Would you like to conduct research at Betweter Festival?
On Friday evening 26 September 2025, TivoliVredenburg will host the ninth edition of the . The arts & science festival where visitors immerse themselves in a unique mix of talks, music, film, interactive installations and live research.
With almost 3,000 know-it-alls under one roof, the festival offers researchers a great opportunity to collect lots of data and get in touch with the audience. Do you have an idea for a surprising experiment and would you like to carry out your research at the festival? Let us know your plan by 31 March 2025 at the latest. Applications are open for all universities, universities of applied sciences and other research institutions.
Participating in Betweter gave us the opportunity to create an interactive theatre experiment in collaboration with actors and designers. This collaboration helped us professionalise our use of arts-based research methods in our research project. And through this experiment, we were able to further explore the guilt question on climate change with so many people. The rest of the weekend I was exhausted, but also very fulfilled.
We are looking for you!
Last year, we studied for example risk behavior, the contagiousness of yawning and itch. Also visitors participated in the court of the future, taking place in 2118. For Betweter 2025, we are again looking for experiments that are interesting and stimulating for visitors and gather useful data for researchers. And maybe you see opportunities to collaborate with a visual artist, actor or musician?
It is important that the experiment actually contributes to your research or data collection and has a short completion time (about 5 minutes), so that as many visitors as possible can participate. Proposals that only use surveys will not suffice. Does your research match this? Then we would like to receive your idea. We will make sure your experiment is designed in an attractive way.
How to apply
Send us your proposal by 31 March at the latest using the (four short questions). Do you have an idea but not the exact plan yet? Feel free to fill in the form as well, we are happy to think along!
More information
Do you have any questions? Visit or send an email to Lieke Dekker via betweterfestival@uu.nl.
Secretly, data collection is not my primary goal at the Betweter Festival, it is a nice touch. I think the most important thing is that by letting people participate in your experiment, you can explain to them what your research is about. You could also do this by giving lectures, but those tend to stick less than, for example, putting your hand in a tub of ice water during an experiment. The experience they gain in the experiment remains a very strong memory hook on which they can hang the knowledge about the background of the experiment. I also like to have a 1-on-1 (or 1-on-2 or 3) conversation with the participants before or after participating in the experiment, people are often very interested in what you do and sometimes they say something that gives you an idea for a new experiment.