Working as an embedded researcher for a museum or heritage organisation, you will conduct independent research while developing, implementing, monitoring or evaluating an intervention in the museum or heritage field in relation to one or more of the topical issues: sustainability, inclusivity and digitality. Past students have conducted these placements at institutions such as Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Museum van Loon, Stichting 2030, Van Gogh Museum, National Heritage Agency, Culture Club, National Museum of Antiquities, Meertens Institute and Slot Loevesteyn.

This professional placement will give you an opportunity to develop your professional skills, attitude and experience, and to apply in a working environment the theoretical and practical knowledge you will have acquired during the programme. In addition, the placement will allow you to build your network and increase your access to the labour market. It differs from an internship in the sense that your responsibility at the hosting organisation is to conduct embedded research, rather than being engaged in day-to-day operations.

After term 2, we will organise a research market at which professional organisations will present their issues and concomitant research needs, which students can choose from. After finding your match in terms of research topic or organisation, you will subsequently work on a research plan, assisted by more in-depth seminars on intervention research design, methods and data analysis. Building on the previous modules, you will work on the articulation of the problem and create a detailed work plan for the research that is needed to develop, implement, monitor or evaluate an intervention at a host institution of choice. In most cases, the research will consist of a combination of desk research, emotion networking, interviews and fieldwork. In workshops and class assignments, students will further develop the relevant skills. The main research findings will be summarised and presented on a poster to the public at the end of term 4.