UU scientists win Spinoza Prize and Stevin Prize

Each year, the NWO puts four Dutch researchers in the spotlight who’ve done groundbreaking, inspiring research. For the Spinoza Prize, the focus is on the scientific quality of the research; the Steven Prize mainly looks at societal impact. In both categories, then, there are two winners. They each receive 1.5 million euros. 

UU professor of Integrated Assessment of Global Environmental Change Detlef van Vuuren (3) is one of the winners of the Spinoza Prize. Van Vuuren also works for the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, and gained global fame with his Image Model, which charts global climate and sustainability issues in an advanced way. The model was used, among other things, in drafting the well-known UN climate reports, and in the negotiations for the Paris climate agreement. 

In an interview with DUB, Van Vuuren says that as a UU student of Environmental Sciences, he was inspired by the famous report Limits of Growth by the Club of Rome. “For me, that was truly an eye opener. How amazing that you can use a model to try to understand such complex environmental issues, and then create societally relevant scenarios with it.”

Stevin Prize for improving governance
UU professor of Governance Paul ‘t Hart (61) is, according to the jury, one of the most influential governance experts of the Netherlands, and will receive this year’s Stevin Prize. Thousands of civil servants at local, national and international level have benefited from his education, research, and advisory work. He’s seen as the initiator of a new movement: positive governance. 

In an interview with DUB, he says: “The idea quickly arises that things are very wrong in the Dutch government and its failing civil servants. People quickly refer to the child benefits scandal. But that’s a one-sided picture. There are a lot of things that are going well. When the media and politics only emphasise what’s going wrong, that creates the risk of administrators cramping up, and civil servants becoming defensive and overly careful in order to prevent any possible mistakes.”

Other winners
Bernet Elzinga, professor of Stress-Related Psychopathology at the University of Leiden, will also receive the Spinoza Prize this year. She develops practical methods based on scientific insights, to help parents and young people. that way, she also manages to help prevent passing mental health issues from one generation to the next. 

The other Stevin Prize is awarded to the Delft professor of human-robot interaction David Abbink. He studies how high-tech innovations can best be used. His work can lead to a fruitful use of robots in an aging society. 

Successful UU’ers 
Utrecht University is rather successful in obtaining Spinoza Prizes. In 2022, plant biologist Corné Pieterse won the prize; the year before that, media scientist José van Dijck did. Van Vuuren’s win is the eighth in ten years’ time for a UU scientist. The prizes were first awarded in 1995.

UU professor of Governance Paul ‘t Hart is, after historian Beatrice de Graaf and sociologist Tanja van der Lippe, the third UU’er who wins the Stevin Prize. This prize was first awarded in 2018; De Graaf was one of the first winners of this prize that year. 

Festive ceremony 
Including the new winners, the Netherlands now has 109 Spinoza winners and fourteen Stevin winners. Candidates are proposed by renowned Dutch scientists. A commission comprised of seventeen members – scientists as well as representatives from the corporate world and societal organisations – decide which researchers are eligible, based partially on conversations with experts.

The festive awards ceremony of the Spinoza and Stevin prize will take place on Wednesday, October 2, 2024. During that ceremony, the winners will present their work.