About our research
Our researchers are driven by current social issues. They interact directly with society and are focused on making a meaningful contribution to a just and caring world. The central question that connects our research is:
How can we optimise opportunities for people to lead dignified and meaningful lives in a just and caring society?
Our research is distinguished by the inspiration we draw from humanism. This is reflected in our methodology in various ways:
Humanist Perspective
Humanism functions both as a worldview that is the foundation of our academic work and an object of ongoing reflection. This means that we continuously reflect on what humanism means and how it relates to current cultural and social developments.
Interdisciplinarity and Collaboration
Our researchers integrate insights from various scientific methods and disciplines, particularly those of social sciences and humanities, such as philosophy and history. We use both qualitative and quantitative methods and work closely with stakeholders from various practices in society, such as spiritual caregivers, doctors, policymakers, patients, and clients, from the outset.
Normativity and Worldview
We explore and make explicit which normative values and worldviews play a role in social issues – and we reflect explicitly on our own research position. We interpret normativity in a broad sense as encompassing ethics, morality and values, as well as existential questions, meaning and spirituality.
Practical Relevance
Although fundamental research has a place at the university, most of our research is practically oriented. We aim to contribute to concrete improvements that help people lead meaningful lives in a just and caring society.
Research Culture
The motto of the university is Connecting Knowledge. This is reflected in a cooperative and collaborative research culture. Researchers from different departments cooperate around shared themes, enabling a multidisciplinary approach combining methods and insights from different disciplines. The collaboration around themes is more flexible than the organisational embeddedness in departments and enables focusing on topical societal developments and urgent needs. A cooperative and collaborative research culture is also promoted by the involvement of various academic and societal stakeholders and partners outside of the university, from the phase of developing a research project until dissemination and implementation of the results.
Research Themes
The central focus of optimising opportunities for people to lead dignified and meaningful lives in a just and caring society, can be broken down into 8 research themes that cover different aspects. These aspects are called ‘research themes’ and are explored from an interdisciplinary perspective, often involving researchers of different departments.
Organisation
All researchers are embedded in one of the 7 departments based on a shared discipline or field of research. Being embedded in a department is important to keep up with developments in one’s field, continuous development of one’s expertise and developing education. Researchers from different departments collaborate in research and teaching. Prof. Carlo Leget is the research director.
Quality and Scientific Integrity
Both our research and the training of PhD candidates are assessed by an international review committee in accordance with the Strategy Evaluation Protocol (SEP). You can view the review report.
The university endorses the Dutch Code of Conduct for Scientific Integrity and has a complaints procedure, a confidential advisor and a scientific integrity committee. We also assess whether the rights, safety and well-being of research participants are properly safeguarded and we handle research data with care. Read more about scientific integrity.
Digital Competence Centre
The Digital Competence Centre (DCC) at the UvH is available to researchers with questions about research data management, fundraising and ICT for research