Four Vidi grants for talented UM researchers
The Dutch Research Council, formerly known as: Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research/NWO, has awarded a Vidi grant worth 800,000 euros to four experienced UM researchers: Dr. Nalan Baştürk (SBE), Dr. Werend Boesmans (GROW), Prof. Anique de Bruin (SHE) and Dr. Shane Ellis (M4I). The grant enables them to develop their own innovative line of research and set up their own research group. Vidi grants enable researchers to do research for five years. The grants are awarded every year. During this Vidi funding round, 443 researchers submitted an admissible research project for funding. Eighty-five of them have now received a grant.
The four UM laureates and their research
The four UM laureates will work on the following research projects:
Dr. Nalan Baştürk, SBE: Novel data-driven approaches for depression analysis
Nalan Baştürk and her team will develop new statistical methods that will help in understanding why some people recover quickly from mental disorders while others do not. These methods will incorporate information from earlier scientific studies and clinical practice to enhance diagnosis and personalized treatment decisions.
Dr. Werend Boesmans, FHML/GROW: Glia of the bowel - landscapers in the second brain
The neural circuits of the enteric nervous system, the little brain in our gut that regulates digestive function, appear extremely chaotic and therefore are difficult to elucidate. Werend Boesmans and his team aim to unravel these circuits and I will study the role of enteric glia in their assembly and maintenance.
Prof. Anique de Bruin, FHML/SHE: Play, stop, pause? Optimizing learning through effort regulation
Self-regulated learning is of increasing importance in an information-dense, digital world. Little is known, however, as to how students regulate cognitive effort during self-regulated learning. Through experimental studies incorporating individualized feedback, the researchers will unravel what role learning experiences play and how taking breaks optimizes effort regulation.
Dr. Shane Ellis, FHML/M4I: The fat perspective - High multi-resolution imaging of lipid metabolism
Fats are all around us and play essential roles in health and disease. The functions of fats are determined by both the location in tissue and their chemical structure. This project will develop new imaging methods to simultaneously image and study the structure of lipids in detail never before possible.
NWO Talent Scheme
Vidi is aimed at experienced researchers who have carried out successful research for a number of years after obtaining their PhDs. Together with Veni and Vici, Vidi is part of the NWO Talent Scheme. Researchers in the NWO Talent Scheme are free to submit their own subject for funding. NWO thus encourages curiosity-driven and innovative research. NWO selects researchers based on the quality of the researcher, the innovative character of the research, the expected scientific impact of the research proposal and the possibilities for knowledge use.
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