This research programme focuses on a period of severe pan-European economic and demographic change: the Late Roman Period (AD 300-500) and Early Middle Ages (AD 500-1000). Physical-geographical and biogeological data point at marked climatic variability and changing landscapes during this time interval. In geomorphologically sensitive regions such as river deltas and coastal areas these changes must have had a noticeable impact on the location and lay-out of urban centres and rural settlements, land use and subsistence strategies, and connections of population centres to their economical ?hinterland?. Recent developments in digital infrastructure in the Humanities and Geosciences in the Netherlands for the first time enable us to study these phenomena from an interregional and interdisciplinary perspective. We propose to study how settlement dynamics, land use, infrastructure, demography and trade between AD 300 and 1000 were related to changes of the landscape and climate, focusing on the Lowlands? geomorphologically most sensitive regions. This reconstruction will take place within three complementary PhD-projects, in the realms of archaeology, physical geography and biogeology. Subproject A focuses on occupation patterns and land use in coastal, river and Pleistocene sandy regions, subproject B on natural geomorphologic landscape dynamics in these regions, and subproject C on vegetation changes and climate. We will use dendrochronology-based information about the exact age of settlements and infrastructure, economy, landscape evolution, vegetation and climate to connect the projects. The results will be synthesized in an interdisciplinary reconstruction of the interactions between cultural and environmental dynamics in the Lowlands between AD 300 and 1000 in a broader northwest-European context. The proposed study will greatly improve the archaeological understanding of dynamics in the Early Medieval Lowlands and strongly enhance the framework for future research of this key period.

The Netherlands and its former colonial territories are marked by numerous traumascapes: sites that bear the traces and associated memories of trauma and loss. These traumascapes are critical to identity and memorialization. However, they are frequently points of societal contention regarding their past, present, and future. In the Traumascapes Project, these issues are addressed by a strong interdisciplinary consortium. In co-creation, this consortium develops tools to make the Dutch traumascapes more accessible and inclusive, not only for the purpose of remembrance and trauma processing, but also to better deploy these sites for societal debate and transitions of the future.

Bij beslissingen over de restauratie van veel uiteenlopende objecten wordt veel (natuur)wetenschap toegepast, niet alleen voor schilderijen, maar juist ook bij andere kunstwerken, (cultuur) historische en archeologische objecten in kleinere regionale en lokale musea. Het gaat om erfgoed dat voor het brede publiek belangrijk is, het Nederlandse erfgoed. Om een breed publiek kennis te laten maken met (natuur)wetenschap, hoe het werkt en hoe belangrijk het is voor de erfgoedwereld stellen wij een tweejarig project voor waarbij wij natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek aan erfgoedobjecten naar het publiek te brengen en direct te laten ervaren. Ons laboratorium - dat gespecialiseerd is in (natuur)wetenschappelijk onderzoek naar objecten van kunst en cultureel erfgoed gaat met een busje 8x verspreid over 2 jaar naar verschillende lokale en regionale musea in het land. Daar zullen we telkens twee dagen op zaal met onze mobiele apparatuur (natuur)wetenschappelijk onderzoek doen naar de objecten uit het museum.