Maastricht University (UM), the University of Amsterdam (UvA), and Vrije Universiteit (VU) are working on this theme. Prof. Dr. G. (Guda) van Noort is the lead on behalf of UvA. Prof. Raf de Bont is the coordinator on behalf of UM. Prof. Maurits van Tulder is the coordinator on behalf of VU Amsterdam.
Mid-term evaluation 2025-2026
In 2025, self-evaluations for the mid-term review were submitted. The most important findings for this theme are:
- During consultations between the three coordinators, the research at the various institutions was mapped out in a triangle of citizenship–democracy–digitisation. This revealed possible synergies and differences in emphasis: although all three elements are relevant at each institution, the emphasis differs per university. The University of Amsterdam focuses primarily on “digital citizenship”, Maastricht University on “disinformation and democracy” and VU Amsterdam on “polarisation”.
- The three institutions combine top-down thematic frameworks with bottom-up initiatives from researchers in order to stimulate ownership, innovation and thematic coherence. From the outset, the focus has been on peer-reviewed publications and obtaining grants. For example, the UvA is working on a Handbook on Digital Citizenship (under review) and a grant proposal on Digital Citizenship for the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the VU is preparing a special thematic collection in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and has obtained two NWO grants on AI methods, and the UM is publishing monographs with Cambridge University Press and Routledge, among others.
Innovation in education
The universities have implemented their ambitions in the field of education through various strategies.
- The first prominent strategy at the three institutions is the integration of the sectorplan theme into existing curricula, bachelor’s and (research) master’s programmes, through the renewal or redesign of courses and minors. The themes are embedded in education, as reflected in the Law & AI specialisation within the Faculty of Law (UM), in the embedding within the Social Psychology research master’s programme and the new Ethics for Economics and Business course at Amsterdam University College (VU), and in the Minor in Health Technologies, Law and Bioethics within the Faculty of Law at the UvA.
- The second strategy is the development of interdisciplinary and interfaculty education. This resulted in the development of the honours module Digital Citizenship for UvA and VU students, in which students from different disciplines participated. The UvA has also developed a Minor in Privacy Studies, in which lecturers from different faculties and disciplines teach about privacy and digital citizenship. Other examples include the SPARK programme (Societally Relevant Projects to Apply and Retain Knowledge), an interdisciplinary educational programme at SBE that links students’ coursework to societal challenges, including disinformation (UM), and an interdisciplinary and interfaculty course in Behavioural Economics at VU Amsterdam.
- The third strategy is methodological innovation related to digital citizenship. Examples include the Playground and Laboratory for New Technologies (PLANT), realised with sector plan funds for infrastructure, which stimulates digital innovation in education within FASoS (UM); Classroom games and advanced research training with RM students in social psychology (VU); and the Master Elective “Appification: The cultures and economics of apps”, in which new methods are applied to critically study apps as infrastructure for digital citizenship (UvA).
- The fourth strategy is to stimulate educational innovation with grants. An example is the project ‘Bullshit! Tools for Countering Anti-Intellectualism in the Post-Truth Era’, a set of three pilot modules (course, skills training and applied project) running in 2025-2026 at University College Maastricht (UCM) supported by a COMENIUS grant. The elective “Appification: The Cultures and Economies of Apps” was developed with the support of two internal Graduate School of Humanities grants (“Interaction with City and Environment” and “Research-intensive Education”; UvA).
Interdisciplinarity and inter-university coordination and collaboration
- Initial attention was given to community building within universities. All three institutions have started to strengthen collaboration within the university. Interdisciplinary and interfaculty meetings are organised on a regular basis, where researchers present and discuss ongoing research, new ideas for education are discussed, and collaborations are encouraged. Within all three universities, regular work sessions and seminars are organised in which the UDs present their research. Opportunities for grant applications are also discussed in workshops and pitch sessions.
- At the national level, the three institutions participated in the national conferences of The Digital Society (UNL, 2025 and 2026) and organised sessions there.
- In addition, local theme-specific workshops and seminars have been set up, for example Governing or Governed by Online Platforms? (UM, January 2025), the Interdisciplinary round table on Trust at the Amsterdam Trust Summit (UvA, 2025), and an international workshop with experts in the field of cross-border cooperation to address the challenges of conducting intercultural behavioural research (VU, 2025).
- Short lines of communication are maintained through participation in theme team meetings (quarterly) and national DDT meetings (every six months) facilitated by the national coordinator of the DDT and the SSH-office. These meetings regularly generate new ideas for inter-university collaborations.
- The most important results are the institutionalisation of interfaculty collaboration and visible national contributions that strengthen SSH participation in broader national and international initiatives. Concrete output translates into joint vision documents and position papers, policy documents and outreach events, and grant applications for interdisciplinary studies.
Societal impact
- Publications are made available in open access at the three institutions in order to increase their social reach. Both the UvA and UM have also set up their own thematic websites to make the research of the UDs more visible.
- When selecting research priorities, explicit emphasis was placed on themes that are the subject of social debate, such as trust in institutions, combating disinformation and the regulation of digital platforms. Accessible formats were used to actually stimulate debate. For example, UM organised public activities such as panel discussions on Artificial General Intelligence, in collaboration with Lumière Cinema and Maastricht Young Academy.
- At VU University Amsterdam, contributions were made to the blogs of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction on conspiracy theories and resilience.
- In May 2025, UM, in collaboration with Studio Europa, published a Policy Brief Collection on Digitalisation with multidisciplinary analyses of the Digital Services Act (DSA) with the aim of informing European and national policy. The policy brief was launched during a public event attended by politicians and social actors.