Roanne van Voorst wins ERC Public Engagement Award for bringing AI research to the theatre
18 September 2026
Roanne is one of eight researchers to receive this year's award, selected by an independent jury from 110 applications across 26 countries. The ERC Public Engagement with Research Awards recognise ERC-funded researchers who engage audiences beyond academia in original and meaningful ways. Each winner receives a €10,000 prize.
Bringing the human side of AI to the stage
How does artificial intelligence change the way doctors and nurses work? What happens to trust, professional judgement and human connection when algorithms become part of everyday healthcare?
These questions are central to Van Voorst's ERC-funded Health-AI project, which investigates how AI is being introduced into healthcare systems and how it affects healthcare professionals and their everyday practices.
Through ethnographic research across seven countries, her project examines how doctors, developers and algorithms interact in healthcare decision-making, and what this means for the future of care.
Rather than communicating the research only through academic publications, Van Voorst and her team have brought these questions to the theatre. Drawing on real experiences from doctors, nurses and AI developers, they developed a performance that allows audiences to experience the ethical dilemmas surrounding AI in healthcare in a more personal and tangible way.
The resulting theatrical lecture, Zorgen voor AI, presents a future scenario exploring collaboration between healthcare professionals and algorithms in hospitals. Performed by actress Margo Verhoeven in the role of Vera Versteeg, the production was developed by Van Voorst in collaboration with Company New Heroes and Studio Possible Futures, with direction by Michaël Bloos. Dozens of doctors, AI programmers, ethicists and futures thinkers contributed to its development.
This theatre performance explores the opportunities and potential consequences of AI in healthcare, including changing professional responsibilities, workloads and the importance of human skills. It raises a fundamental question:
What kind of future healthcare do we want, and what choices must we make today to shape it?
The theatre production is part of Van Voorst's broader approach to artistic and multimodal research communication, in which she combines academic research with creative formats such as fiction, audio and performance.
The ERC jury recognised her for the original use of a co-created theatre experience to give voice to ethical dilemmas surrounding AI in healthcare. Through immersive performances and discussions, the project creates space for healthcare professionals, developers and audiences to reflect on questions of trust, ethics and patient safety.
This play has been touring for over one and a half year now in hospitals, conferences, universities and other venues, and is still being booked, which to me, shows its relevance and resonance amongst relevant audiences
A collaborative research effort
The award also highlights the collaborative work behind the project. Van Voorst leads the Health-AI research team alongside PhD candidates Albina Abzalova and Ismail Umar, and postdoctoral researcher Zongtian Guo.
Together with the doctors, nurses and AI developers who contributed their experiences and testimonies, the team has helped translate academic research into a form that invites dialogue with a wider audience.
The theatre project illustrates an important aspect of public engagement: rather than simply presenting research findings, it creates opportunities for people to share their perspectives, discuss difficult questions and reflect on the future of healthcare together.