With more than a million euros in funding for 16 diverse projects, the NWA gives an impulse to the field of science communication. The projects will use both new forms of communication and existing forms in new ways to reach an audience that otherwise would not necessarily come into contact with science. A brief description of the two Maastricht projects:

PAS in the Neighbourhood

What questions keep you awake at night or what are you curious about? Questions you might want to put to a scientist? You don’t need to go to university to do it, because the scientists are now coming to your neighbourhood, where they will pitch a tent for an evening of discussion.

Rob van Duijn (Studium Generale, SSC) is to receive 25,000 euros for this project, in which he will collaborate with the community theatre company Buurttheater Maastricht and the student volunteering facilitator Match.

Voluptas cinetica: the life cycle of the coronavirus

Although the world is currently in the grip of the coronavirus, few people have actually witnessed its nano world. Through an animation, complemented by real microscopic images of infected cells, the researchers aim to share their passion for this nano cosmos and to reveal the life cycle of the virus to a wide audience.

Raimond Ravelli (M4I) will receive 25,000 euros for this project, which is the result of a curricular module earlier this academic year: last September, 80 students of the Maastricht Science Programme depicted aspects of the life cycle of the coronavirus in a variety of short animations.

National Science Agenda

Commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), NWO has been funding research in the context of the Dutch National Research Agenda since 2018. The aim of the research in the Agenda is to make a permanent positive contribution to the future knowledge society by building bridges in the present and joining forces to address scientific and social challenges. One way in which this takes place is through the promotion of science communication, in collaboration with scientists in the Netherlands. By intensifying the interaction between science and society, scientific research is made more visible and tangible.