Oct 2025: Our SUNNI (‘Samen Uniek: Netwerk voor Neurodiversiteit in het Radboudumc’) has kicked off with lunch sessions to share the latest insights from science related to neurodiversity with employees of the Radboudumc. We held our first session on the 9th of October, and PI of this research group, Martine Hoogman, kicked-off with the topic of ‘Strengths in ADHD’. It was a great turn out and there were a lot of valuable interactions among the people in the audience. Looking forward to the next sessions where Emma Sprooten will share information about the neurobiology of neurodiversity (19th of January) and Corina Greven will tell us more about HSP (February 2026). For employees in the Radboudumc, please check out intranet page for more events.
We held our meeting in the Nicolaas Tulp room in the Radboudumc. In the context of strengths in ADHD we looked at this picture and wondered whether there was someone here with ADHD. People with ADHD self-report to be adventurous, novelty seeking and eager to take risks… would the first person who ever cut open someone’s arm, not have to have these characteristics?
💪 We identified 10 potential ADHD-related strengths – that is, traits that were endorsed more strongly by adults with ADHD than their neurotypical peers. This included things like hyperfocus, humour, creativity, spontaneity and intuitiveness.
😊 Crucially, across both groups, adults who were more aware of their own strengths and those who used their strengths more frequently in their day-to-day lives had better wellbeing, improved quality of life and fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress.
‼️ Our findings provide important support for the development of strengths-based interventions for adults with ADHD, something that the neurodivergent community has been actively calling for.
Sept 2025: Good news! We can now continue our ADHD escape room project with a grant from NWO. Please read this news item, including an interview with Jeanette and Martine.
Aug 2025: Last Saturday our group member Dr. Jeanette Mostert was invited in the radio studio of our national radio station NPO1. She was interviewed about our ADHD escape room. Please click on this link to hear her interview.
Aug 2025: Lessa Schippers, a Ph.D. candidate in our group has obtained two grants, The Ter Meulen grant and a grant from the Culture Fund, to spend four months abroad. She will join Dr. Emma Climie’s research group at the University of Calgary in Canada. Her project will focus on the positive aspects of ADHD in children and adolescents, which will be a valuable addition to her current research on the positive aspects of ADHD in adults.
During her stay, she will contribute to an intervention study focused on social skills training for young people with ADHD and be involved in analyzing research data. She will also attend the CADDRA (Canadian ADHD Resource Alliance) conference to gain insight into ADHD research and clinical practice in Canada.
Dr. Climie specializes in child psychology and has committed herself to strengthening the resilience and well-being of children with ADHD for many years. She leads the research group “Strengths in ADHD,” which takes a strengths-based approach to working with children and families with ADHD. This collaboration will allow Lessa to deepen her expertise and integrate international insights into her research.
Lessa received two grants to support her research stay: a internationalization grant from the Cultural Fund (Banning de Jong Fund) and a KNAW Ter Meulen grant. Both grants support young researchers in achieving their international goals and promote the exchange of knowledge across national borders. Specifically, the KNAW Ter Meulen grant supports young pediatric researchers who wish to conduct research abroad. The Cultural Fund supports talented students and young researchers in realizing their dream careers through international experience. The Banning de Jong Fund, a named fund within the Cultural Fund, focuses on projects related to the relationship between culture and medicine and on granting scholarships for medical research.
Celebrations @ Cultural Fund
Aug 2025: Vanaf september 2025 zal Lessa Schippers, PhD-kandidaat in de onderzoeksgroep van dr. Martine Hoogman, vier maanden onderzoek doen in de onderzoeksgroep van dr. Emma Climie aan de University of Calgary in Canada. Haar project richt zich op de positieve kanten van ADHD bij kinderen en jongeren, een waardevolle aanvulling op haar huidige onderzoek naar positieve aspecten van ADHD bij volwassenen.
Tijdens haar verblijf zal Lessa onder andere bijdragen aan een interventiestudie gericht op sociale vaardighedentraining voor jongeren met ADHD, en betrokken zijn bij de analyse van onderzoeksdata. Daarnaast zal ze een bezoek brengen aan het CADDRA (Canadian ADHD Resource Alliance) congres, om een breder beeld te krijgen van het ADHD-onderzoek en de klinische praktijk in Canada.
Dr. Climie is gespecialiseerd in kinderpsychologie en zet zich al jaren in voor het versterken van veerkracht en welzijn bij kinderen met ADHD. Zij leidt de onderzoeksgroep “Strengths in ADHD”, die zich richt op kinderen en gezinnen met ADHD vanuit een sterke-kantenbenadering. De samenwerking biedt Lessa de kans om haar expertise te verdiepen en internationale inzichten te integreren in haar onderzoek.
Voor dit onderzoeksverblijf ontving Lessa twee beurzen: een buitenlandbeurs van het Cultuurfonds (Banning de Jong Fonds) en de KNAW Ter Meulen beurs. Beide beurzen zijn bedoeld om jonge onderzoekers te ondersteunen in hun internationale ambities en dragen bij aan kennisuitwisseling over landsgrenzen heen. De KNAW Ter Meulen beurs richt zich specifiek op jonge onderzoekers binnen de kindergeneeskunde die een werkbezoek willen brengen aan het buitenland. Het Cultuurfonds ondersteunt getalenteerde studenten en onderzoekers bij het realiseren van hun droomcarrière door middel van internationale ervaring. Het Banning de Jong Fonds is een fonds op naam binnen het Cultuurfonds dat zich richt op projecten rond de relatie tussen cultuur en geneeskunde, en het verlenen van beurzen voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek binnen de geneeskunde.
Juni 2025: At this year’s Radboudumc Research Strategy Day, our ADHD escape room project won the Envision Award 🏆 . This award acknowledges efforts of scientists that ‘captivate audiences with original outreach’, ‘connect science to real-world experiences‘ and ‘inspire curiosity and care beyond academia‘. Please also see the other great nominees !
It was already very rewarding to work with so many enthousiastic students, but this is a very nice bonus!
Great team effort by all the people below!!
Lessa SchippersJeanette MostertAmy de RoubaixYvonne Kuiper, Brain Museum NijmegenEsther Fluijt, Radboud Honours AcademyMartine HoogmanHonours studentsMartine receiving the award on behalf of the team, from Scientific Director Guillen FernandezAll award winners at the Radbouumc Strategy day
June 2025: A long time ago we brainstormed about creating an ADHD escape room, in 2023 to be exact ;-). Now years later, we are lauching our prototype! Jeanette Mostert (and Lessa, Amy and Martine) together with colleagues from the honors academy, created an honors course for Radboud University students. During this course students were trained in design thinking and in how to make an educational escape room. The student also took a field trip to the Big Escape in Zwolle (an escape room company). During the course the students, step-by-step, created and build the ADHD escape room. Two students that took part in the course were interviewed by Vox magazine about their experiences. We are really proud of all 15 students who worked so hard on this project! Big party tomorrow on the 12the of June in the Latijnse School in Nijmegen.
First meeting of the courseLatijnse School, NijmegenVisiting the Great Escape in Zwolle
April 2025: Lessa and Martine attended the Dutch Psychiatry Spring Conference in Maastricht to present their work. Lessa had a poster (in Dutch: ‘Positieve karaktereigenschappen van ADHD: Een zelf- en peer-report case-control studie’) but also had the opportunity to do a pecha kucha. Martine was part of the session for invited professors (Innovatieve Benaderingen in de Psychiatrie: Van Onderzoek naar Toepassing) and presented an overview of her labs work on positive aspects of ADHD. It was a great experience to share our work en get feedback from Dutch clinicians.
May 2025: Our lab members Han Fang (PhD candidate) and Amy de Roubaix (postdoc) were nominated for the best poster award at the ADHD world congress in Prague this year. Han Fang presented her poster about ongoing work on Creativity, mindwandering and ADHD. Amy presented her poster entitled: Perceptions of the neurodiversity movement: Threat or opportunity for adults with ADHD? She was very active in her presentation, trying to get people to put stickers on her poster to capture the audience’s perspectives on the neurodiversity movement. This (probably ;-)) led to her winning one of the six Best Poster awards at the conference. Well done both!
Research group 'Strengths, positive aspects and resilience factors in neurodevelopmental conditions' 