Robert Borst, Assistant Professor Global Health Systems Resilience & Governance, is one of the two hundred research projects by researchers who has been awarded a Veni grant. The grant is an incentive for adventurous, talented and groundbreaking researchers to further develop their own research ideas over the next three years.
Borst receives the grant for his research ‘The Caring Kingdom: transforming historical Caribbean-European relations for better care’. Through its colonial past, the Netherlands remains connected to the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius, and Saba. In healthcare, these entities work closely together, for instance because there are few available doctors locally. However, these relations are challenged by mutual distrust and misunderstandings, which harms the quality of care. This research looks into why these problems occur and offers practical solutions to improve collaboration.
The aim of the NWO Talent Programme is to create creative space for adventurous, talented, pioneering researchers, in which they can conduct research of their own choosing, develop a line of research and further develop their talent. The Veni target group consists of researchers in the transition phase to independence, for whom the Veni can contribute to the development of the researcher in this field. Researchers eligible for a Veni grant have academic qualities that clearly exceed what is usual. The Veni grant is intended to fund scientifically innovative research and thereby enable these researchers to develop as independent researchers.
Robert is a leading interdisciplinary scholar in sociological health policy and systems research, with expertise spanning health policy, sociology, and public administration. His work centres on how social ties and governance networks shape knowledge translation in health policy, particularly in post-colonial contexts. In 2024, he founded the Caribbean Health Policy & Governance (CHPG) network, which connects Dutch Caribbean health actors and researchers to foster evidence-informed policymaking. Previously, he received two landmark ZonMw grants in 2023 and 2024 for research on health systems resilience in the Dutch Caribbean.
