dr.ir. HAM (Hans) Spoolder

I am a senior scientist and EU account manager at Wageningen Livestock Research in Wageningen, The Netherlands. For the latter role I support the acquisition and management of international research projects. I am an applied ethologist, and facinated by issues related to animal behaviour and welfare on farm, during transport and at the abattoir. In 1998 I obtained my PhD on social and stereotypic behaviour of sows. Since then I wrote or co-authored 40+ peer reviewed papers, and joined the Animal Health and Welfare panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) from 2012 to 2024. I have experience in managing international R&D projects, and was involved as coordinator, deputy-coordinator or project office manager of several EU funded projects in the past 20 years. Currently, I lead the Horizon2020 project 'mEATquality' (on the relationship between animal welfare and the quality of the meat), and am a Management Team member of the European Partnership on Animal Health and Welfare (EUP AH&W). I also coordinate the first EU Reference Centre for Animal Welfare: 'EURCAW-Pigs' (designated by the EU Commission in 2018).