The team

My name is Frans Nelissen, I am the Research Director of the Law Faculty

I'd like to introduce you to the team to give you an idea of what we do and what we can do for you.

These are all matters concerning research: for example, acquiring grant-funded research; contributing ideas on increasing the visibility of research; internationalization, but also, for example, ethical issues and data management.

My name is Alma Erenstein, Faculty Funding Officer. External funding is an important source of funding for academic research. My main goal is to create the right framework conditions for acquiring external funding. I help researchers navigate the constantly changing maze of national and European funding, in particular grants and fellowships from NWO, the European Commission and the ERC. A good example is the NWO Open Competition project of Marc Hertogh.

Awards and memberships are an important form of recognition and help to obtain a personal grant. Together with Frans Nelissen, I advise the faculty board on nominations and coordinate the process.

Acquiring funding is all well and good, but then the real work starts!
Since 2021, the Research Office offers project management support for consortium projects. I manage the team of two dedicated project managers and a project assistant who provide support for these projects.

I am Christine Penninga and since 2021 I have been the Faculty Research Policy Officer and CWB Secretary.
Research policy has not remained in stasis. To name a few, the evaluation protocol of the just ended visitation already looks very different from the protocol used in 2016 and never before have impact measurement and knowledge security been as crucial and indispensable as they are now.
As a policy officer, I translate national-and-RUG-wide policies into a tailored version for our faculty with which our colleagues' research is well presented.
With my other hat as CWB secretary, I coordinate the review of PhD research proposals and the advising of grant application proposals.

My name is Maarten Goldberg

I support researchers in managing their research data during and after the research project.

Data management includes ensuring proper backups, collaborating on data with colleagues or external parties, long-term archiving, and publishing or making the data findable by other researchers (open science).

If your research involves working with individuals or personal data, that research must first be approved by the Ethics Committee (the CETOR).

I am the secretary of that committee. I assist the researcher in the CETOR process.

Together with other committee members, I assess the technical and organizational measures the researcher takes to protect the privacy of all persons involved.

A new development is that if students want to conduct research that involves processing personal data, the responsibility for that research and the approval then lies with you as their supervisor.

We have developed guidelines for student research from CETOR, feel free to contact me if you want to know more about this

As project manager and project assistant, we support our researchers in starting, leading and participating in externally funded consortium projects, especially Horizon Europe projects.

Pre-award
In the pre-award phase, among other things, we provide support for grant applications - from project initiation to submission. For example, we help in finding suitable partners, setting up the complete application, keeping track of the planning and coordinating efforts between project control, legal and the researcher. So if you have an idea for a project or want to participate in one, let us know in good time, because the sooner you apply, the better we can ensure appropriate support.

Post-award
In the post-award phase, we manage the implementation and delivery of projects so that they can be realised within the grant conditions. With a helicopter view, we monitor project planning and execution and help to improve processes. For example, we handle administrative questions, liaise with partners and grant makers, monitor project progress and provide reporting.

Our aim is to unburden our researchers as much as possible so that they can devote their time to their research.

My name is Nynke Kleinenberg, Management Information Officer.

I am involved in the quality assurance of research, which includes scientific reporting and providing all kinds of data with regard to research inputs and results. I am also coordinator of the Netherlands Institute for Law and Governance (NILG), a partnership with 3 other Dutch Law Faculties, and the Legal Research Network (LRN), a partnership with 8 other European Law Faculties.

For both networks, an annual conference is organized and researchers from our Faculty are invited to present their research.

Researchers can furthermore contact me for funding from the Fund Promotion Internationalization (FSI) for conferences abroad, the opportunity to publish working papers via the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), Pure, the application for visiting fellowships and general research-related questions.

As project manager and project assistant, we support our researchers in starting, leading and participating in externally funded consortium projects, especially Horizon Europe projects.

Pre-award
In the pre-award phase, among other things, we provide support for grant applications - from project initiation to submission. For example, we help in finding suitable partners, setting up the complete application, keeping track of the planning and coordinating efforts between project control, legal and the researcher. So if you have an idea for a project or want to participate in one, let us know in good time, because the sooner you apply, the better we can ensure appropriate support.

Post-award
In the post-award phase, we manage the implementation and delivery of projects so that they can be realised within the grant conditions. With a helicopter view, we monitor project planning and execution and help to improve processes. For example, we handle administrative questions, liaise with partners and grant makers, monitor project progress and provide reporting.

Our aim is to unburden our researchers as much as possible so that they can devote their time to their research.