14 Utrecht-based researchers receive Veni grant

14 Utrecht-based researchers receive Veni grant

Further developing promising research ideas

Fourteen promising, young Utrecht researchers will receive a Veni grant of up to 320,000 euros from the Dutch Research Council (DRC). This will allow them to further develop their own research ideas over the next three years. One Veni grant will go to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, four to Humanities, one to Geosciences, one to Law, Economics and Governance, two to Social and Behavioural Sciences and five to the UMC Utrecht. Below is a summary of all research projects.

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

Advanced environmental sampling techniques to reduce global infectious disease burden: a One Health approach focusing on livestock farms as zoonotic hotspots

Intensive livestock farms are hotspots for zoonotic pathogens, posing risks to both human and animal health worldwide. To effectively protect against outbreaks, advancements in pathogen monitoring on farms are crucial for gaining insights into their introduction, circulation, and emission. This research (news in Dutch) project develops new technologies in air sampling approaches, enabling broad screening of microorganisms as well as targeted detection of specific zoonotic pathogens of concern.

• dr. M.M.T. (Myrna) de Rooij

  Assistant Professor
• "There is an urgent need to better monitor pathogens on livestock farms. This way, we reduce risks to public health and prevent negative impacts on animal welfare and the economy."

Faculty of Humanities

Towards a "Herstory" of the Saxophone: Women, Patronage, and Musicianship in the United States of the Late 19th and Early 20th Century

Western music has the reputation of being a male-dominated domain. In this project, Kurt Bertels aims to challenge that perception by examining the role of women in the earliest decades of the saxophone. This invention by Adolphe Sax in 1841 quickly attracted women, particularly in the United States. Both white and Black women embraced the instrument to reinvent musical traditions with their own financial means. This is the first research project to explore the artistic views of women as patrons and saxophone players. In doing so, it pays particular attention to historical conceptions of gender and race that determined their reception.

"Thanks to this Veni project, I can finally explore the earliest traces of entrepreneurship among the first generation of female saxophonists. By doing so, I will for the first time introduce the saxophone as a case study for cultural studies questions on gender, ethnicity, performance practice, and patronage. Besides providing an alternative historiography of the early saxophone, this grant will give me the opportunity to focus on a more inclusive picture of music history and the emancipatory role of cultural entrepreneurship. I am very much looking forward to working with the Chair of Patronage Studies within the Institute for Cultural Inquiry."

• Kurt Bertels

  Photo: © Tysje-Severens
• "Thanks to this Veni project, I can finally explore the earliest traces of entrepreneurship among the first generation of female saxophonists."

Dialogue in European and Middle Eastern Christianity, 1550-1700

Early modern Christianity was fractured along political, religious, and ideological fault lines. Dialogue - especially between Christians from Europe and those from the Middle East - enjoyed widespread currency as an essential tool for healing division. In this project, Richard Calis will explore how dialogue contributed to the development of early modern Christianity in and beyond Europe (c. 1550-1700).

"Comparative in its approach and global in its methodology, the project demonstrates how we cannot understand Reformation Europe without taking Eastern Christianity into consideration and vice versa. In so doing, it affords valuable insights into a fundamental question about society today: how can dialogue unite a divided world? What circumstances cultivate dialogue, which ones erode its efficacy, and how can polarised parties respond to its challenges?"

• dr. Richard Calis

  Assistant Professor
• "How can dialogue unite a divided world? What circumstances cultivate dialogue, which ones erode its efficacy, and how can polarised parties respond to its challenges?"

Art, Religion, or Heritage? Negotiating Indigenous African Traditions in the Religiously Diverse Context of Coastal Kenya

Across Africa, Christians and Muslims associate indigenous African traditions with backwardness and witchcraft. In this project, Erik Meinema will examine how Giriama people in the coastal region of Kenya protect their indigenous traditions against such criticism, by presenting and categorising their traditions as art, religion, or heritage. The project will provide insight in the struggles of indigenous voices to find recognition for their traditions in diverse societies, in which they interact with Christians, Muslims, and (inter)national institutions like UNESCO.

"Scholars are beginning to explore the relations between art, heritage, and religion in Europe. Far less is known about the global reach of these frames and how people in African societies make these frames their own or challenge them. With this project, I aim to investigate how indigenous groups position themselves in relation to these global frames. What are the opportunities and challenges these frames offer to indigenous groups to claim rights and recognition for their traditions?"

• dr. Erik Meinema

  Assistant Professor
• "I aim to investigate how indigenous groups position themselves in relation to these global frames. What are the opportunities and challenges these frames offer to indigenous groups to claim rights and recognition for their traditions?"

Searching for Meaning: Uncovering Discourse Structure Signals in Language

To make sense of a written or spoken text, it is crucial that people construct discourse relations such as cause-consequence and contrast between sentences. Connectives like 'because' and 'but' help people construct these relations, but many relations do not contain a connective. Little is known about what other cues can signal discourse relations, and whether people readily use such signals. Merel Scholman will be investigating how discourse relations are expressed in natural language and how people recognise them while reading or listening.

"Through this project I will gain deeper insight into how humans can effectively communicate via writing or in face-to-face situations. This knowledge can help improve language technology, for example, such as smart assistants and language models, or enable robots to make more natural gestures. My research will also be beneficial for education, by providing new insights for teaching materials on text structures and non-verbal communication."

• dr. Merel Scholman

  Assistant Professor
• "This grant is an important step in my academic career. I look forward to carrying out my research programme in the coming years and contributing to our understanding of language and communication."

Faculty of Geosciences

Harnessing self-reinforcing feedbacks for bog restoration: engineering patch-size and spatial configuration

'This grant makes it possible for me to build my own line of research regarding facilitation in bogs. Peat mosses are the builders of peatlands and they do this by growing together in clusters. In larger clusters, peat mosses can grow better and harder and are more resistant to environmental stresses such as drought. This is the mechanism I focus on and want to use to restore peatlands. I also have the opportunity to expand my skillset by working with drones to spatially analyse restored fens across Europe.

Fens host unique biodiversity and are essential for climate mitigation due to their unrivalled carbon storage. Global degradation of peatlands makes restoring peatlands urgent. By researching and developing innovative restoration methods that use facilitation of peat mosses, I aim to make peat restoration more successful. This knowledge can thus help restore biodiversity and implement climate-mitigating measures.'

• dr. Ralph Temmink

  Assistant Professor
• "Fens host unique biodiversity and are essential for climate mitigation due to their unrivalled carbon storage."

Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance

Business in and for war: the role and limits of international humanitarian law

Businesses are often the unseen sources of suffering in armed conflict. They fuel wars by providing financial and material resources to belligerents, participate in the forced displacement of civilians in order to exploit natural resources, and profit from illegal settlements in occupied territories. Establishing the role of international humanitarian law (the law of armed conflict) in relation to businesses whose activities are linked to, support, or otherwise contribute to an armed conflict holds the potential for a more effective regulation of business in and for war. By combining doctrinal, empirical and critical legal methods, Alessandra Spadaro will establish the applicability of international humanitarian law and its relationship with other relevant legal frameworks, as well as critically appraise the law's limits against the backdrop of the global system of political economy. "Business in and for war should not continue business as usual!"

• Alessandra Spadaro

  Assistant Professor
• "Business in and for war should not continue business as usual!"

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Using prediction to understand upward mobility and inform policy

Javier Garcia Bernardo considers climbing the economic ladder one of the great challenges of the century. 'With my research, I hope to better understand what matters in upward mobility. Does it matter which family you come from, which school you go to, or which neighbourhood you live in? Knowing the answer could help inform policy decisions that promote equity and inclusion.'

• dr. Javier Garcia Bernardo

  Assistant Professor
• "With my research, I hope to better understand what matters in upward mobility."

Cracking Conspiracies: Revealing the Socio-Developmental Roots of Radicalization

Conspiracy belief is widespread. Alarmingly, some conspiracy believers have radicalized, becoming violent or breaking the law. In understanding and tackling the urgent challenge of conspiracy-radicalization, the focus has mostly been on what is 'wrong' with some conspiracy believers. By focusing on individual shortcomings, external factors that can equally influence beliefs and behavior are left unexplored. Hence, this project addresses the question of when and how conspiracy belief can lead to radicalization, paying attention to the role of childhood experiences and social environment. The findings can contribute to the development of effective prevention measures against this pressing and challenging issue.

• dr. Hanne Duindam PhD

  Assistant Professor
• "'We want to discover how conspiracy beliefs and radicalisation develop by interviewing children and parents. In addition, we will look at what social conditions might play a role in this, for example limited well-being."

University Medical Center Utrecht

Muscle (re)Animation via Neural Interfaces and Facial Electrical Stimulation (MANIFESt)

Communication is an essential part of our lives. People with severe paralysis, however, cannot voluntarily move or speak, and therefore cannot communicate with family and loved ones. A neural interface technology could help them by tapping into their brain activity and retrieving intended communication signals bypassing the paralysis. In this project, I will test the scientific feasibility of a novel technology based on 1) detection of facial expressions from brain activity, and 2) subsequent electrical stimulation of the face to induce detected facial expressions. Such technology could restore the ability of people with paralysis to communicate.

Certainty about uncertainty in reimbursement of gene therapies

Gene therapies (GTs) accelerated development of potential cures for rare and previously untreatable diseases. However, their high prices cause mayor concerns amongst payers. Cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) are accepted to quantify costs and benefits for reimbursement decisions. The data underlying CEAs of GTs is often immature, due to targeting of new, small and "neglected" diseases. By incorporating Bayesian methods into CEAs, I aim to decrease uncertainty to more accurately inform reimbursement decisions. For this, I use spinal muscular atrophy and hemophilia B as case studies. The proposed methods have potential for a wider application in health economics.

Unravelling ALS: early detection through advanced MRI

Gene therapy is a promising treatment for individuals with increased genetic risk of ALS. Clinical trials show that gene therapy slows down disease progression, but it cannot restore lost muscle function. Consequently, administering gene therapy at the earliest feasible stage is crucial. Therefore, neurologists must possess the capability to detect the earliest disease signs of ALS in skeletal muscle. In this project, researchers develop a novel imaging approach aiming to detect early disease signs in skeletal muscles of people predisposed to developing ALS.

VISION: oVercoming Immunotherapy reSistance In cOlorectal caNcer

Metastatic colorectal carcinoma (CRC) ranks as the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality globally. Particularly, myeloid immune cells impede the efficacy of immunotherapy essential for eradicating cancer cells. I aim to address this challenge by characterizing these myeloid cell subsets through imaging mass cytometry of CRC tumors and identifying therapeutic targets on these cells. Subsequently, I intend to assess whether the blockade of these targets using antibodies can neutralize the suppressive function of myeloid cells. This approach holds the potential to render immunotherapy effective in treating this disease, paving the way for the future cure of more CRC patients.

Sorting out extracellular vesicles - Identifying cancer extracellular vesicle subpopulations responsible for tumour microenvironment remodeling

Cancer cells use small vesicles to send signals to the surrounding normal tissue and render it permissive to tumour progression. These vesicles, found in the tumour itself and in blood, are potential therapeutic targets and tools for disease monitoring. However, vesicles are not all the same, they come in different types and have different functions, which are still unknown. The researchers hypothesize that there are unique vesicle types that contribute to changes in the normal tissue which favour tumour progression and will use a new approach to demonstrate it. The newly-found vesicles will hold potential as biomarkers and therapeutic targets.