Fourteen Researchers at Leiden University Receive Vidi Grant

NWO has awarded a Vidi grant to fourteen researchers from Leiden University. With this grant of up to €850,000, researchers have the opportunity to establish a new research group and develop an innovative line of research over the next five years.

The Vidi grants are aimed at experienced researchers who, after completing their PhD, have conducted successful research for several years. Along with the Veni and Vici grants, Vidi is part of the NWO Talent Program, which focuses on promoting innovation and curiosity in science. This year, a total of 149 researchers received a Vidi grant. The fourteen projects led by Leiden University researchers are described below.

Court Guardians: Representatives of the Incapacitated in Early Modern English Law and Literature (1542–1646)
Lotte Fikkers (Centre for the Arts in Society)

In 16th- and 17th-century English theater, surprisingly many references appear to orphans, people with intellectual disabilities, or their guardians or trustees. Literary interest in these individuals was shaped by the guardianship and trusteeship policies of the time: the responsible court could sell the guardianship or trusteeship of these vulnerable people, along with their land, to the highest bidder, which often led to abuses. This project reads plays alongside legal sources to give a voice back to orphans and people with intellectual disabilities, and to reinterpret even the most famous plays in which these vulnerable individuals appear.

Sex, Care, and Robots
Eduard Fosch Villaronga (Instituut voor Metajuridica)

Sexuality is a fundamental part of being human. Yet for many people with disabilities, it remains overlooked, insufficiently supported, and surrounded by stigma. This project addresses this long-standing neglect. Through interviews, surveys, legal research, and technological analysis, it investigates how care systems, policies, and technological innovation can better support intimacy, autonomy, and pleasure. In close collaboration with the disability community, policymakers, and technology developers, the project works toward a simple yet urgent vision for the future: a future in which sexual rights are recognized, respected, and realized, for everyone.

Which Predictive Algorithms Improve Patient Outcomes?
Nan van Geloven (Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum)

This project develops statistical methods to estimate the impact of a medical predictive algorithm before its implementation, without the need to collect new data. The new method takes into account the consequences of treatment decisions that would change based on the algorithm, providing a more accurate picture of its effect on health outcomes. This approach helps identify promising algorithms for practical implementation and determine which individuals are most likely to benefit.

Leveraging Language, Asserting Power: Linguistic Politics in Early Colonial North America
Alisa van de Haar (Centre for the Arts in Society)

In multilingual societies, every language choice affects power dynamics. Yet no overarching theory has fully explained this complex relationship between language and power. This project aims to develop such a theory by examining the dynamics between language choices and the balance of power in seventeenth-century North America. In New Netherland, New France, Virginia, and New England, linguistic choices were constantly made in interactions among European colonists, forcibly transported West Africans, Indigenous peoples, and European colonial authorities. Studying these contact moments provides new insights into historical multilingualism, which will be used to develop a theoretical model of the interplay between language and power.

Levitating Magnets with a Twist and a Spin: Toward Large Particles in Quantum Superposition
Bas Hensen (Leids Instituut voor Onderzoek in de Natuurkunde)

Quantum theory describes the world of atoms and has given us technologies such as the laser. Gravity, described by general relativity, predicts the motion of stars and helps us understand the evolution of our universe, as well as enabling GPS. Somewhere in between, these two theories must meet. By levitating tiny magnetic particles, about one-tenth the thickness of a human hair, and coupling their twisting motion to electron spins in diamond, we can create quantum superposition states of particles made up of billions of atoms, large enough to generate their own gravity. In this way, we hope to learn, for instance, whether gravity itself can behave quantum mechanically.

Brainwashing: How Water Finds Its Way Through the Brain
Lydiane Hirschler (Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum)

A good night’s sleep not only refreshes the mind but also helps flush waste products from the brain through its drainage system. However, exactly how this process works in humans, and what happens when it slows down with aging, is still not well understood. Using advanced MRI, I will track the movement of water, which transports waste, within the brain. My Go-with-the-flow project investigates how sleep, aging, and physiological stimuli influence this cleansing process, aiming to discover new ways to promote brain health and prevent waste-related brain diseases.

DISMANTLE: Disability and Mobility Aids in Northwestern European Textual, Literary, and Artistic Sources, 1100–1500
Krista Milne (Centre for the Arts in Society)

Hundreds of textual and artistic examples of disability aids can be found in medieval European manuscripts. As valuable witnesses to the socio-cultural beliefs underlying their creation, these examples offer unparalleled insights into medieval conceptions of disability, including ideas that still resonate today. Yet most of these examples have been studied little or not at all. The goal of DISMANTLE is to transform a valuable but rarely explored area of disability studies by conducting the first large-scale investigation of medieval artistic and textual representations of disability aids from Northwestern Europe.

A Look Behind the Scenes of Self-Healing Electrocatalysts
Rik Mom (Leiden Institute of Chemistry)

Electrocatalysts are the driving force behind processes such as green hydrogen production and the conversion of CO₂ into useful chemicals. Unfortunately, this engine wears down over time: electrocatalysts gradually dissolve during use, shortening the lifespan of electrochemical devices. This project investigates catalysts that can reverse this dissolution process and heal themselves. Using advanced X-ray spectroscopy and high-throughput measurements, the research will explore how the structure of the catalyst can be optimized to combine this self-healing property with efficient catalysis.

Developing Quantum Technology with Games and AI
Evert van Nieuwenburg (LIACS & LION)

Quantum technology has the potential to transform society, offering better sensors (for example, for MRI) and new types of computers for drug development. At the same time, developing quantum technology has given rise to some of the most challenging problems faced by humanity. AI provides possible solutions to these difficult problems, although training such AIs is itself a major challenge. Researchers can create better AIs by having them play against each other and by structuring the problem so that it resembles a game. This proposal uses more ideas from game theory to improve how AIs control quantum systems.

Grammar of Space and Time: Language, Culture, and Cognition in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia
Sara Petrollino – (Leiden University Centre for Linguistics)

This project explores how people think and talk about space and time, two essential dimensions of human life. Focusing on communities in the Omo Valley in Ethiopia, it investigates how language, culture, and environment shape speakers’ understanding of spatial and temporal relationships. The research combines linguistic documentation with cognitive studies to uncover how different societies express space and time in everyday life. As these unique modes of expression are increasingly under threat, the project contributes to preserving distinctive systems of knowledge and offers new insights into the richness and flexibility of human thought.

Anatomy Matters! Tailoring Immunotherapies to the Tumor Microenvironment in Lymphomas
Joost Vermaat (Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum)

Lymphoma can develop in any organ, yet current treatments often overlook the organ-specific biology of the disease, leading to suboptimal outcomes. As a hemato-oncologist, I aim to investigate how organ-specific characteristics influence disease progression and treatment effects in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). My goal is to identify new immune-molecular subtypes that can predict therapy responses and, using artificial intelligence, develop a tool called ORACLE to support personalized treatment decisions. By integrating genetic, immune, and cellular data, ORACLE will enable more accurate predictions for chemo-immunotherapies and novel immunotherapies, ultimately improving survival outcomes for high-risk patients and advancing the personalization of treatment.

Cyanide in Space: Gaining Insight into Star Formation in Early Galaxies
Matus Rybak (SRON, Sterrewacht Leiden)

Did stars in the early universe form in the same way as they do today? Early galaxies produced stars much more rapidly than the galaxies we observe now. To understand this, we study the dense, cold gas that will collapse into stars, tracing it through complex molecules, particularly cyanides. Using large radio telescopes and gravitational lenses, the magnifying glass of nature, we will detect cyanides and dense gas in more than 100 early galaxies. These observations will provide new insights into how stars formed in the young universe and help unravel the physical conditions that gave rise to this rapid star formation.

Escalation of Sanctions Across the Life Course: Determinants, Consequences, and Inequality
Hilde Wermink (Instituut voor Strafrecht en Criminologie)

Each year, millions of people are subjected to criminal sanctions, and those who are punished often experience multiple sanctions throughout their lives. Scientific knowledge about the impact of sanctions over the life course is very limited, as previous research has almost exclusively focused on punishments as isolated events. This project therefore examines multiple and diverse types of sanctions imposed during the life courses of both young people and adults, using a multi-method approach. The new insights generated by this project will contribute to a better understanding of the intended and unintended consequences of sanctions, and to the development of a more effective and equitable criminal justice system.

Liver Cells: The First Line of Defense Against Malaria Parasites?
Annie Yang (Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum)

Malaria is a devastating mosquito-borne disease that kills more than 0.5 million people each year and for which no effective vaccine currently exists. Publications have shown that the first stage of infection, the seven-day development of parasites in the liver, is crucial for establishing long-lasting protection. Liver cells (hepatocytes) are well known for their roles in nutrient uptake and metabolism. This proposal focuses on their function as host cells for malaria parasites: it will investigate how hepatocytes recognize malaria parasites, which responses are triggered, and how these affect the success of infection upon repeated exposure to the parasite.