Stefaan Van den Bogaert, Vice Dean of Leiden Law School was extraordinarily pleased to announce on 29 March 2023 that the faculty has awarded research funding to all applicants of the starter grants.
Common denominators: quality and innovation
Van den Bogaert praised the 'quality and innovative nature' of the applications. He also felt that the diversity of the applications is a good reflection of the research diversity within the faculty. A sample of the research proposals: the legal implications of innovative 'air mobility' activities (flying taxis!), the question whether youngsters involved in organised crime are both offenders as well as victims and how climate legislation can help shape the climate transition in such a way that it is also socially sustainable.
All institutes have been successful
The sixteen starter grants have been awarded to the following departments: the Institute of Air and Space Law, Business Studies, Civil Law, Company Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Criminal Law, Criminology, Economics, the Europa Institute, Jurisprudence, the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Tax Law, and the Van Vollenhove Institute. Which means that all institutes will receive grants.
Not only is there a lot of variety in research topics, but the researchers also have very different intentions on how to spend the money: some are planning to hire PhD candidates, others will use the money to increase their own research time or the research capacity of their department, while plans have also been drafted to set up summer schools.
Matching the goals of the starter grants and the strategic plan
The starter grants were created by Minister Dijkgraaf to stimulate unfettered research and provide opportunities for upcoming researchers. The starter grants align closely with the ambitions of the faculty's strategic plan 'Innovating and Connecting' which includes the focus areas 'innovation' and 'talent and development'.
Kick-off meeting
The faculty will be organising a kick-off meeting in the upcoming weeks to discuss the administrative and logistic details of the starter grants with the researchers.
