Vidi is aimed at experienced researchers who have already conducted successful research for several years after obtaining their PhD. Together with the Veni and Vici grants, Vidi is part of the NWO Talent Programme. A total of 829 researchers submitted a research project proposal for funding in this Vidi round. Of these, 102 were honoured this time, including the 13 projects below from uu77 and Radboud university medical center.
Web Security and Privacy Observatory (WeSPO)
Gunes Acar, Faculty of Science
Internet users face many privacy and security threats, ranging from intrusive online tracking to theft of their financial information such as credit card numbers. Large-scale privacy and security scans help identify and prevent such online threats, but that is a slow and resource-intensive process. That means such privacy and security threats sometimes remain active for years until they are discovered, on websites that are visited by millions of users. This project will build novel investigatory software, techniques and datasets to make it possible to identify web-based privacy and security threats much faster and easier.
Of Books and Beasts. Understanding processes of medieval textual transmission through a digital analysis of the manuscripts of the Physiologus
Shari Boodts, Faculty of Arts
The digital turn in medieval manuscript studies holds untold potential for our understanding of the process of handwritten text transmission and its impact on our cultural heritage. This project will harness that potential to study the Physiologus, a late-antique collection of animal stories with a Christian allegorical interpretation widely copied, translated, and adapted throughout the Middle Ages. Building on this quintessential example of creative medieval reception, the project will develop new digital methods for the study of medieval manuscripts as mediators of culture, and fundamentally expand the ways in which we use them as historical sources.
How gut bacteria feast on sweet molecules
Christian Büll, Faculty of Science
The human gut is populated by helpful bacteria that assist food digestion. To support these bacteria, the intestine produces a mucus slime layer consisting of proteins and sugar molecules. Gut bacteria break down mucus and they eat the freed proteins and sugars. Excessive mucus breakdown destroys the mucus layer leading to inflammation and Crohn’s disease. Many aspects of how bacteria degrade human mucus are unknown. Therefore, novel molecular probes and methods for measuring bacterial mucus breakdown will be developed. Moreover, molecules that stop excessive mucus degradation will be created to reduce inflammation in the gut.
Spacetimes near the boundary of existence
Annegret Burtscher, Faculty of Science
Is the universe finite or infinite? And if it has a boundary, what happens there and what’s outside? Mathematicians investigate the universe through the geometric concept of spacetimes solving the Einstein equations in general relativity. In this model, boundaries hold important information about the global dynamics of these spacetimes. This information is used, for example, in astrophysics to interpret gravitational wave signals. In this project, mathematicians develop a novel approach to analyze the behavior of these gravitational waves near and at boundaries “at infinity”.
Ethnicity and (In)Equality in Early Christianity
Matthijs den Dulk, Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religion
Early Christianity is frequently credited with the invention or advancement of ethnic equality since everyone could join the new faith regardless of ethnic identity. This project inquires if and how this inclusive outlook translated into a commitment to the equality of ethnic groups. Did it rule out ethnic prejudices and stereotyping of other Christians or outsiders? What theories and arguments did early Christian authors develop in support of ethnic (in)equality? Given the enormous impact of early Christian literature in later centuries, this project is a significant contribution to our understanding of the historical development of theories of ethnicity and ‘race.’
Quantum chemistry for quantum molecules
Tijs Karman, Faculty of Science
In addition to Bose-Einstein condensates of atoms, researchers have recently realized the first Bose-Einstein condensate of molecules; a quantum gas of molecules. Such quantum gases can be used to simulate electrons in materials, or for the development of upcoming quantum technologies. However, the properties of the molecular quantum gas are largely unexplored. The researcher will develop new and unconventional methods to describe molecular quantum gases based on methods from quantum chemistry, where these are applied to electrons instead of molecules.
New programming languages for the development of correct concurrent software
Robbert Krebbers, Faculty of Science
Modern society runs on concurrent software—different processes jointly process massive data sets and serve many clients and users simultaneously—but good methods to ensure the correctness and security of concurrent software are lacking. This project will design and verify the foundations for new programming languages that automatically enforce important correctness and security properties of concurrent software and thereby disable programmers from making large classes of errors. To address these goals, the project will employ a novel methodology based on logical systems for the verification of concurrent programs.
From Grunts to Grammars: Unpacking language evolution with humans and robots in virtual environment
Limor Raviv, Faculty of Social Sciences
How and when did human language evolve? Why did humans invent languages that allow us to produce complex (and false) statements such as “I saw three blue elephants dancing in space”? Without a time-machine to travel to the past, these questions seem like an eternal mystery. But new technologies like Virtual Reality and Robotics can now help scientists discover, in the lab, how languages developed their potentially infinite expressive power. This project tests the social and environmental conditions that give rise to language by looking at how humans and robots create new communication systems in different virtual 3D worlds.
Factual Belief Polarization and its Attitudinal Consequences
Roderik Rekker, Nijmegen School of Management
Political opponents are often divided not only in their attitudes, but also in their beliefs about reality. Leftist and rightist voters, for instance, have different perceptions of the causes of climate change, the magnitude of income inequality, and the number of immigrants in their country. However, it remains unclear how this 'factual belief polarization' influences public opinion and, for example, whether it contributes to broader polarization. This project combines interviews, surveys, and experiments to examine what facts people disagree on and how this affects their political attitudes.
Tricking Nature into Solving the Unsolvable
Malte Rösner, Faculty of Science
While the behavior of two interacting particles can be described theoretically, this becomes practically impossible when there are many more particles, such as for strongly paired electrons in superconductors or electron-spins in magnets. I propose a completely new approach, in which we precisely implant impurities in a quantum host material, programming it such that the resulting system solves the many-particle problem for us. I will theoretically explore this approach, paving the way to solve so-far unsolvable many-body problems and the design of materials with completely new properties.
Tuning into Tensions: How Does Protest Music Foster Polarisation?
Melanie Schiller, Faculty of Arts
Music brings people together – or so the cliché goes. However, in times of increasing societal tensions, unrest, and cultural divides, protest music by social movements seems to do the opposite: dividing society into in- and out-groups with intense animosity between them. These negative attitudes – which in extreme cases include hostility – can erode democratic norms and institutions. This project investigates the role of music in polarisation processes by examining how it is used in protest movements on opposite sides of the political spectrum. This project provides crucial insights for developing preventive strategies against harmful polarisation and promoting a sustainable democracy.
Hero of our skin
Ellen van den Bogaard, Radboud university medical center
Our skin acts as a protector, shielding our body from the outside world. In various skin conditions, environmental factors can either trigger or worsen the disease. This holds true for atopic eczema, the most prevalent inflammatory skin disease among us. Researchers seek to find evidence how key environmental sensors in our skin can influence inflammation, particularly in response to our diet and the microorganisms residing on our skin. This information yields new therapeutic options to reduce the burden of disease.
Modulating arousal to overcome gait impairments in Parkinson's disease
Jorik Nonnekes, Radboud university medical center
Gait impairments affect every person living with Parkinson’s disease, yet this debilitation symptom improves insufficiently with current treatments. Gait typically deteriorates when arousal is heightened, for example due to fear or stress. In this project, I investigate the underlying mechanisms, and how potential treatment works. Arousal influences the strength of interactions in the brain, like tuning the volume of a radio. I hypothesize that heightened arousal results in too much ‘cross-talk’ in the brain, which result in deteriorated walking, and sometimes even freezing of gait. I will test this by measuring brain activity during walking.