Grants

Prof. dr. Loes Keijsers has been awarded an €1.500.000 VICI grant for her project IC YOU. One in three young people (12–25 years) reports emotional problems such as depression and anxiety. While more are accessing professional care, many still experience a high threshold to talk about their feelings with adults in their own network. This project investigates how to lower that barrier by strengthening adults’ skills to initiate conversations, ask the right questions, and avoid interaction patterns adolescents experience as unhelpful. Interviews with adolescents will be combined with intensive longitudinal data from 300 youth via an app.

In co-creation with De Kindertelefoon and MIND Us, conversation trainings for adults will be tested and refined.

Dr. Marilisa Boffo and her team have been awarded an €60.000 NWO Take-off phase 1 grant for the ROOM project. ROOM is a mobile app tailored for students, focusing on personal growth, mental health, and resilience. It uses cutting-edge technology and scientific evidence to fill gaps in current digital well-being tools. Designed through a participatory process including students and stakeholders, ROOM delivers a variety of evidence-based interventions, promoting real-life skill transfer. ROOM has been iteratively tested and refined based on student feedback, showing significant success in reducing stress and improving resilience. This project explores the commercial feasibility of scaling ROOM to empower future generations of students.

Dr. Michelle Achterberg has received €50.000 via the NWO Open competition for her project ‘Parents’ Burned-out Brains. Parents’. Parents face growing stress due to high societal expectations, which can lead to parental burnout. This project studies how chronic social pressure affects brain regions involved in social cognition and emotion regulation. Using brain scans and daily stress and parenting questionnaires, we explore how stress and the brain influence each other. The findings aim to reduce stigma and support better help and policies for parents.

Prof. dr. Annemiek Harder has been awarded an €850.000 VIDI grant for her project on tailored treatment for adolescents with multiple problems. This research examines factors that predict whether professionals show empathy toward youth, how professionals express and develop empathy, how empathy affects each youth’s well-being in diverse ways during treatment, and how empathy can be increased. They will use a unique mixed-methods approach, including observations and smartphone applications with micro-questionnaires.

Prof. dr. Renske Keizer has received the VICI grant of €1.500.000 for her 3HOEK research project researching to what extend parenting contributes to the continuation of social inequality. A 100-day diary study will be conducted among parents. Part of this data will be linked to longitudinal data on children’s development from Keizer her previous research and supplemented with in-depth interviews with fathers and mothers.

dr. Ruth van der Hallen has gained the NWO SGW Open Competition grant of €50,000 for her research on Secret keeping in daily life. Participants report on the secrets they keep, the contexts in which they keep them, and their emotional and physical states at the time. This project will reveal how these factors influence secrecy and what predicts its impact on one’s well-being.