The growing impact of climate change presents stark disparities, with wealthy nations emitting most CO2 while poorer nations bear the brunt. To address this, wealthy nations pledged $100 billion annually in climate finance for vulnerable countries. Yet, little is known about its impact in the Global South.

ClimateFiGS aims to fill this gap by analyzing how climate finance is allocated and spent, considering leaders' characteristics and priorities. By creating new global data and studying African countries, ClimateFiGS sheds light on decision-making dynamics and aims to mitigate the most devastating impacts of climate change on the world's most vulnerable.

Funded by: ERC Starting Grant

Project period: 1 April 2024 - 30 March 2029

Governments of an increasing number of countries are currently developing legislation that holds firms accountable for labor, environmental and human rights conditions in their supply chains. This research analyzes through big data the relationships between firms in supply chains to evaluate the extent to which firms required to comply with such laws are able to make the required improvement in their supply chains. In addition, the project examines the effect of existing laws on supply chains: do firms commit to undo labor, environmental or human rights abuses at supplying producers, or do they distance themselves from these producers? 

Funded by: NWO SSH Open Competition (Dutch Research Council)

Project period: 1 Feb 2024 - 30 jan 2028

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform society in both good ways and bad. That makes its effective regulation a paramount challenge of our time.

The RegulAite project investigates such regulation in the European Union, focussing on the global political and economic force field in which it unfolds. As a domain of innovation, AI spans the globe. Meanwhile, these technologies are dominated by the United States and China, at a time when geopolitical tensions are rising. RegulAite studies how the EU can navigate the global AI landscape such that its rules are effective and aligned with public objectives.

Funded by: NWO Vici (Dutch Research Council)

Project period: 1 Sept 2022 - 31 Aug 2027

POPNET is a novel digital infrastructure and research community with the aim of unlocking longitudinal social network data on the entire population of the Netherlands for academic research purposes. It enables new exciting research in an anonymized as well as ethically and legally responsible manner. This research may lead to actionable insights into key issues including segregation, substantive social change, and UN sustainable development goals such as reducing inequality.

Funded by: Platform Digitale Infrastructuur Social Sciences & Humanities (PDI-SSH)

Project period: 1 Jan 2021 - 31 Dec 2025

Project team

Countries around the world now hold elections, but are often unable or unwilling to guarantee free, fair and peaceful elections. Violence regularly precedes, accompanies, or succeeds elections, undermining democracy and people’s trust in electoral processes. While scholars and practitioners have made important progress in identifying the conditions that make elections violent, we do not have a good understanding of how violence plays out on the ground: Who engages in violence, who is targeted with violence, and when and where is violence most common? 

To answer these questions, the Elections, Violence, and Parties (EVaP) project presents new theory and evidence on the nature, organization, and consequences of electoral violence. We attribute a central role to political parties as important actors linking politicians and citizens.  The project examines the conditions under which party organizations themselves perpetrate violence, or when they jointly produce violence with other non-state actors such as ethnic leaders, religious organizations, gangs, or militias. We also explore how violence influences its targets — we ask if violence increases or decreases turnout, polarization, and ethnic attachment?  

Funded by: ERC Starting Grant

Project period: 1 June 2020 - 31 May 2025

Project team