Working together to build a community
Overal network coordination will be provided by Prof. Wim van Westrenen (PI), Prof. dr.ir. Inge Loes ten Kate (co-PI), and Sebastiaan de Vet (co-PI). To enhance overall coherence of the Netherlands planetary research community, annual in person meetings will be held that will not only focus on progress in the three postdoc-led projects, but that will also highlight ongoing solar system focused research by network partners. In the final 2 years of the funding period, the annual meetings will focus on the preparation of follow-up research proposals focused specifically on clear links with space instrumentation for solar system missions. The final annual meeting will be held in the form of a field conference in Iceland – a key planetary analogue for all processes covered in the network.
Role of the postdoctoral projects
As the time horizon for this network is one to two decades, we consider capacity building an additional important goal of the network. To this end, the appointed postdoctoral researchers will also be tasked with organising and leading regular hybrid meetings with the supporting research team for their projects. As such they play an essential role in the network building. To profit from the benefits of in-person interactions, they will also visit collaborators and their facilities throughout the Netherlands. After the two-year postdoc positions have finished, the co-investigators (Van der Wal, De Haas, Van Ruitenbeek) will take over as leads for internal communication for the preparation of follow-up research projects.
Collaborative MSc thesis projects
Master students at Dutch universities will be able to contribute to the building of the expertise network by performing MSc research projects that are led by at least two network members from at least two different institutes using seed grants. A selection process will be defined and communicated to all network partners. Note that this seed funding is not open to projects and topics outside the scope of the Expertise Network.