Winners Meijers PhD positions 2021
Each year, the Faculty awards two Meijers PhD positions to talented researchers. One position is open to participants from the Pre-PhD Programme (PPP) and one position is open to other candidates from inside and outside Leiden University.
This year there were two winners for the PhD position for PPP’ers. The departments of the candidates with the best proposals were able to match the funding, so that two PhD candiates could be appointed on one Meijers PhD position.
Tim Lubbers
The title of the winning research proposal by Tim Lubbers is: ‘Abandon ship! The limitation of shipowners’ liability in Roman-Dutch law’. The supervisors are Professor Koops and Professor Van Boom.
Corlijn Reijgwart
Corlijn Reijgwart wrote an impressive research proposal ‘Evolution-informed law: squaring EU redistribution with human nature’. This interdisciplinary research will be supervised by Professor Cuyvers and Professor Scheepers.
Lucy Opoka
Lucy Opoka was the winner of the Open Position. The title of her research proposal is: ‘International law as a shield for children in armed conflict and their inclusion in South Sudan’s peacebuilding processes’. Her supervisors are Professor Liefaard en Dr Rap.
About the procedure
Candidates were selected in several rounds. The first selection was made by the Research Board of the Faculty which decided which candidates would be asked to further develop a full research proposal.
The second selection was made by a Selection Board, consisting of Professor Ouwerkerk, Professor Meuwese, Professor Koster, Dr Chevalier, Ms Hutten MSc and Mr Bontje LLM. The members of this committee were very impressed by the overall high quality of the research proposals and the impressive CVs of the candidates. The choice was therefore not easy for the committee. Eventually, eight candidates were selected for an interview. All candidates made a very good impression. Since two departments were able to match the funding, the committee was ultimately able to nominate 3 candidates for a Meijers PhD position, which the Faculty board consequently confirmed.
Many thanks to all those who were involved in the selection process of the candidates. We wish the new Meijers PhDs much success. We look forward to the results of their very promising research projects.