In 2022 as CDKM consortium in Nijmegen we have worked on the development of implementation plans, as to find a solution to experienced (organisational) challenges, considering the involvement of lecturers, students and researchers with societal questions in our city. The next three years we will carry out our implementation plans. Our method of cooperation between knowledge institutions and municipality in working interdisciplinairy and/or multi-level on societal issues in our city will be scaled up, by: 1) focus on multi-year large projects; 2) connecting in case of short questions; 3) community formation; 4) sustainable embedding within organisations.

This project establishes an international research network on the Dublin Gate Theatre (1928—). This avant-garde playhouse offers a case study that will significantly advance existing knowledge about the role of theatres as institutions engaging with the complexities of cultural exchange and the construction of (inter)national identities in changing, globalising societies. Bringing together international theatre experts and paving the way for interdisciplinary collaboration, the network aims to research the Gate’s role as a sanctuary of hybrid and emancipatory identity formation, in comparison with other avant garde theatres in Europe. Through expert meetings, publications and a conference it will explore three crucial aspects. Firstly, how the Gate’s dramaturgy questioned the homogenisation of Irish identities, especially in an emerging postcolonial nation. Secondly, how the Gate has invested in cosmopolitan configurations of identity by importing foreign experimental plays and techniques and by exporting productions of its Irish plays to theatres across the world. Finally, the network examines the contributions that the Gate has made to the visibility and acceptance of marginalized identities. The ubiquitous presence of women writers, editors and directors at the Gate, and its importance in creating a tolerant Dublin gay scene, testify to its engagement with contested issues of gender and sexuality. The network will launch a bibliographical digital archive and an exhibition highlighting the Gate’s function as an intercultural conduit in and beyond Europe, thereby developing and disseminating knowledge on cultural production and identity formation that can be transposed to other European contexts in a Horizon 2020 proposal.

The goal of this VIDI proposal is to investigate emerging functions of self-assembled nanomotors by tailoring their shape, structure and movement for applications in sensing, and theranostics as well as manipulation under external stimuli for imaging, diagnostics and targeted release. The conceptually new approach to construct nanomotors is based on out-of-equilibrium self-assembly of amphiphilic block-copolymers into polymersomes and the subsequent change of their shape and freezing of the structure into bowl-shape morphology (stomatocyte). By precisely controlling the folding process, architectures with openings of adjustable sizes and selectivity over entrapment of catalysts has been obtained. Decomposition of fuel by the entrapped catalyst produces a rapid discharge of gases propelling the construct. Several functions of these multicomponent locomotive systems are being investigated, their ability to move, sense their environment and carry a payload to a pre-programmed environmental location, respond to external stimuli such as magnetic field for guidance and imaging or change the properties of the environment they are in order to trigger release. These factors will be studied along 3 research lines. The first topic deals with the investigation of the out-of-equilibrium assembly of the amphiphiles into polymersomes and the shape transformation of polymersomes under various conditions. This will enable the determination of optimally functioning nanomotors of different shapes as well as understanding the role of shape in the efficiency of the nanomotors. The second topic deals with the use of the nanomotors for delivery building on the successful proof of concept demonstration of directional control of movement of the stomatocyte nanomotors via chemotaxis published recently in Angewandte Chemie. For this purpose, nanomotors running on multiple fuels, able to trace small gradients of analytes will be designed. In the third line of investigation we will study the manipulation of the supramolecular structures in magnetic field by switching on/off a magnetic valve.

Europe is the future work field for students in migration law. But with only theoretical knowledge, reality often becomes more complex. The Migration Game is a simulation game in which we offer our students a unique practice experience in the international playing field. This project aims to develop a digital game. By linking theory and practice, students experience how complex the reality of European migration law is. The Migration game is an educational innovation that will impulse cooperation with other European academic institutions and will aid students to develop skills in legal communication and international collaboration.

We constantly try to anticipate what we will see, hear and feel, in order to adapt our behavior to a continuously changing environment. How these predictive skills at lower perceptual levels influence acquisition of higher-order cognitive constructs such as language is still largely unknown. The current project aims to address this question within the domain of audiovisual speech perception. Typically, we not only hear but also see a speaker talk, and the presence of this visual information benefits speech recognition. This audiovisual benefit occurs as visual speech provides information that is complementary in its nature and often precedes auditory information (we see the lips close before we hear "p"). However, little is known about how audiovisual speech perception ability contributes to the development of speech sound (i.e., phonological) representations of words in the mental lexicon. This is the focus of the current project. To test the hypothesis that audiovisual prediction plays an important role in the development of phonological representations a longitudinal study highlighting the period of early literacy acquisition with children with and without a family history of dyslexia is proposed (Study A). Responses on behavioural audiovisual tasks reflect the combined result of perceptual and post-perceptual processes. In Study B, I will assess the dynamics of audiovisual perception directly by tracking the neural time-course of audiovisual perception for speech and non-speech, by examining event-related potentials. By comparing the time-course for speech to that of processing audiovisual non-speech events (i.e., seeing and hearing someone clap their hands), I will be able to determine whether any observed individual variation in the dynamics of audiovisual perception is limited to the language domain or is domain-general. The results will inform theories about the nature of phonological representations, and their development, as well as diagnostic and educational strategies for children at-risk of dyslexia.