Becoming a parent changes everything: sleep, work rhythms, intimacy, and the everyday “handovers” that keep a household running. Many people experience this as a stressful period, but others also feel closer, proud, or newly purposeful. Our project asks: why do experiences differ so much?

We focus on the practical, bodily and material ways couples make time workable under conditions they cannot control: planning weeks, coordinating care, improvising when routines collapse, and repairing after conflict. We study how these practices of managing time shape both relationships and health.

Toward this end, we follow family life for four years, look back in time with historians to see how parents themselves were raised, question the need to hurry, and look ahead with professionals to develop better ways to create and manage time. The aim is knowledge and approaches to help couples and professionals support more liveable family rhythms.

Funded by: Dutch Research Council (NWO), SSH Open Competition L 2025

Project period: Jan 2027 - Jan 2032

The notion that healthy soil results in healthy agricultural products that positively influence human well-being and health is becoming increasingly accepted.

Since the soil microbiome is partially transferred to humans and may impact the nutritional composition of agricultural products, it may also affect human health. This relationship has enormous societal implications, as agriculture significantly influences the environment, and food is the primary driver of human health.

This study aims to establish, for the first time, the connection between the impact of agriculture on soil and plant quality/microbiome and its consequences for human health. It also investigates the social and political context surrounding this connection.

Funded by: Dutch Research Council (NWO), Knowledge and Innovation Covenant programme (KIC)

Project period: 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2028

Team

MetaHealth is a large research consortium with fundamental and applied research partners both from public and private organizations. The program includes 19 PhD projects and several research projects by post-docs.

Health in a microbial, sociocultural and care context in the first 1000 days of life.

• to enhance the inclusivity of less-privileged families in health-outcomes-centred research.
• to understand the interplay between microbiome, lifestyle, culture and environment and their role on oral and metabolic health during the first 1000 days of life in a culturally and socially diverse population.
• to provide fundamental knowledge on the establishment of a healthy microbiome and on processes that enhance or diminish a beneficial host-microbiome symbiosis;
• to create and evaluate acceptable interventions that contribute to maintenance of metabolic and oral health with special focus on families from low socio-economic position (SEP), leading towards minimizing the health-disparities gap;
• to create in vitro and in silico models of the host and microbiome interplay in a sociocultural and care context;
• to develop e-health platform for all stakeholders on the maintenance of oral and metabolic health during the first 1000 days of life.

Funded by: Dutch National Research Agenda Research along Routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC)

Project period: 1 Jan 2023 - 31 Dec 2030

Team

A Case Study of the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

Are Muslim women in the Gulf just interested in the right to drive cars? Or do they also want to sit in the driving seat politically and steer their societies towards gender equality and democratization?

By looking beyond the clichées, this VENI project of Lana Sirri aims to generate a nuanced theorisation of Muslim women’s agency. It focuses on the Gulf Cooperation Council countries—a neglected region in the Anglo-Saxon social sciences, and engages with previously ignored scholarship written in Arabic. research examines women’s life experiences in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries to reveal the practical tools employed in the day-to-day struggles of people.

By identifying ‘home-grown’ strategies used to combat patriarchy and religious extremism, this research has the potential to empower Muslim women everywhere and may help to improve counter-radicalization policies in Europe.

Funded by: NWO Veni

Period: 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2026

The University of Amsterdam, in collaboration with the GGD, is conducting a long-term study on how children in Amsterdam aged 0 to 4 years and their parent(s) engage with practices related to eating, sleeping, and physical activity.

The research focuses on health practices and their connection to inequality, trust, and the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in research and interventions. In addition, the study examines the effects of these practices on the oral and gut microbiome.

The project is carried out in close collaboration with numerous colleagues at ACTA, Amsterdam UMC, various other faculties, Inholland University of Applied Sciences, and a wide range of partner organizations.

Team