Prestigious grants received
ITEM congratulates Maastricht University researchers and members of ITEM’s scientific board who recently received grants for their research projects.
Valentina Mazzucato
ITEM congratulates Valentina Mazzucato, professor of Globalization and Development from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and member of ITEM’s scientific board, for winning a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator grant. The grant was awarded in December 2015, for the project ‘Mobility Trajectories of Young Lives: Life Chances of Transnational Youth in Global South and North' (MO-TRAYL). For ITEM, professor Mazzucato will be supervising an upcoming ITEM PhD-research project entitled ‘Youth Mobilities in a Border Region'.
Maarten Vink
ITEM congratulates Maarten Vink, professor of Political Science and Political Sociology from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and member of ITEM’s scientific board, who received an ERC Consolidator Grant. The grant was awarded for Maarten Vink’s project 'Migrant Life Course and Legal Status Transition'. Professor Vink is also in charge of a recently started ITEM PhD research project titled ‘Migration Trajectories in a Border Region Context’, in cooperation with prof. dr. H. Schmeets (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences / Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek).
Melissa Siegel
ITEM congratulates Dr Melissa Siegel, Professor and Head of Migration Studies at the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance and UNU-MERIT, and member of the ITEM scientific board, who has been awarded with a grant from the World Bank’s Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD), together with Dr. Özge Bilgili and Craig Loschmann. The grant was awarded in April 2016, for dr. Siegel’s project titled “Forced Displacement, Development and Gender: The case of Congolese Refugees in Rwanda”. For ITEM dr Siegel will be promotor of an upcoming ITEM PhD-research titled ‘Understanding the decision of international migrants to stay or leave the Euroregion’.
Also read
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On Friday afternoon, 18 October, Minister Eppo Bruins (Education, Culture, and Science) paid a working visit to Maastricht. There, he was briefed by Limburg's educational institutions on current educational topics from the Education Manifesto. The minister also engaged in conversations with teachers and students. Through practical examples, Bruins gained a clear understanding of how education in Limburg is joining forces and taking advantage of the opportunities presented by its border location. In addition, the Province of Limburg and the educational institutions expressed their concerns about government plans that do not sufficiently take these regional opportunities into account.
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On 15 October, education minister Bruins informed the Netherlands House of Representatives of his plans to reduce the number of international students in the Netherlands through the Internationalisation in Balance Act (‘Wet Internationalisering in Balans’). Maastricht University has serious concerns about this. The minister seems to completely ignore the need for appropriate policies that the education and business communities as well as the government of Limburg have constantly pointed out in recent times. Appropriate rules with an eye for regional differences are in fact a dire necessity to prevent educational barrenness in Limburg, and to train enough professionals for the tense labour market in the region and the Netherlands.
