both Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and Erasmus University Rotterdam. The municipality of Rotterdam will support this special initiative, which will be positioned within Culture&Campus.

In April, the European Commission granted a request from the cooperation partners within the New European Bauhaus Horizon Grant Proposal. The € 25 million grant is for the execution of the Culture&Campus project. The New European Bauhaus initiative funds projects that connect the world of art, culture and education to science and technology. The aim of the Culture&Campus project is to set up a sustainable hub for research, art, learning and community in Rotterdam Zuid.

In the second half of 2022, a number of work groups sought to develop the enabling conditions and content in order to implement Culture&Campus. The main focus was on real estate. The municipality of Rotterdam worked on a master plan to identify necessary future developments in the immediate surroundings, for example in the area of accessibility.

UNIC

The European alliance UNIC is important to EUR in terms of international relations. UNIC is a partnership of ten universities in ‘post-industrial’ cities. UNIC’s mission is to have a positive impact on the development of the post-industrial cities through inclusive education, innovative research and the involvement of local partners. Students, researchers, representatives of the cities and civil society took part in the Engaged Research Strategy Forum UNIC4ER. During a working conference with our partner University College Cork in Ireland, research subjects were identified with stakeholders based on joint challenges. The Engaged Declaration was also drawn up, in which all UNIC partners pledge to involve local communities in research and innovation.

The UNIC4ER Seed Fund offers small-scale financial support for cooperation on engaged research across all disciplines. This Seed Fund was set up to encourage collaboration between researchers from various UNIC partners to enable further joint grant applications. A key tool in the monitoring and evaluation of various activities is the Pulse Dashboard, which regularly features on the UNIC website.

The open and responsible practice of science is important. This involves sharing and where possible reusing data, software, publications and other forms of scientific information at the earliest feasible stage. Openness also means involving the general public at an early stage. The focus on open and responsible science is growing. 

The Open & Responsible Science (ORS) programme links quality, efficiency, impact and reliability to EUR’s mission and research objectives. Two EUR-wide campaigns took place in 2022 to promote awareness, appreciation and support for ORS: ‘Research Transparency - From Preregistration to Open Access’ and ‘Engaged Research and Open Science’. A total of 1750 people attended sessions or watched them later online. 2022 also saw the first Open & Responsible Science awards issued in three categories:

• Open Research
• Open Education 
• Societal Engagement 

Studies were carried out into the needs and challenges of the digital working environment of researchers. Five profiles were developed on the basis of interviews with more than forty investigators and 350 completed surveys. These profiles will be used to improve service provision. 

The Erasmus Digitalisation & Information Services (EDIS), Erasmus Research Services (ERS) and the University Library started testing and implementing the Yoda research data management system. For more information about Yoda see section 6. 

There was also a strong focus on policy and advice in 2022. This was done through the Up-to-Standard project, part of the Next Level RDM support programme. The result was improved advice on services for the collection, storage and processing of sensitive research data. The project also contributed to better coordination and tightening of privacy, data classification and safety policy.

Three EUR faculties have undergone external reviews since the adoption of the new strategic evaluation protocol (SEP). They were Rotterdam School of Management (RSM, inspection in September 2021, report published in February 2022), Erasmus School of Economics (ESE, inspection in June 2022, report published in November 2022) and Rotterdam School of Law (ESL, inspection in November 2022, report published in February 2023). The main difference to the previous SEP is that the committee issues its verdict on the main criteria (academic quality, societal impact and vitality) in words and not in figures. Despite the fact that this is no easy task for the committees, each inspection delivered a very good result in terms of assessment and strategic advice. 

The quality of academic research at the three faculties assessed is very good and internationally excellent in a number of areas. RSM, which forms part of a national evaluation, also performed very strongly compared with the other business and management faculties. 

The reports can be found at: https://www.eur.nl/en/research...

Each assessment cycle ends with a discussion between the Rector Magnificus and the faculty, during which the key findings and recommendations are discussed. In addition, each faculty produces an action plan based on the committee’s recommendations, describing how the faculty will implement the recommendations.

Following the presentation of the ‘Best Practice Award’ for the Dilemma App Game by the Council of Europe (CoE), the CoE organised a joint conference with EUR on ‘promoting scientific integrity’. A number of speakers from the Netherlands and abroad gave presentations that looked at the relationship between scientific integrity and the growing accessibility of AI for writing essays and articles. The pressure that students can experience in this context was addressed, as was the often rarely mentioned link between mental health and scientific integrity. A spotlight was once again placed on the dilemma app during the conference. 

A great deal of attention was devoted in 2022 to the correct registration of chairs that are partly or fully financed by an external party. The importance of transparency and accountability for external financing is in line with the Universities of the Netherlands’ 2018 Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.

Almost 400 doctorates were conferred in 2022, two thirds of which on behalf of the Erasmus MC. Of the total number of PhD students, 58% were female. The number of doctorates conferred was a little higher than usual, possibly due to candidates deferring obtaining their doctorate in 2021 in connection with the COVID-19 crisis. There were eighteen cum laude doctorate conferrals, which meant that the cum laude percentage dropped slightly further compared with 2021 to 4.5%. Three candidates obtained their doctorate in 2022 within the PhD student experiment. No candidates dropped out. The total number of active PhD students is 10.

The Young Erasmus Academy (YEA; 26 members) continued to actively contribute to policymaking and interdisciplinary projects within EUR in 2022. YEA was also engaged in inter-institutional networks and collaborations outside EUR. Examples include the active involvement of YEA members at policy level in the EUR Recognition & Rewards programme, joint faculty talks on the introduction of the Recognition & Rewards agenda, the path to narrative CVs, and Team Science. YEA’s other activities included taking part with Erasmus Research Services (ERS) in the consultation on the revision of the EUR grant schemes for mentorship and the promotion of research. 

A number of first-year projects of new YEA members were approved, including Chen Li’s (ESE) podcast series on combining research and parenthood, Lieke Oldenhof’s (ESHPM) Thesis on Lab Resilient City Rotterdam and Klazina Kooiman’s (EMC) initiative on inclusive employment practices at EUR. The eURBAN

podcast series on societal challenges in Rotterdam was coordinated by Amanda Brandellero (ESHCC) in collaboration with students, researchers and stakeholders. YEA also organised the first call for an interdisciplinary PhD, which was awarded to Jane Murray (ESHPM) for her project ‘Assessing and improving the District Prevention Network’ that she carried out in collaboration with the municipality of Rotterdam. 

Outside EUR, YEA worked with other Young Academies on projects including the formation of the Green Academy, for the exchange of experience and practices in sustainability and climate resilience. In addition, YEA members Dan Schley (RSM) and Iris Landsdorp (EMC) took the lead in strengthening ties with the Young Academies within EUR’s LDE partnership with Leiden University and TU Delft.

ERS supported eight large-scale research initiatives with the help of Coordinatorship Enablement Packages (CEP). These packages are a strategic tool to support, encourage and enable EUR researchers to take on the challenge of coordinating a large externally financed research initiative.

The eight initiatives relate to coordinatorships of the European research and innovation initiative Horizon 2020, the National Science Agenda NWA and of grants relating to the ‘top sector’ programmes. These types of grants generally have highly complex administrative requirements in relation to the application and execution of the projects. This is due to the involvement of multiple partners and co-funding requirements. Of the eight projects supported, four were ultimately awarded. The average external funding received was more than € 3 million, with EUR awarded more than € 1 million. 

The projects awarded are:

• IANUS, coordinator Hub Zwart (Horizon 2020 coordinatorship under the direction of ESPHil and ESHCC); 
• AI MAPS, coordinator Gabriele Jacobs (ELSA lab – NWO NLAIC resources, under the direction of ESSB and ESL); 
• RECHARGE- EU, coordinator Trilce Navarrete Hernandez (Horizon 2020 coordinatorship under the direction of ESHCC); 
• Culture&Campus (European BAUHAUS award).

 The awarded collaborative projects, which often involve several faculties and partners from the Netherlands and abroad, are complex in terms of management. It is for this reason that ERS introduced a pool of professional project managers to support the post-award process for these large initiatives. 

Gravity 

EUR successfully secured Dutch Research Council (NWO) Gravity grants in 2022. The grants were introduced by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to promote excellent research in the Netherlands. The programme is aimed at scientific consortia that have the potential to become world leaders in their area. EUR, as main applicant, received a Gravity grant for the project ‘Growing Up Together in Society’ (GUTS, Eveline Crone). Three applications were also awarded in which EUR was a co-applicant: ‘Public Values in the Algorithmic Society’ (ALGOSOC, Moniek Buijzen), ‘The Dutch Brain Interfaces Initiative’ (DBI2, Chris de Zeeuw) and ‘Stress-in-Action: Advancing the Science of Stress by Moving the Lab to Daily Life’ (Liesbeth van Rossum).

Exceptional research performance 

• EUR is participating as Lead Partner in ‘ICE - Innovation by Creative Economy’: a collaboration of five international consortia initiated by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). The aim of this partnership is to unlock the hidden potential of the culture and creative sectors and industries, in order to become a game changer for Europe’s green, digital and social transformation. EIT Culture & Creativity will receive around € 150 million in support from the EIT for two seven-year periods. After this it must become self-sufficient. Under the motto ‘Created in Europe’, the ICE alliance is putting together a pan-European consortium of fifty universities, research institutions, companies, investors and associations that are relevant to European cultural and creative sectors and industries (CCSI) in twenty countries. 
• EUR is coordinator of the project ‘Artificial Intelligence for Multi-Agency Public Safety Issues’ (AI-MAPS). This consortium of 26 organisations receives a grant of more than € 2 million from the NWO and is an ‘ELSA’ lab (Ethical, Legal, Social aspect of AI-LAB). The AI MAPS partners come from academic research, the government, the business community and civil society, such as the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), the National Police, Google, Oddity.ai, Nokia and Security Delta (HSD). 
• September saw the launch of the ‘Erasmus Center for Sport Integrity & Transition’ (ESPRIT). The aim of the transdisciplinary research group is to investigate and address complex integrity issues in sport, amidst a post-modern world in transition. 
• SPRING, a consortium of the ‘Resilient Delta Initiative’, is a cooperative arrangement between EUR, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences/Erasmus MC, TU Delft and Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. With its Living Labs, SPRING is turning Rotterdam into an ecosystem for open innovation. The academics examine an issue on site, together with affected residents, the municipality of Rotterdam, civil society organisations and other stakeholders. The initiators are Renske Keizer (EUR) and Maarten van Ham (TU Delft). 

A list of awards, personal and collaborative grants won can be found in the appendices.