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15 December 2017
Bacteria can control where they go using a signaling network of protein molecules. Scientists at AMOLF have developed a microscopy method that allows them to see how individual bacteria use this network to make decisions.They discovered that bacteria are surprisingly diverse in personality and mood. The team publishes its findings in the scientific journal eLife on December 12, 2017.
In a conversation between two people it is not only what you say that matters, and whether you interrupt the previous speaker, but also, at times, whether you say something to 'the beat' of the conversation partner. Being ‘in sync’ with somebody is therefore not merely an expression: it is a genuine sign of mutual connection (affiliation) in spoken conversation. That is the conclusion of linguist Anne van Leeuwen in her doctoral thesis entitled ‘Right on time: synchronization, overlap, and affiliation in conversation’ (Language and communication). She defended her doctoral thesis on Friday 15 December at Utrecht University. Her research was funded from the NWO Talent Scheme (Vici of Prof. Jos van Berkum).
NWO has awarded three talented female scientists a WISE grant. Dr Larissa Juschkin has received an appointment at the Advanced Research Centre for Nanolithography ARCNL, Dr Kristina Ganzinger at the research institute for functional, complex matter AMOLF, and Dr Aurora Simionescu at the Netherlands Institute for Space Research SRON. With the WISE programme, NWO wants to encourage the recruitment and promotion of top women researchers at its own institutes.
14 December 2017
In the week of 20–24 November 2017, 50 young physicists gathered at the Lorentz Center in Leiden to tackle a number of practical problems involving physics. They had been invited by two of NWO's domains: Science (ENW) and Applied and Engineering Sciences (TTW).
NWO will contribute 550 million euros to the 2018-2019 Knowledge and Innovation Contract. With this contract, government, industry and knowledge institutes are underscoring the top sectors’ ambitions to strengthen the Dutch knowledge and innovation system. The contract represents a total investment of 4.7 billion euros. NWO’s contribution is designated for high-quality scientific research.
Eight transnational research projects in the JPI Cultural Heritage programme will receive around 4 million euro and start in 2018. Dutch researchers are involved in four of these projects.
The NWO executive board and the board of the Netherlands Space Research Institute SRON have expressed their preference for the joint bid of Leiden University and Delft University of Technology. In this bid, SRON Utrecht will relocate in several years time to a new building on the campus of Leiden University.
12 December 2017
Jetty van Ginkel, who recently earned her doctorate from the Delft University of Technology, has won the 2017 NWO Physics Valorisation Chapter Prize. She won the prize for the valorisation chapter in her PhD thesis entitled 'Peptide Fingerprinting Using Single-Molecule Fluorescence'. The award ceremony will take place on 23 January 2018 during the annual national physics conference Physics@Veldhoven.
Tom Van Woensel, Professor of Transport and Logistics at Eindhoven University of Technology, led the JPI Urban Europe project ‘Consolidation and Coordination in urban areas’. One of the results is the City Logistics Game. Goods flows in cities are currently fragmented and consequently inefficient and a burden on the urban environment. This could be improved by consolidating volume flows via City Hubs (or Urban Consolidation Centres). Combined with other results from the European research project ConCoord, the game could help to realise this.
The NWO-SURF project U-SMILE revolves around the smart – that is: budget neutral – influencing of commuters to reduce traffic congestion and environmental pollution. ‘We design and study experiments with mixed forms of taxation and rewards, including tradable rush-hour rights’, explains Erik Verhoef, Professor of Spatial Economics at VU Amsterdam and project leader of U-SMILE. ‘In everyday practice, the demand for this type of knowledge is so high that we have our hands full carrying out experiments with our partners from the field.’
