SENSE Researcher Lars Hein (Environmental Systems Analysis group, Wageningen University) has been awarded with a prestigious research grant from the European Research Council (ERS).

The ERC grants are the European equivalent of the Veni, Vidi and Vici grants of the Dutch NWO. They are given to promising top researchers with an outstanding CV and research proposal.

Lars Hein receives the grant for his proposal 'EcoSpace: Spatial-Dynamic Modelling of Adaptation Options to Climate Change at the Ecosystem Scale'.

The journal Environmental Science and Policy has published a special issue on ‘Socio-technical Experiments in Asia – A Driver for Sustainability Transition?'. The special issue is edited by Frans Berkhout, Geert Verbong, and Anna J. Wieczorek. The papers are available online via Science Direct: www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/14629011.

ClubGreen is an initiative to let people gain knowledge about topics that deal with sustainability, health and awareness. ClubGreen especially wants to share up to date information from trustworthy sources with a large audience. They cooperate with experts from universities and research institutes. Several SENSE researchers already contributed to the ClubGreen website (www.clubgreen.nl). ClubGreen has now asked SENSE to promote cooperation with ClubGreen and to ask people within our network to share their knowledge through the ClubGreen website. Especially for PhD students this can be a nice opportunity to communicate their research results to a larger audience.

In response to the ongoing discussion about the reliability of the IPCC and the climate reports, a group of 55 leading Dutch scientists working in the field of climate change, energy and the environment has written an open letter. The letter was published in several Dutch media on February 10.

After this date, the opportunity for additional support signatories was provided till about March 20, 2010. This possibility was used by 222 scientists (professor or doctor) from the Netherlands and from other countries. You can download the full open letter (including the complete list of 277 signatories and support signatories) below.

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Click HERE to download the pdf version of the open letter in English (including the complete list of signatories and support signatories).

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Een groep van 55 vooraanstaande Nederlandse onderzoekers, werkzaam op het gebied van klimaatverandering, milieu en energie, heeft in een open brief gereageerd op de discussie die is ontstaan over de betrouwbaarheid van het IPCC en het klimaatrapport 2007. De brief is op 10 februari openbaar gemaakt in diverse media.

Daaropvolgend is de mogelijkheid geopend om tot medio maart 2010 adhesie te betuigen met deze open brief en met een Engelstalige versie ervan. Hiervan hebben 222 wetenschappers (prof. of dr.) uit zowel Nederland als uit andere landen gebruik gemaakt. De volledige tekst van deze brief (inclusief de lijst van totaal 277 ondertekenaars en adhesiebetuigingen) is hieronder beschikbaar als pdf download.

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Download HIER de pdf-versie van de open brief (inclusief de lijst van totaal 277 ondertekenaars en adhesiebetuigingen).

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In the past weeks, some errors in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have found wide attention in the media. These errors are unfortunate and require correction, as is common in the scientific process.

However, in view of the management of the SENSE research school and its many affiliated researchers, these errors do not affect the scientific content and overall message of the reports of the IPCC. Climate change requires urgent political action.

We regret that some media outlets have published articles on this matter that contain misleading, incorrect and incomplete information. Moreover, we regret that some articles have questioned the personal integrity of members of our research school who participate - unpaid and on their own time - in the international IPCC network.

Philipp Pattberg won the science prize 2009 of the German Political Science Association. He got the prize for his publication "Private Institutions and Global Governance. The New Politics of Environmental Sustainability", which was awarded as the best book in the field of sustainability.

PhD students and postdocs from Wageningen University took the initiative to organize a continuing series of stimulating seminars on contemporary topics in evolution and ecology. This initiative has resulted in the Wageningen Ecology & Evolution Seminars (WEES). WEES aims to bring together different groups at Wageningen University using a variety of systems, but with a common interest in evolutionary and ecological questions.

Een PhD afronden in vier jaar, het is echt mogelijk. Voor degenen die niet weten hoe ze dit moeten bewerkstelligen, is er nu het boek 'Klaar in vier jaar'. Dit boek laat zien dat je een promotietraject, hoe complex en uniek ook, kunt plannen als een project. Hiervoor wordt een praktisch stappenplan aangereikt.

"The pace and scale of climate change may now be outstripping even the most sobering predictions of the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC)." That is one of the conclusions of the latest science report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The report, compiled in association with scientists around the world, comes with less than 80 days to go to the crucial UN climate convention meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated that this report is a final call for action to the world.

In the latest issue of the IVM newsletter director Frans Berkhout gives his view on what will happen after the climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December.

Franks Berkhout states: 'There is no doubt that the COP at Copenhagen has huge political significance and that the consequences of the decisions made (or not made) will reverberate for another decade and more. But we should also not expect too much and remember that Copenhagen is one moment in a long political process.'

So what will happen afterwards? Berkhout makes a few predictions:
1) Long follow-up negotiations
2) Climate policy objectives remain contested
3) Compliance remains a major issue
4) Dealing with the impacts will change climate politics.

Read the full article on the IVM website.

Graduate Junction, the international online network for young scientists, is now organizing a poster competition. Every young researcher can join the competition and win a fancy prize... Perhaps you have the winning poster!?

SENSE goes Hollywood.

In order to make the scientific results of SENSE known to a broader public, the SENSE board has decided to start using short movies about SENSE and its researchers. These movies will be put on the SENSE website and might also be linked to YouTube.

The internet video becomes more and more a popular means of presenting ideas to the world. A very nice and inspiring example is TED.

With the motto 'Ideas worth spreading' this website presents the best talks of the annual Technology, Entertainment & Design (TED) Conference to the worldwide public for free. Have a look and be inspired!

This new one-year MSc programme at the VU university in Amsterdam is a unique combination of broad training in political science with intense specialised lectures and seminars on global environmental governance.

The new book 'Principles of Environmental sciences' is written by Jan Boersema and Lucas Reijnders. It was presented to the Minister of Environment, Mrs. Cramer, on Thursday February 19.

NWO has modified the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme. From 2009 onwards there will be a greater focus on knowledge utilisation and there will be more opportunities for multidisciplinary proposals.In each category (Veni, Vidi, Vici) separate committees will be installed for assessing multi-disciplinary interdivisional applications. WOTRO will be responsible for organising the evaluation of these interdivisional proposals. Although this new category is open for all fields of research, it nevertheless opens up new opportunities for development oriented research and for career development in that field. WOTRO therefore encourages you to apply. Another change is that proposals from different disciplines will compete and will be compared with each other. Furthermore, extra funds will be made available to top researchers, while institutional matching and prior institutional embedding is not required anymore.

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Research has launched a number of calls for proposals under the 2008 and 2009 work programmes of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and under the 2009 work programme of the Seventh Euratom Framework Programme for Nuclear Research and Training Activities.

Maarten Krol and Wouter Peters received the "Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Outstanding Scientific Paper Award 2008" for their paper "An atmospheric perspective on North American carbon dioxide exchange: CarbonTracker". This prestigious award is attributed by the American National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

The outstanding paper is available for download HERE

NWO past de subsidies Veni, Vidi en Vici aan. Er komt meer geld voor excellente onderzoekers. De subsidies worden hoger, indienmogelijkheden voor hoogleraren zijn ruimer en er is minder papierwerk vooraf. Ook is er aandacht voor kennisbenutting, komen er meer mogelijkheden voor multidisciplinaire voorstellen en worden voorstellen uit verschillende gebieden met elkaar vergeleken.

De veranderingen worden doorgevoerd naar aanleiding van een evaluatie over de afgelopen jaren. In november en december organiseert NWO voor onderzoekers een aantal voorlichtingsbijeenkomsten over de wijzigingen.