A large-scale energy transition of society requires efficient electrochemical processes for generating, converting, and storing sustainable energy. Unfortunately, existing electrochemical processes have serious limitations and are inadequate to meet the grand challenges ahead. At present there is insufficient knowledge of the processes occurring in electrochemical systems at the smallest scale to fundamentally improve these processes. In this multidisciplinary fundamental research program, chemists and physicists lay the foundation for new efficient electrochemical technologies designed to dramatically reduce humanitys carbon footprint.

Understanding scientific models is an important issue when developing new curricula for beta sciences in secondary school. When we let students design their own models, they tend to develop better scientific understanding of the subject. Also, when they develop models themselves, they can experience the dynamic aspect of these models. The aim of this project is to find out how we can let students design visual and dynamic models, using drawing based modelling. By doing this, students will get a better insight in the meaning of models in science and society as a representation of the world they live in. Also, it will show them that existing models can be adjusted, according to new approaches and growing insight.

The project has uncovered a rich tradition of constructivist thinking in classical geometry. Anchoring geometry in construction devices that generalize Euclid’s ruler and compass was a way of ensuring rigor, not dissimilar to the motivations that led to a revival of operationalism, positivism, constructivism, and intuitionism in the 20th century. With this lens we have uncovered new layers of meaning in mathematical works of antiquity and the 17th century. With our reconstruction of the underlying research program, the specific technical choices of these works take on a broader significance and are seen to be part of a coherent dialog.

Emerging technologies can have a tremendous impact on the Global South. There are several methods to assess the societal implications of these technologies. These methods can be used to promote those technological developments that benefits the Global South and mitigate developments that harm the Global South. Most of these methods exclusively rely on natural scientists and engineers to identify societal implications, however. This has been shown to introduce several biases and exclude other relevant voices. In this project we therefore aim to develop more democratic and inclusive methods for assessing emerging technologies for the Global South. In particular we focus on the Delphi method, an influential expert-based method for ranking the most important societal implications of emerging technologies. We aim to develop a new type of Delphi method that incorporates diverse forms of expertise. We will test and apply this method to the case of genome editing.

We aim at setting up a lasting network among Chinese and European (affiliated with Dutch universities) researchers, with the primary goal of quantitatively analyzing the position of China in the world economy. During the first three years of the proposed research collaboration, the primary focus is the role of silver in the monetary system of the pre-20th century China. In much of current literature China is viewed as a core actor in the world flows of silver up to the 20th century and the use of this metal in its economy touches upon many questions related to monetization of the Chinese economy and the Great Divergence (why Europe and China grew apart economically). This analysis is done using new historical data, which has been lacking in much of the current research in this field. The research cooperation is expected to grow both in terms of the number of participant and the range of topics. We plan three workshops and two volume and at least two joint journal articles, followed by future grant applications.