Hester Dibbits, professor at the Reinwardt Academy's Cultural Heritage research group, has received a grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) to develop a toolkit for professonials and academics in the field of cultural heritage.

Both in academic and heritage institutes, researchers and practitioners experiment with methods to measure the effects of heritage for wellbeing. However, both groups also struggle with the conceptual and practical challenges of exchanging and combining expertise, which are partly due to the jargon loaded and text biased approaches in use. With this grant, Hester Dibbits and her team aim to develop a less jargon loaded model in the form of a multisensoric toolkit. The toolkit will help academics and professionals to practically approach the wellbeing qualities of both tangible and intangible heritages.

Hester Dibbits did the Kiem application from the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, part of Erasmus University Rotterdam, which will also act as secretary. In addition to her, the research team consists of:
- Prof. Inger Leemans (VU Amsterdam)
- Dr Manon Parry (UvA)
- Dr Thomas Kador (UCL)
- Marlous Willemsen (director of Imagine IC and senior researcher at the Reinwardt Academy)
- Sara Mattens (Director vinger.nl)
- Željka Sušic? (Senior Curator Typhological Museum Zagreb)

About Hester Dibbits
Hester Dibbits directs the International Master of Museology and holds a professorship in Cultural Heritage at the Reinwardt Academy. She combines these positions with the chair of endowed professor Historical Culture and Education at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Education (ESHCC: Erasmus University of Rotterdam). The chair is funded by the National Centre of Expertise for Cultural Education and Amateur Arts (LKCA). She develops the multisensoric toolkit within the 'Facilitated Interaction on Heritage and Wellbeing' project. The issue also ties in closely with the research on emotional networks in cultural heritage that Hester Dibbits carries out within the Reinwardt Academy's research group.

About the KIEM grant
The Creative industry - KIEM programme aims to encourage and facilitate public-private partnerships in the domain of the Creative industries. KIEM aims to promote and facilitate partnerships between knowledge institutions and private parties, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs). KIEM enables consortia (consisting of at least one researcher employed at a Dutch University and at least one private partner) to develop sustainable partnerships. KIEM funding can also be used to further articulate and help answer questions put forward by private parties.