Sector plans

"I am an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist interested in the intersection of technology and sustainability, especially in the context of global supply chain governance. Most recently, this has involved research on metal and mineral supply chains, with a focus on traceability and digitization, building on my previous work studying sustainability standards as a technology of governance in global agricultural supply chains, ESG integration in investment practices, and the way corporate sustainability managers think about their impacts."

“My research bridges the fields of (comparative) political economy and political behaviour. Specifically, I am interested in better understanding the consequences of rising economic and social inequalities for the way in which our democracies work. To this end, I explore why citizens in unequal democracies seem to be disengaging from traditional forms of political participation."

"My research contributes to the Horizon Europe project "ENSURED", which focuses on how the European Union (EU) and its member states can transform global governance. Within ENSURED, I am involved in a Work Package on “health and pandemics”, dealing with the interplay between Intellectual Property and vaccine access, the current negotiations on a World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic agreement, and the reform of the WHO’s governance and financial framework."

“My research focuses on developing human-centric artificial intelligence (AI) systems that prioritize ethical, social, and human values in their design and implementation. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, I examine how AI technologies are legitimized by enduring narratives about the relationship between humans and machines. Drawing on frameworks from pragmatist philosophy, critical theory, and historical reconstruction, I explore how AI systems influence individuals and communities."

"Can AI have empathy? Do care robots genuinely care? Utilizing my background in the philosophy of cognitive science, I investigate emotion recognition software and its racial and gender biases while also exploring emotional AI applications for autism, grief bots, and therapy bots."

"Understanding migrant communities and their well-being is not simply about understanding them in the country they migrated to, but also how they relate to their country of origin. Often migrants keep strong links to their origin country, especially when family members still reside there. My research centres around transnational migration, exploring how migration shapes relationships, caregiving practices, and well-being within families spread across borders." 

"In my research, I try to understand how global governance can be more effective at solving global problems – specifically global inequality and health inequality. I use statistical analyses to study the perceptions and behaviour of individuals working in international organizations – like the World Bank or the World Health Organization." 

"I am interested in language, border regions, and case studies that discuss a ‘marginalised’ or ‘bottom-up’ perspective on political issues such as European integration labour migration, and automation. Empirically, I often focus on cases from the Dutch province of Limburg, but always within an international, European, and/or border-regional framework."

“My work explores historical and contemporary perspectives on automation, computation, and visualization within the medical sciences, behavioural sciences, and brain and mind sciences. Drawing on the history of science, technology, and medicine, I also critically examine contemporary expectations of artificial intelligence, such as its applications in automated decision-making and image recognition in the medical field."

"As part of the Sector Plan 'Human Factor in New Technology', my research looks at sustainability transitions and transformations. While technological change is often considered to occur automatically with new innovations, history reminds us that it always depends on human factors. My research focuses on the oil industry investing in nuclear, solar and geothermal energy in the 1970s, and the “desulfurization” of European energy systems in the 1970s-1980s."

"I teach and study cultural heritage and performance art. More specifically, I explores how art, science, and technology come together in preserving artistic traditions. My research focuses on how performance-based artworks evolve over time, how communities and audiences help keep them alive, and how craftsmanship shapes the arts and its education."

“You might think that technologies are going to make life easier for us all, making us happier and healthier in the process, or, that their benefits are sensationalized, that their risks are largely unknown, and that those involved in their development are unethical, immoral, and solely interested in turning a profit. 

In my research, I am not so much interested in whether technology is considered a hero or a villain, instead I am interested in discussions surrounding what it means to develop technologies responsibly and how technological change may trigger us to re-evaluate what responsibility itself actually means."

“My research is situated in the Humane AI sector plan. I aim to study contemporary science and technology from two perspectives. First, I study science and technology from an 'ecological' perspective, emphasizing how any technological artifact is always embedded in a material and social environment in order to function. Second, I draw on ideas from the history of the philosophy of science and technology, attempting to recover valuable but forgotten perspectives from the history of the humanities for the study of contemporary science and technology.”

“I position my research within the fields of international development and migration studies. I collaborate with international and interdisciplinary scholars that share a common interest in topics related to movement, (im)mobilities, and climate and social justice, to understand people’s navigation of power and discourse."

"I am a political economist and in my research I try to understand how societies adapt to new technologies and more specifically how politics and institutions shape that process. I am particularly fascinated by automating technologies, such as robots and AI, because they impose a difficult trade-off for societies."

“Debates on disinformation generally focus on distinguishing fact from falsehood. However, democracy depends not only on the accuracy of information, but also on its timing in the political process – and this timing in turn influences the accuracy of information. Information may be truthful, yet reach citizens and their democratic representatives too early or too late. My research thus looks at the role of time in media and politics."