On June 16th, 2022, Erasmus University Rotterdam hosted the president of the European Research Council, Prof. Maria Leptin. During this visit, Prof. Leptin had the opportunity to get to know our university and some of our strategic initiatives. In a series of very interesting and inspiring sessions she met our wider academic community, including some of our ERC laureates, as well as researchers from the EUR-TUD-EMC convergence. We had excellent discussions and exchanges on topics of mutual interest, such as the research assessment reforms, open and responsible science, diversity and inclusion, and the importance of social sciences and humanities in frontier and transdisciplinary research.
Developing successful research environments
We discussed with her the key incentives for developing successful research environments where we proudly presented our diversity and inclusion policy, as well as our pioneering approach and pilots to recognising and rewarding academics. She could hear from us how courageous and determined our schools are to pilot transformations and pursue challenging reforms that are still in a discussion phase at EU institutions level, and at other universities in Europe. Prof. Leptin had words of praise for these EUR initiatives “I was impressed that it had been done so thoroughly and in such an encompassing way, which I think is already a major step in the right direction.” When it comes to the expected reforms of the research assessment system at EU level, Prof. Leptin noted that although the discussions are ongoing and there is a clear understanding of the need for a more balanced quantitative and qualitative assessment approach, she doesn’t expect any radical changes. What is important from her perspective is “raising awareness, and training panel members on potential bias,” as their evaluations do not consist of “going down a list and ticking boxes – it’s more work than that.”
Trans-disciplinarity in education and research
We demonstrated to her that we truly believe in, and we are working very devotedly towards fostering trans-disciplinarity, in both our education and research. Through some very inspiring examples our researchers demonstrated how indispensable our research, and the social sciences and humanities in general, are to understanding and addressing contemporary and future global challenges and to grasping emerging opportunities. During a dedicated session with the EUR-TUD-EMC convergence community, Prof. Leptin met the presidents of our 3 partner institutions, and a number of scientists that are building bridges between the medical, technical, and social sciences and humanities, working in trans-disciplinary programs, searching for solutions to world’s most pressing problems. They showcased how our curiosity-driven, frontier research is combined with transdisciplinary programs through examples from our convergence initiatives within the Resilient Delta, Health & Technology, Healthy Start, Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness.
Role of social sciences and humanities in frontier and trans-disciplinary research
Last but not least, we had the honour to hear her vision on the role of the social sciences and humanities in frontier and trans-disciplinary research where she remarked that she sees no distinction between the social sciences and humanities and physical or life sciences, and that, “frontier research is done everywhere where humans are driven by their curiosity, and many of those who do it best and make discoveries are funded by the ERC.” When asked what she thinks people want from the social sciences and humanities, Prof. Leptin noted that while what people want to know is endless, “they want to understand how their minds work, how society works, how choices are made, how we can improve, how language evolves…everything in society and about us and our minds, and the way it all functions together is addressed by social sciences and humanities.”
If you want to get an impression of the day, check out this video!