Rianne de Heide receives a substantial grant for developing a flexible statistical method

In academic research, it is common to calculate the so-called 'p-value'. With this value, researchers aim to separate  reality from chance. "The p-value was developed more than 100 years ago. It is suitable for small-scale experiments, such as those that took place at the time, but nowadays we work with much larger amounts of data and often test hundreds to hundreds of thousands of hypotheses at the same time," says De Heide.

That is why De Heide, together with colleagues, developed the so-called 'e-value' in 2019. This fairly new statistical method is much less susceptible to fraud than calculation of the old-fashioned p-value. E-values allow for flexible sampling plan, and are particularly useful when testing multiple hypotheses simultaneously.

In the Open Competition ENW-M (Domain Science – M), researchers can submit research proposals either individually or in collaboration for non-programmed, curiosity-driven fundamental research. ENW-M-2 funding amounts to a maximum of € 800,000, with one main applicant and one co-applicant who has complementary expertise.

The ENW-M-2 grant will be used to appoint two PhD students and an academic programmer, who De Heide and Goeman will supervise jointly. Rianne de Heide: "I am extremely happy with this grant from the Dutch Research Council. This project gives us the opportunity to develop a pioneering statistical method that is desperately needed in today's day and age."

Dr Rianne de Heide is an assistant professor in the Mathematics of Operations research department (MOR; Faculty of EEMCS). There, she works on problems in and solutions for machine learning and statistics. She is currently working on her VENI project 'E-values for Multiple Testing'.