New technologies bring large societal benefits, but may also be associated with substantial health and environmental risks. Timely identification of these risks is often hindered by unpredictability of technological performance under real world circumstances. Scholars working on risk governance have therefore proposed that the societal introduction of technologies should be accompanied by a process of learning about risks and ways to govern these risks. However, this process of learning is often assumed, but seldom systematically examined. The project therefore aims to examine conditions under which social systems learn to identify risks of new technologies by combining insights from risk governance and complex network analysis. The project starts from the premise that technologies and risks are relational objects. This makes related technologies susceptible to the same risk, and a single technology susceptible to related risks. I examine how this relatedness structure guides risk identification depending on (i) state of knowledge about risks, (ii) risk approach, (iii) distribution of participants. The project focuses on the identification of drug risks, known as adverse drug reactions (ADRs). ADRs cause 197.000 deaths annually in Europe, while ADR-related costs comprise €79 billion. I use a unique dataset covering all identified ADRs of drugs approved in Europe in the last twenty years. Combining time-to-event modelling and network science, I examine the rate of risk identification and network correlations between new and already identified drug-ADR relations. The contribution of the project is threefold. Theoretically, I propose a social theory of learning about risk identification which complements technology-specific perspectives. Empirically, I conduct one of the first large-scale quantitative analyses of how risk identification unfolds over time. Functionally, I evaluate proactive risk approaches and develop network techniques that have use-potential for comparative risk evaluation by authorities and companies. Results will be made relevant to stakeholders through a dedicated engagement strategy.

This project uses digital technologies to analyze the role of reference cultures in debates about social issues and collective identities, looking specifically at the emergence of the United States in public discourse in the Netherlands from the end of the nineteenth century to the end of the Cold War. It introduces the concept of reference culture as a crucial addition to the humanities toolbox to discuss long-term asymmetrical processes of cultural exchange involving dimensions of power and hegemony. The concept recognizes the fact that some cultures assume a dominant role in the international circulation of knowledge and practices, offering or imposing a model that others imitate, adapt, or resist. More specifically, the project will add to our understanding of the global position of the Netherlands as a knowledge-based economy thriving on the innovation that emerges from international cultural encounters. Reference cultures are mental constructs that do not necessarily represent a geopolitical reality with an internal hierarchy and recognizable borders. These culturally conditioned images of trans-national models are typically established and negotiated in public discourses over a long period of time. However, the specific historical dynamics of reference cultures have never been systematically analyzed and hence are not fully understood. To explore these dynamics, this project asks three interrelated questions. (1) How were ideas, products and practices associated with the United States valued in Dutch public discourse between 1890 and 1990? (2) How can e-tools be used to map trends and changes in relation to the economic power, cultural acceptance, and scientific and technological impact of the United States as reference culture? (3) How does public discourse reflect and influence the emergence and impact of reference cultures? We propose that the key to understanding the emergence and dominance of reference cultures is to chart the public discourse in which these collective frames of reference are established. The availability of a large digital data collection in the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) enables us for the first time to study long-term developments and transformations in these national discourses in a systematic, longitudinal, and quantifiable way by using innovative text-mining tools. These ?e-research? tools allow us to test the value of qualitative heuristic models and to pair them in a meaningful fashion with quantitative methodology. This will demonstrate that conclusions based on large quantifiable data sets concerning public debates open new vistas in humanities research because they (a) provide a robust framework for contextualizing conclusions based on ?traditional? qualitative research; and (b) directly complement numerical data sets provided by other researchers, for example on economic and social trends.

TAPTOE has found that the number of Dutch citizens receiving at least one opioid prescription has increased in the past ten years, which is linked to the increased risk of opioid-related hospitalisation and mortality. Studies into patient as well as health care practitioners perspectives on opioid use suggest several measures to prevent problematic opioid use in clinical practice. Currently, one study to reduce oxycodone by substituting with medicinal cannabis is being performed. Two other trials will start shortly, one investigating different tapering off medications for an opioid use disorder, and one first line intervention trial aimed at FTO groups.