Vision on Research

Because art can offer solutions for societal challenges, research in the fields of the arts serves an essential purpose. With regard to developments in the fields of culture, politics, the economy, education and science, the arts can provide novel perspectives, move things forward and generate results.

Impact of research in the arts

A typical HKU research project has an impact on multiple different domains; on education, the professional practice, general society and/or artistic practices. Next to the generation of new knowledge, insights, and perspectives within the arts and arts education, this also contributes to innovation outside the field of arts.

The creative practice is always central

When developing research questions, methods and outcomes, we regard the creative process as an alternative form of generating knowledge. The emphasis is on doing research by creating art, media and design. This method enables us to look at existing processes in a new light, thereby improving or innovating them.

Connections

The departments at HKU that conduct research are all interconnected. These include the research groups, expertise centres, lecturing researchers, students, PhD students, the innovation studio, etcetera. These connections promote research and innovations that transcend the separate disciplines, leading to more collective projects and programmes. Additionally, our research community is not limited to HKU alone. The professional field, partner institutions and educators of artistic practice collectively experiment and reflect, so that one artistic project can enrich and inform the other.

Arts for a Caring Society

Those who wish to learn more about HKU’s research can consult the Research Manifesto of the HKU Research Unit. This manifesto describes the distinctive characteristics of HKU’s research: transdisciplinary, co-creative and based on equality, always situated and in relation to people, materials and places. With the courage to be critical. For research is not neutral, according to the Research Unit. It questions dominant structures in society and in the research landscape, because only in this way can it contribute to social transformation. They refer to this as “Arts for a Caring Society”. The four professorships of HKU each work towards this in their own way, always in relation to one another. And every year, research projects are initiated and completed that take further steps in this direction.

Quality assurance

It is important that practice-based research by HKU meets the quality standards. Therefore, we evaluate our research regularly. We base these evaluations on the national monitor Sector Protocol Quality Assurance in Research.

HKU also adheres to the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. This code presents clear principles for the research that is done at the academies and universities, in line with the international developments. For processing any complaints about the research at the seven mono-sectoral art academies, a collective complaints procedure has been put in place. There is also a joint committee for scientific integrity: the CWI KUO.

Staff and students at HKU who have questions or complaints about (suspected violations of) scientific integrity, can turn to the confidential counsellor scientific integrity. At present, there is a vacancy for this position. The provisional contact address is research@hku.nl

Research development and enhancement

The Programme for Research Development and Enhancement strengthens practice-based research and innovation at HKU. It establishes policy, and advises and supports research groups and researchers in designing, conducting and sharing their research. We do this in connection with the educational, professional and societal fields.

Read more about this programme

Postdoc research at HKU

HKU has two ongoing HBO post-doc research tracks, run by respectively Christian Roth and Maarten Overdijk. They both teach as well as conduct research. This combination neatly fits HKU’s ambition to strengthen the ties between education and research.