To do research abroad for two years
Three Utrecht-based scientists win Rubicon grant
Photo: Pexels
The three researchers are among the fourteen winners of the second round of NWO's Rubicon programme. The subsidy is aimed at young researchers who would like to have an experience at a research institute abroad.
2.4 million euros were available for this round. The amount granted to each researcher depends on how long they intend to stay abroad and the type of research they will conduct. A total of 53 people applied.
About sixty researchers get the opportunity to work abroad for an extended period every year thanks to NWO. The research financing institution has approximately 7 million euros to distribute in three rounds.
Cardiovascular epidemiologist Yvonne Koop, who works at UMC Utrecht, will spend two years at Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm. Marine ecologist Lauren Wiesebron, who is connected to the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (Dutch acronym: NIOZ) and Utrecht University, will spend two years at the University of Oslo. Culture historian Steije Hofhuis will spend two years at Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, in Berlin.
This is how their research is described by NWO's website:
-Yvonne Koop: Unravelling the time puzzle: Exploring how the biological rhythm and heart health interact in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy
Chemotherapy can lead to irreversible heart damage, causing conditions like heart failure. This study examines if the timing of chemotherapy affects heart health in breast cancer patients. Researchers hope to understand the role of the body's internal clock, the circadian rhythm, in causing heart problems to ultimately improve treatment strategies.
-Lauren Wiesebron: Out of breath in the ocean: Impacts of low oxygen on the behaviour of tiny marine animals
Oxygen concentrations in the oceans are falling due to climate change, which affects zooplankton: the tiny animals central to marine ecosystems. This Rubicon project examines how zooplankton migratory behavior is modified by low oxygen in a fjord habitat and the ramifications for marine food webs and the global carbon pump.
-Steije Hofhuis: An overly reassuring past? Migration history and the public debate today
In public debates on migration and integration, academics, politicians, and public intellectuals often refer to the past to legitimize their current viewpoints. This project will critically examine such references in German, Dutch, and American public debates. What dimensions of migration history are brought forward, and are the analogies scientifically convincing?