When conducting scientific research, you sometimes encounter unexpected results that were not taken into account beforehand. It is precisely these unexpected discoveries that can yield valuable new insights. An Impact Explorer Grant offers researchers the opportunity to explore the potential impact of these discoveries. No fewer than three of our researchers have been awarded this NWO Impact Explorer 2025 Grant: associate professors Katarzyna Burzynska, Giacomo Solano and Nora Stel. Congratulations to all! Read more about the awarded projects below.
Impact Explorer Grants for research into a toolkit for maternity care, literacy training for refugees and advocacy strategies on refugee return
A Governing Together: Exploring Board-Friendly Tools for Value-Based Maternal and Newborn Care Collaboration
dr K. Burzynska, Nijmegen School of Management (Radboud University)
Dutch maternal and newborn care is organized in regional networks of hospitals, community- and hospital-based midwives, obstetricians, and other professionals. Board decisions about resource allocation and governance are complex, with the perspectives of the different partners playing an important role. Partnering with the Federatie van VSV’s and Netwerk Regionale Consortia Geboortezorg, this Impact Explorer co-creates a practical, power-aware collaboration toolkit for boards of these networks. Using real cases discussed in national and regional workshops, it explores whether a light, easy-to-use set of tools can help boards tackle mandates and payment issues, supporting high quality and value-based care.
Digit2work tool: a practical evidence-based tool to foster labour market inclusion of female refugees through improving digital literacy
dr G. Solano, Nijmegen School of Management (Radboud University)
Building on findings from the ‘DigiSkills2Work’ project, it responds to an unexpectedly significant insight: no tailored support currently exists to tackle the substantial, previously under-recognised barriers linked to navigating digitalised systems that female refugees face. Because this impactful finding emerged beyond the project’s original scope, no route to impact had been developed. This new project therefore explores how this unforeseen knowledge can be translated into concrete societal benefit in collaboration with impact partners, with the idea of creating a practical digital literacy training module for (female) refugees. This exploration will lay the foundation for follow-up development and broader implementation.
Contested refugee return to Syria – exploring impact pathways through inter-regional refugee-led advocacy
dr N.M. Stel, Nijmegen School of Management (Radboud University)
The previous VENI-research yielded two unexpected findings. First, EU migration diplomacy condoned rather than prevented premature refugee returns to Syria from neighbouring host-countries. Second, refugee-led rather than international organizations contest this dynamic. Refugee-led advocacy with EU-actors thus offers a crucial yet underdeveloped impact pathway to promote safe and voluntary return to Syria. Therefore, this project organises an inter- and intra-regional exchange between coalitions of refugee-led organizations in Lebanon, Türkiye, and Europe to explore relevant instruments, resources, and decision-junctures to develop joint advocacy strategies on refugee return. This is especially pertinent since the fall of the Assad-regime accelerated and normalized premature refugee return.
Contact information
More information? Please get in touch with one of the researchers.
- Organizational unit
- Nijmegen School of Management, Institute for Management Research