As the rector announced in his opening speech at our CCHR conference in the Academy Building on September 8, 2017, funding for all focus areas running for the past 8 years concluded in spring 2018. The focus area CCHR is the successor of two previous focus areas (Cultures and Identities and Conflicts and Human Rights), and although we have been successful in creating a new CCHR community of researchers from Law, Social Sciences and Humanities, CCHR will be treated according to the criterium of having reached the maximum amount of time in terms of financial support. Developed initiatives are supposed to integrate into mainstream UU structures and/or develop independently. Although we will no longer exist in our current form, our communities and research activities will continue to exist and flourish, although within different UU frames.

The CCHR chairs have worked to open up two major spaces for the researchers in our CCHR field:

1. Researchers are welcome to join the CCHR-related UGlobe research lines, including Conflict and Security and Human Rights.
https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/centre-for-global-challenges

2. Researchers are welcome to join the IOS Hubs, in particular Security in Open Societies and Gender and Diversity: Building an Inclusive Society.
https://www.uu.nl/en/research/institutions-for-open-societies/institutions-for-open-societies-hubs

In these contexts, the cultural mediation of citizenship is part of the research at hand, and qualitative and interpretative methodologies will be welcomed and further developed. We strongly believe that many of our researchers will find a context within these strands. Antoine Buyse is co-chairing UGlobe, while Rosemarie Buikema is co-chairing the Hub Gender and Diversity.

Read more