Interview Vice Dean for Research

What is it like to be Vice Dean for Research?

It's a fun and rewarding role that contains quite a varied set of activities. In the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (TSB) Management Team I represent the topic of research, but I also think along in other areas, e.g. education, impact and governance. In the end, these elements all need to come together.

I interface a lot with research policy and management staff at the level of the university. Part of that, is a pleasant collaboration with my counterparts in the other Schools at Tilburg University (TiU). This is helpful, because TiU is expanding its collaborations between Schools, for example in teaching and in academic collaborative centers.

Finally, I enjoy the drive and enthusiasm within the School, in the MT, among our support staff, and among our academics. There is a strong commitment to making Social and Behavioral Science better.

How do you see academic research develop in the next couple of years?

These are exiting times for the Social and Behavioral Sciences. The role of individual and collective behavior is recognized more and more clearly in society, so society turns to us more often for guidance. Furthermore, digitalization makes such behavior more readily available as data than ever, raising all kinds of new questions and possibilities. You see these things reflected in the recent sector plan "social sciences and humanities", allowing  TSB to make big investments in new staff members, in core areas of research, and in digital research infrastructure.

What are your goals as Vice-Dean for Research?

A first main goal is to organize and facilitate research at TSB along the lines of the sector plan, building on the thematic research lines that have already been started at TSB in the past few years via HSRI, and integrating such with departmental research lines.  

Second, over time it would be great if we, as TSB, become less dependent on student numbers for our research. Currently, most of our research time derives from how many students we teach, but it would be better if this derives more directly from our value as research experts in a national and international context.

A third goal is very pragmatic: I would like to see the School successfully complete its next research assessment (audit), early 2025.

What does science ideally look like to you?

To me, at the core, science is about curiosity, asking questions, and trying to answer them. This also applies to social and behavioral science. Interestingly, it also applies to our study objects: any individual, any society is well-advised to be curious about itself, ask questions about itself, develop knowledge about their action alternatives.

I don't believe in easy recipes for most individual and societal problems, rather I think it comes down to a continuous stream of choices, balances, and trade-offs. My aim, as an academic, is to help individuals and society achieve understanding about these things, e.g. to contribute to individual wisdom and an understanding society. 

Profile page Marc van Veldhoven