The committee noted that they encountered “a department that comes across as cohesive and energetic, functioning as a genuine team with a healthy academic culture marked by openness, mutual respect, and diversity of viewpoints and methodological approaches.” The assessment also underscored our momentum despite an increasingly uncertain future: “The department’s upward trajectory in research output, active engagement in faculty-wide initiatives, and strong record in grant acquisition reflect its vitality and ambition.”
Over the assessment period, scholars in Radboud University's Department of Political Science published over 200 peer-reviewed articles, 10 books, 20 edited books and handbooks, and 127 book chapters. Our scholars have also been extraordinarily successful in acquiring third-party funding in an increasingly competitive funding environment. Over the past six years, they have received six Venis, three Vidis, one ERC Starting Grant, three NWO-NWAs, and have been involved in multiple Horizon Europe consortia. In addition, our researchers have won sizeable project funding from diverse funding agencies, including the British Academy, the Canadian Department of Defence, the Carlsberg Foundation, China’s National Social Science Research Fund, Facebook, the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Leverhulme Foundation, the Swiss Network for International Studies, the Norwegian Research Council, the Dutch Research and Data Centre (WODC) and ZonMw.
More than numbers and funding, however, the committee highlighted the breadth and quality of our research, noting that our work contributes meaningfully to both academic debates and pressing policy concerns. In particular, the committee praised our collaborative approach, our strong international networks, and the way our research culture supports early-career scholars as well as teaching across our undergraduate and graduate programmes.
We are proud of the recognition this assessment brings and are excited to act on its recommendations as we continue to foster innovative, impactful research. The committee’s full assessment can be found here.