The Department of Research: which colleagues support our faculty’s researchers and what do they do?
Martine van Trigt, Head of Research Affairs, discusses how her team supports researchers with their research.
So, firstly: do we call it the Department of Research or the Meijers Institute?
‘The Department of Research and the Meijers (or E.M. Meijers) Institute are the same department, but we’re now known as the Department of Research. People still sometimes call it the Meijers Institute, which refers to Professor Eduard Meijers, who was a key figure at our faculty. We continue to use the name Meijers for things like the Meijers lecture, Meijers prizes and the Meijers symposium.’
What does the Department of Research do?
‘We support the researchers based at our faculty on both a policy and an organisational level.
A lot of our work focuses on the Graduate School of Legal Studies, which is responsible for everything to do with our PhD candidates. We organise things like training courses, performance and development interviews with PhD candidates, the final stage of the doctoral process and the Pre-PhD Programme. We work closely with the three PhD Deans.
We also advise our researchers on grants and funding and help with data management. We recently welcomed our new Funding Advisor, Catherine Savitsky to our team. She identifies opportunities for research grants and reviews draft applications. Hannah DeLacey, our new Data Steward, will also start her new role on 1 June. Data management is important, as a Data Management Plan (DMP) is required for almost all research projects. In the DMP, you explain things like how you’re going to handle data associated with your interviewees and how you’re going to archive data. The data steward advises on which information needs to be included in the DMP.
The department is also responsible for registering all research output – and especially publications. Proper registration (by the researchers themselves) is important for research evaluations and assessments conducted at our faculty.
Lastly, we work on research policy, which my department prepares in close collaboration with Janine Ubink (Director of Research) and the Research Board. The Board includes the Programme Coordinators for the various research programmes.’
What’s important when it comes to research policy in 2024?
‘In 2022, a research assessment was conducted for the period 2016-2021. One of the recommendations from that assessment was to develop faculty-wide themes. The faculty has many projects and ongoing research programmes, but it’s good for our external profile if we’re able to stand out from other law faculties. And, of course, we also want to encourage continued collaboration both within the faculty and with other academic disciplines. The Director of Research, the Research Board and the Department of Research are working together to come up with our faculty-wide themes, which include digitisation and sustainability.’
What brought you to the Department of Research?
‘From the end of 2021 until August 2023, I was the faculty’s Funding Advisor. Back then, it was a new position within the Department of Research. Last summer, I moved up one room and I’m now the Head of Research Affairs. I manage a team of eight people.
I completed my studies at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), which is a long time ago now. I did a master’s degree in European Studies, later on followed by a master’s in Genocide Studies. Before I came to Leiden, I worked at the UvA, in the Department of International and European Law and the Asser Institute. The great thing about this law faculty is that the research is so varied – it’s a large faculty with many different subdisciplines.’
On 23 May, a major event will be taking place for your team: the Faculty Research Day. Tell us more!
‘The Faculty Research Day is an annual event for staff at our faculty and is organised by the Department of Research. We have a wide variety of speakers and topics this year, which is fantastic. It really puts the spotlight on the broad scope of research conducted at our faculty. All staff are encouraged to join us at this event on Thursday 23 May!
As well as an external speaker on science communication, there will be parallel sessions during which researchers – ranging from PhD candidates to more experienced researchers – will present their research projects. The Department of Research will also organise a poster presentation, which will be a nice opportunity for colleagues to meet our team.
The event will close with a plenary session on the Dutch cabinet formation happening this year. For the academic world, it’s exciting to see what a new government is going to do – especially when it comes to research funding. Just think about the starter grants and incentive grants introduced by Robbert Dijkgraaf, the outgoing Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science. It remains to be seen whether those grants will be continued. Five researchers are going to contribute their perspectives on the impact of a new Dutch cabinet on the academic world.’
The Department of Research is located on the fourth floor of the KOG Building, where Martine is in the office on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Her door’s always open unless she’s in a meeting.
Photo at top: Unsplash+