Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have become a dominant technology in the display industry and hold great promise for a variety of applications in the fields of lighting, visible communication, sensing and healthcare. Current research efforts focus on the development of thermally-activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) emitters that promise highly efficient and long-lifetime performance without the use of any heavy metals. These materials show a small energy gap between their singlet and triplet energy levels allowing the up-conversion of non-emissive triplets to light-emitting singlets at room temperature via the reverse intersystem crossing process. Although efficient triplet harvesting can take place in TADF OLEDs, the dynamics involved in the TADF mechanism need to be faster to substantially reduce the accumulation of long-lived triplet excitons during the device operation and improve their overall performance. This project addresses this research challenge by proposing an innovative approach based on the integration of sub-wavelength photonic nanostructures into TADF OLEDs. Via their effects on the local photonic density and the dielectric permittivity of the effective media, the photonic nanostructures will be engineered to accelerate both radiative decay and reverse intersystem crossing rates. This will improve the efficiency of OLEDs, especially at high brightness and increase their lifetime. The successful outcome of the project is expected to lead to an improvement of the TADF OLED technology and will be highly relevant for a range of other applications in fields as diverse as organic optoelectronics, sensing and photochemistry.

Mathematics is the language of science and hence is universal. On the other hand, mathematics is also part of culture, and one notices important cultural differences in the historical development of mathematics in Japan and in the Netherlands. Despite the globalization and the internationalization of science, many of these aspects are visible even today. In our opinion, bringing together two different mathematical traditions is highly beneficial. This difference in style is largely present today in the respective communities in the Netherlands and Japan. However, there are also methods and techniques that develop in parallel (e.g., lace expansions, large deviations). Scientific discussions, exchange of ideas, and collaboration between the communities is already present on the individual level but there is a definite need, and in fact, some urgency, to bring the cooperation and collaboration on a higher level. In both countries, we currently have a surprisingly strong upcoming generation of talented young researchers. Now is the right moment to create the necessary momentum for the training of the next generation and to shape the future collaboration between the communities. It is important to add that in the field of probability theory Japan and the Netherlands both have a very prominent position, and are able to compete with mathematical “superpowers” like the US and France. With the present application, our primary objective is to facilitate collaboration between the two communities. In fact, we plan that the Japan-Netherlands Seminar in Probability will become a regular event, alternating between the two countries every 1-2 years.

The number, variety and popularity of automated software development techniques is constantly increasing: while in the past automation has been applied to facilitate such menial tasks as system build, ​recent years see automated tools taking over non-trivial tasks​ such as analyzing programs, reporting and repairing bugs and team and task management. We expect that in the coming 5-10 years software developers will no longer ​use​ automatic tools but ​collaborate​ with them as equal partners in the software development process or risk becoming obsolete and replaced. Understanding how developers can thrive in the emergent human/tool collaboration requires ​changing the ways developers make decisions and work together​. Indeed, while automatic tools make algorithmic, rational decision making more efficient, they are inherently incapable of using intuition: it is well known that logic and gut feeling are essential for human mind to assist information processing and decision. Moreover, while both humans and machines fail they tend to fail in different ways: e.g., human overriding the machine-generated alarms was crucial in allowing Appollo 11 to land on the Moon. This calls for more profound investigation of what software development tasks can be entrusted to tools, and what should be performed by humans. As MSR researchers working on human aspects of software engineering we are uniquely positioned to address this challenge. Indeed, software repositories, such as source control systems, archived communications between project personnel, and defect tracking systems, are an invaluable source of information about communication and collaboration between developers, as well as about the ways they use currently available automatic tools. While importance of software repositories has been recognised in the past, ​we still miss a broader empirically-supported theory of software engineering capable of predicting the impact of such changes as growing automation of the software engineering process​. If this research is not conducted now, we will not be able to take advantage of new automation techniques, but will be subdued by them, and ultimately come short of living up to expectations of the society. This joint seminar will set up a research line/agenda to investigate the broader empirically-supported theory of software engineering and be ready for the future. In terms of the number of publications and the number of participants to the major MSR events, Japan and the Netherlands are the most active countries in Asia and in Europe respectively. The seminar will provide an informal, yet informative, environment for both Japanese and Dutch researchers to benefit from the strengths and complementary characters of two of the strongest communities. We also aim to create a collaborative network towards the same goal, building theories, and to be key role players for such study in the MSR filed.