Impact in education and beyond: VU researcher Laura Rupp secures Comenius Leadership Fellow grant

Laura Rupp has been awarded the Comenius Leadership Fellow grant for a three-year period. This grant of €500,000, will fund a project titled “Global English and International Dutch on the VU Campus”. Over the years, Rupp has successfully reached more than 100,000 people online worldwide, teaching how to understand diverse English accents and speak more clearly.

The Comenius Leadership Fellow grant is awarded by the National Regieorgaan Onderwijsonderzoek (NRO), enabling the recipients to carry out educational innovation projects and bring their educational visions to life. Laura Rupp, director of the Centre for Global English: 

“In the project we will develop a language diversity programme about Dutch and English for Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. VU-students and personnel will become more aware of the different varieties of Dutch and English spoken at VU Amsterdam, for us to better understand one another and to learn from and appreciate the Dutch and English language diversity that exists.” 

“At the heart of the programme is the VU sMOOC (Social Massive Open and Online Course) “English Pronunciation in a Global World”. From this sMOOC, components will be deployed in on-campus education and extracurricular activities at VU Amsterdam, such as Master thesis projects and the VU Mother Language Day. In collaboration with VU-NT2, we will also launch an sMOOC about language variation in Dutch.” 

Support by IXA 

“I learned a lot from taking part in IXA’s Impact Program, specifically regarding the identification of the different stakeholders. I learned to ask: ‘who are the stakeholders in respect to the project?’, and to follow that question with: ‘what is the specific importance of the project for every stakeholder?’ These questions lead to key insights into the context relevant to the project and everything we try to achieve.”

IXA has been happy to support Laura Rupp on her impactful journey over the course of the years. IXA has provided guidance on various aspects, including strategic planning, identifying opportunities, organizational expertise, and training facilities. In Laura’s own words:

Ever think about the impact that your work can have outside of academia? Feel welcome to contact our Business and Impact Developers via info@ixa.nl.

Video: impact story 

Watch the video of Laura to hear more about asking for outside expertise, identifying stakeholders and personal perseverance. Watch here

Other VU recipients of the Comenius grants 

VU Amsterdam celebrates a remarkable achievement: six of its lecturers have been awarded the prestigious Comenius grants. Read more 

More about the Comenius Leadership grants 

The Comenius programme by the Nationaal Regieorgaan Onderwijsonderzoek (NRO) contributes to the innovation and improvement of secondary vocational education and higher education in the Netherlands. Visit website