Funding from NWO for research on ostracism, economies-of-scale and reducing greenhouse gas emissions

NWO Domain Social Sciences and Humanities has awarded funding to 41 out of 279 researchers in a so-called Open Competition. This instrument makes funding available for the best research proposals in the humanities and social sciences, without any thematic limitations. Each proposal could have a maximum budget of 750,000 euros.

The three research proposals are the following:

Physiostracism: using physiology to predict prosocial and antisocial responses to ostracism
Prof. Ilja van Beest (Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences)

Reactions to ostracism unfold over time. First, people experience social pain. Second, people cope by either acting in a prosocial or antisocial way. This research addresses the puzzle of how it is possible that social pain can give rise to these opposite coping behaviors.

Efficient methods for decision problems with economy of scales in costs
Prof. Dick den Hertog (Tilburg School of Economics and Management)

Several supply‐chain costs components (and many other applications) have economies‐of‐scale (EoS): e.g., inventory costs per unit are lower when the inventory is higher. EoS leads to hard mathematical optimization problems. This project develops new optimization techniques for large‐scale problems with EoS, with application to World Food Programme’s supply‐chain.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture: the role of emissions trading
Prof. Jonathan Verschuuren (Tilburg Law School)

The Paris Climate Agreement goals can only be achieved when greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are reduced and more carbon is sequestered on agricultural lands. This project researches how agricultural emissions can be included in the EU Emissions Trading System, in part through a comparative study with other countries.