Having proposed BSc, MSc and PhD projects during about 25 years to students of various universities, I got the clear impression that the motivation of students for research in general has been evolving a lot over time. I am wondering if this is a general tendency or only a trend restricted to my area of research (materials science) and/or geographical area (Europe). I would therefore be very grateful if you could describe in a few words what kind of research project topic you would like to work with if you had the possibility of defining it yourself, as well as your motivation for this choice. I hope that your answers, especially about motivation, will help me finding new inspiration for future projects I may suggest to my students.