From 2001-2006 Marijke Meijer Drees was leader of the research project on literary aspects of early modern Dutch pamplets, funded by NWO (Aspasia grant): Literatuur met effect: Nederlandse pamfletten ca. 1600-1750. Main output:  a bundle with articles (Het lange leven van het pamflet, 2006) and two dissertations, one by Joost Vrieler (2007) and the other by Clazina Dingemanse (2008).    

She also conducted the NWO-funded research project The power of satire: cultural boundaries contested (2009-2013). Main output: two dissertations (one by Ivo Nieuwenhuis, UvA 2014; one by Abdelghani El Khairat, UU 2013) and the peer reviewed book The Power of Satire with collected articles edited in cooperation with Sonja de Leeuw (Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins, 2015).