The European Commission has granted Erasmus School of Economics researchers Hans van Kippersluis and Niels Rietveld with a 2.9 million euros Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action – Doctoral Network consortium grant in the Horizon Europe programme.
The objective of Doctoral Networks is to implement doctoral programmes by partnerships of organisations from different sectors across Europe, to train highly skilled doctoral candidates.
The European Social Science Genetics Network (ESSGN) project brings together seven academic beneficiaries with a shared interest in social science genetics. For instance, in incorporating genetic information to improve our understanding of age-old questions in the social sciences, such as the origins of inequality, the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate, and the extent to which the interplay between environments and genes is important in shaping individuals’ lives.
Urgent need for training in social science genetics
The consortium is coordinated by the University of Bristol (with former Erasmus School of Economics Professor Stephanie von Hinke in the lead) and consists of an interdisciplinary group of academics from leading institutions, as well as seven non-academic partners committed to using data science to address inequalities in life chances. There is an urgent need for training in social science genetics due to recent technological advances in genetics, the intricacies of using genetic data, and the growing availability of such data in surveys traditionally studied by social scientists.
The aim of the consortium is to train the next generation of social scientists in the responsible and technically correct use of genetic data and in objective communication about what can and cannot be learned from working with genetic data in the social sciences. The consortium will analyse to what extent genetic (‘nature’) and environmental (‘nurture’) factors contribute to equality of opportunity and intergenerational mobility, and establish how nature and nurture jointly shape inequalities in life chances.
The ESSGN programme of research provides novel and exciting opportunities to social scientists to deepen our understanding of how inequalities in life chances are shaped. As such, this project takes a genetics perspective on the broader issue of inequality which is studied by many researchers at Erasmus University Rotterdam, in various disciplines and from different viewpoints.
About Hans van Kippersluis and Niels Rietveld
Hans van Kippersluis is a professor of Applied Economics who has used both theoretical and empirical approaches to study topics in health and human capital formation. He is currently the academic lead for the Erasmus Initiative Smarter Choices for Better Health, where inequality is one of the focus areas.
Niels Rietveld is Associate Professor at the department of Applied Economics and executive director of the Erasmus University Rotterdam Institute for Behavior and Biology. His primary fields of research are economics and human biology and the economics of entrepreneurship. Niels is presently working on his ERC Starting Grant project about Genes, Policy and Social Inequality (GEPSI).
Erasmus School of Economics congratulates Hans van Kippersluis and Niels Rietveld with this excellent achievement.
- More information
For more information, please contact Ronald de Groot, Media & Public Relations Officer at Erasmus School of Economics: rdegroot@ese.eur.nl, mobile phone: +31 6 53 641 846.
