From psychology to cancer research: researchers in the Netherlands are increasingly citing publications that do not exist. Since the release of ChatGPT, the proportion of articles containing ‘ghost references’ has increased sevenfold. An investigation by De Groene has also highlighted two cases in Delft.

When it comes to impressive civil engineering projects, it doesn’t get much more exciting than a tunnel between the African and European continents. Tunnel boring machine manufacturer Herrenknecht studied the technical feasibility of this project on behalf of the Spanish government and concluded: “go ahead with the job.” We asked TU tunnel expert Wout Broere: is it actually possible?

Two panel discussions, a presentation and a pub quiz: the agenda was packed for a gathering of young researchers at TU Delft on 17 June. Together, they discussed their concerns. “Companies prefer to hire master’s students.”

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded 22 Advanced Grants of up to 2.5 million euros to leading researchers at Dutch research institutions. Three of them are from TU Delft.

Your doctoral research is done, now ‘just’ write your thesis. Karin van Nispen, teacher and Coordinator of the TU Delft Writing Centre, sees that a lot of PhD students see writing up their work as closure. She is running a campaign to promote free writing support for PhD candidates and their doctoral degree supervisors.

Despite political uncertainty and funding cuts, the national sector plans for universities are performing well, according to three interim evaluations. The message to the government: keep them in place.

Sunscreen doesn’t cause cancer, and vaccines don’t cause autism. You can keep repeating that ad infinitum, but if you want to debunk misinformation, you’d be better off taking the underlying concerns seriously, says the Rathenau Institute.

First a trade agreement with defense arrangements, and now also a deal on science. Under pressure from geopolitical developments, the EU and Australia are strengthening their ties. On Tuesday, the country officially joined the Horizon Europe science program.

For now, there will be no screening of researchers and master’s students in sensitive fields. “We’re still at the drawing board,” says Minister Letschert. “The current proposal was not feasible.”

What do you do when your solar cells are already so efficient that further development runs up against a limit? Stop? Or devise a new route? At the Photovoltaics Materials and Devices research group (Faculty of EEMCS), they chose option two. Professor of solar cells Olindo Isabella: “What if you stack two innovative cells on top of each other?”