My name is Grigoraș Ecaterina, PhD in sociology, and I work as a senior scientific researcher at the Center for Demographic Research of National Institute for Economic Research, AESM, Moldova.
From 19.02.2024 to 07.03.2024, I visited the Interdisciplinary Institute of Demography of the Netherlands Academy of Science and Art, affiliated with the University of Groningen, in The Hague, Netherlands, where I was hosted by Dr. V.J. Deimantas. During my visit, I conducted research on the demographic fertility of Moldovan men. Specifically, I looked at the age at which men become parents for the first time, the number of biological children they have during their lifetime, and the transition to the first, second, and third child in the cohorts with a year of birth between 1941 and 1985, based on data from the Generations and Gender Survey (2020).
On March 5th, 2024, I presented the findings of my research titled "Demographic Male Fertility: Evidence from Generations and Gender Survey" to the NIDI team during their weekly meeting. The presentation sparked a lively discussion among the team members, who posed a variety of questions and provided valuable feedback that helped me refine and finalize my research.
At the same time, during my stay, I got to know the Generations and Gender Program team and participated in the team's weekly meetings. I met Mrs. Dr. S.A. (Solveig) Cunningham, and I even spent an exceptional evening with her beautiful family, discussing the demographic problem that Moldova is currently facing and the latest research in reproductive behaviour in Countries from the Eastern Europe region. I had interesting discussions with Prof. Dr. A.H. (Anne) Gauthier, who encouraged me to study the research topic that I launched. I exchanged opinions regarding the fertility of Moldovan women with the researcher Dr. J.C. (Judith) Koops, who conducted the study “Calculating Contraceptive Prevalence and Unmet Family Planning Need in the Republic of Moldova using the Generations and Gender Survey”. Discussions with the GGP team within NIDI allowed the exchange of ideas and the guidance in the orientation of the proposed research.
Last week, I had the chance to explore the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague, which was recommended to me by the GGP team. I spent several hours admiring the famous paintings on display, and also took the opportunity to explore the city's architecture while walking around.
This visit was part of the COORDINATE Transnational Access Visit (TAV) program, which provides European researchers with research grants and access to international databases related to the study of Generations and Gender in participating countries. The Generations and Gender Program team at NIDI offered great support during my visit. I highly recommend this opportunity to any researcher looking to expand their research and explore the GGS dataset.