Wageningen UR (University & Research centre) contributes significantly to the quality of life

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Opening academic year

Opening academic year 2010

Nature as the basis of our existence. Excellent education and research as the basis of our economy. Those themes formed the basis of the opening of the academic year 2010/2011 of Wageningen UR, on September 6. “We can not afford to treat nature as a nice to have, nature is a need to have”, said Kees Slingerland, managing director of the Environmental Sciences Group of Wageningen UR.
The Dutch politician Alexander Pechtold (leader of the D66 party) said: “Our knowledge economy requires focus and mass. Not only more money, but also specialization and participation.” He pleaded that The Netherlands should make clear choices about the sectors it wants to invest in. “Unfortunately, we are not good at everything, so we should define our priorities.”
Aalt Dijkhuizen, chairman of the Executive Board of Wageningen UR, announced that the universities of Groningen, Twente, Nijmegen and Wageningen have agreed to strengthen their collaboration in the areas of sustainable energy, nanotechnology, technology & health and food & health to better serve students and society.

Two Wageningen scientists to review new IPCC report

Wageningen UR scientists appointed to review two chapters in the fifth IPCC report

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has appointed Rik Leemans and Pavel Kabat to each review a chapter of the fifth assessment report, which is due in 2014. Leemans will review the chapter ‘Detection and attribution of observed impacts’ and Kabat ‘Freshwater resources’. Both Wageningen UR scientists have contributed to previous IPCC reports as well. In December 2007 the IPCC and Al Gore received a Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to create better understanding of climate change and the measures that are needed to counteract it.

News

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    Growing coral under glass

    A quarter of all fish species live on coral reefs. These reefs are threatened by climate change, clogging and overfishing. Moreover stone corals are more and more populair with aquarium devotees

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    African women and the AIDS tragedy

    AIDS has dramatic consequences for food security in Africa. Millions of farmers on this continent have died of AIDS or have become too sick to work. Frequently, the women who are left behind must

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    Food Sovereignty: promoting or undermining food security?

    Food Sovereignty is one of the emerging concepts in present-day debates on food security and the right to food. Different than the Right to Food, which is a legal framework, Food Sovereignty is a

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    Ethiopia: horticulture and flowers

    From March 21-23 the Hortiflora will take place in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. Wageningen UR will be present with a stand. Please find below the presentation that was showed, as well as the handouts.

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Studying at Wageningen UR

Academic and professional education

Wageningen UR offers a broad range of studies focusing on the domain ‘healthy food and living environment’. Students are stimulated to combine the natural and social sciences; from plant sciences to economics and from food ingredients technology to sociology. All studies have their roots in society and are always focused on finding solutions for societal problems.

Education is offered at various levels. Wageningen University offers academic education and the Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences offers professional education. This unique combination of academic and professional education has led to a coherent system of bachelor, master and PhD programmes. On all levels academic, strategic and applied research are combined.

International orientation

There is a strong international presence at Wageningen UR. About a third of the MSc students and fifty percent of phD students are from abroad. Internationally, the university is listed in the top 200 in both the Times Higher Educational Supplement as well as in the American Newsweek.

Freshwater experiments throughout Europe

Stream in Brodnia, Poland

Freshwater experiments will be carried out across Europe to examine how streams and lakes react to climate change. The field experiments will start this year. Throughout Europe the same tests will be done. Such a large freshwater experiment has never been done before. Changes in water temperature, water flow and nutrients will be monitored. As part of the stream experiments, in 2011 and 2012 by-passes will be constructed to allow sections of streams to stagnate and dry up. This is designed to measure the effects of summer droughts. The research project will be led by Alterra, part of Wageningen UR. The institute devised and designed all experiments.

Research counter

Search per topic for a list of contacts where research assignments can be requested.

Forests make heatwaves initially warmer

Measuring temperatures in the forest

Grasslands evaporate more at higher temperatures and stop only when no more water is available. Forests, in contrast, respond to higher temperatures by evaporating less, which leaves more water at their disposal. During brief heatwaves, therefore, the greatest warming is found above forests, but during prolonged heat waves forests continue their evaporation for longer, so the net effect is ultimately one of cooling in relation to the surroundings. This emerged from research by Ryan Teuling (Wageningen University, part of Wageningen UR) and colleagues, which was published in Nature Geoscience.

Lipdub Wageningen University on You Tube

Wageningen University recorded a university Lipdub coordinated by the Student Recruitment Department. University Lipdubs are a creative way to present the university
and a real hype amongst international universities. The concept of a Lipdub to record a music video in one shoot, without cutting and pasting.
150 enthusiastic students, a lecturer and a concierge participated in the Lipdub of Wageningen University on the song Tik Tok from singer Ke$ha.