Two Vidi grants for Johan Wolswinkel and Tineke Snijders
The NWO has awarded two Vidi grants to Tilburg Scientists. Professor of Administrative Law, Market and Data Johan Wolswinkel of Tilburg Law School receives a grant for his research: Decision-making in times of open government: from "rule transparency" to "case transparency". And Dr. Tineke Snijders of the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences receives a Vidi for her research: Listening with your eyes in the developing brain.
Wolswinkel focuses his Vidi project on disclosure laws that increasingly require governments to publish decisions in individual cases. The underlying idea is that this would allow citizens to compare their own case with others and check whether the decision-making process in their case was consistent. The question is whether that is possible and, subsequently, what impact it has on government and citizens. Wolswinkel will explores by analyzing a number of concrete cases of decision-making using computer techniques . He will also consider how this new information subsequently affects the decision-making process by governments and the rights of citizens within it.
Wolswinkel's research has always focused on the design and standardization of government decision-making. Initially, his research focused mainly on distribution issues in administrative law, in particular the distribution of scarce rights (permits, subsidies, etc.) by the government. Because of the major influence of Union law on this administrative law 'distribution law', his research has broadened over time to include the interaction between national and European administrative law and between economic administrative law and other parts of administrative law. In recent years, his research has concentrates on the standardization of automated decision-making by public authorities.
Tineke Snijders focuses on language development in the brain. She records brain activity in infants and children while they are listening to speech . When communicating, we do not only listen, we also watch. The moving mouth informs us about the content and the rhythm of speech. Her project will investigate how the maturing brain of infants and children uses this visual information to learn language, and how this changes with development. She will assess how the brains of autistic and non-autistic children differ in how they integrate what they see and hear, and how that influences understanding and learning language. This is important for creating an optimal language learning situation for children, which is crucial for their further development.
For information about Prof. Johan Wolswinkel: https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/nl/medewerkers/c-j-wolswinkel
For information about Dr. Tineke Snijders: dr. Tineke Snijders | Tilburg University