Scientists from the University of Amsterdam (UvA), together with colleagues from Leiden University (UL), Utrecht University (UU) and the Meertens Institute, have received a grant worth 2 million euros from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) as part of the Horizon programme. The research money has been earmarked for the four-year project Knowledge and culture.

The UvA scientists involved in the project are Henkjan Honing, Hans Bennis (also Meertens Institute), Edward de Haan and Fred Weerman. The remaining grant recipients are Marc van Oostendorp (Meertens / UL), Pierre Pica (CNRS), Louis Grijp (Meertens / UU) and Maarten Verbeke (UL).

The Knowledge and culture project, led by Johan Rooryck (UL), will examine the extent to which restrictions are placed on cultural expressions in music, language, and visual art by nonhuman-specific congenital core knowledge systems for object representation, number and geometry. It also looks at how these core knowledge systems interact with congenital systems that are specific to humans such as language and musicality.

The project is funded under the Horizon programme of the NWO, which focuses on methodological innovation in the humanities.