NWO Veni grant for SEICA affiliate researcher Enrique Santamaría Echeverría

Enrique Santamaría Echeverría, Assistant Professor of Innovation of Public Law at Erasmus School of Law, has received a prestigious Veni grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Over the next three years, he will explore the legal framework for the collective governance of health data in his project “Collective Governance of Health Data: Towards More Democratic and Inclusive Models.”

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€6.8 million for research on the collective power of citizens in societal transitions

A broad consortium of scientific and societal organizations, including the national government, umbrella organizations, universities, municipalities, and funding bodies, will collaborate over the coming years on the research project Empowering Citizen COllectives in societal transitions (ECCO). For this project, €6.8 million has been awarded by the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA).

Part of the ECCO-consortium.
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Contribution to the IASC 2025 Conference at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

From 16 to 20 June, representatives of Social Enterprises & Institutions for Collective Action were present on the 20th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC). On 16 June, our research group organized the session ‘Common concerns. Environmental literacy among commoners in early modern Europe’, chaired by Marianne Groep-Foncke.  

Marianne Groep-Foncke
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Two additional team members to strengthen CollectieveKracht’s activities

The research group Social Enterprises & Institutions for Collective Action welcomes Brechtje Polman and Mickey Steijaert as part of the team. Both of them will work as community builders on the CollectieveKracht platform, developing its scope by connecting with citizen collectives and relevant stakeholder groups, such as scientists, civil servants and financiers. They look forward to bringing their enthusiasm for collective action to CollectieveKracht and to help bridging the gap between citizen collectives and science.

Welcome! See the profile pages of Mickey and Brechtje for more information.

Presentation on Large Language Models in historical studies

Can researchers in the field of humanities speed up and scale up their research by making use of AI-driven aides? Dr. Marianne Groep-Foncke of Rotterdam School of Management (Erasmus University Rotterdam) presented her research during the International Symposium on Grids and Clouds 2025. Her presentation was titled ‘Easily accessible LLMs in historical studies: opportunities, limitations, pitfalls‘.

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Nadja Yampolskaya joins research group

Research group Social Enterprises & Institutions for Collective Actions welcomes Nadja Yampolskaya in her role as team supporter.

“I am excited to join the SEICA and CollectieveKracht team because their focus on social innovation and collaborative approaches perfectly aligns with my passion for applying technology to solve real-world problems. My background in computer linguistics and user research allows me to turn complex information into practical, human-focused solutions. I believe technology, combined with community-led initiatives, can bring sustainable positive change. I’m excited to contribute my skills to collective power for social impact.”

Welcome! See her profile page for more information.

Publication on how citizen collectives can boost societal transitions

An article published in Bestuurwetenschappen explores how closer collaboration between government and citizen collectives can contribute to tackling societal transitions and restoring trust in democracy. The Dutch article “Citizen collectives at the helm? In co-creation with the government towards successful transitions” is a collaboration between the following researchers working in the academic field of citizen collectives in the Netherlands: Tine De Moor, Darinka Czischke, Carola van Eijk, Marianne Groep-Foncke, Lukas Held, Ina Horlings, Lise Jans, Reinout Kleinhans & Ingmar van Meerkerk.

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