On May the 28th the members of SENSE Research Cluster XIII (Land Use, Spatial Analysis and Modelling / Ecosystem and Landscape Services) had a 'meet & greet' to get to know each other and to think about possibilities to get more out of their research cluster. This activity was a follow-up of the meeting on research cluster developments that was organised by SENSE in December 2009. The group of researchers that attended this meeting was in theory already connected for quite some time (through the internet). However, now it was time to actually meet the people behind this crosscutting research cluster. With interactive discussions and “speed-dates”, great weather and location, and, most importantly, a clear mandate and list of upcoming activities, the afternoon could only be described as the right step forward for “lucky Research Cluster XIII”!

Early 2009, the SENSE Research School started 14 research clusters. They have been installed to sharpen the focus of the four overarching research themes of SENSE by creating smaller research teams that bring together researchers and PhD students from different SENSE partner institutions.

Research clusters aim to establish a platform/network for SENSE PhD-students and SENSE researchers that work on related topics or themes. Such a platform/network enables information exchange and common activities, such as organizing:

• PhD meetings/presentations;
• workshops;
• expert meetings;
• Summer Schools / international PhD courses;
• discussion meetings;
• literature study meetings;
• review of draft articles, poster presentations; etc.

The cluster overview is available at: http://www.sense.nl/researchclusters.

SENSE Researcher Marten Scheffer (WIMEK) receives NWO Spinoza Prize.

A direct weblink to the English press release may be found HERE.

Letter in Science:"Conference Covered Climate from All Angles"

SENSE researcher Joyeeta Gupta (IVM) has contributed to a letter that is published in Science (18 May 2009). The letter is written in response to the mainstream opinion in the media after the climate conference in Copenhagen.

In the letter the authors stress that "There is a large and growing body of research about climate change from the social sciences and humanities, which offers new ways of framing the phenomenon, of opening up discourses between peoples and political actors, of elaborating potential solutions that can be sustainable, and of linking such solutions to other key social, economic, and environmental phenomena. These are all insights that are more engaging, empowering, and fruitful than a discourse of catastrophe, and it is important that they are given much more prominence in climate change science-policy interactions and in media reporting."

The full text of the letter can be found here: Conference Covered Climate from All Angles.

In Fall 2008, Carolien Kroeze left the SENSE board of directors after having been the SENSE Director of Education for a period of 3,5 years. Ad van Dommelen took over, and he now serves in SENSE both as Deputy Director and as Director of Education.

For both of us being member of the board of directors is and was of great value. Not only is it a pleasure to work with the other members of the board and the education desk, but it is also an experience of continuous learning. Let us summarize a few lessons that we have learned from our work for SENSE in the past few years...

The SENSE Benchmark overview
is available in pdf-format HERE.

The ABCDE-ranking of scientific publishers
is available in pdf-format HERE.

The ISI journals 2008 overview
is available in excel-format HERE.

Meer info via: http://www.knaw.nl/dowenergieprijs

Voor de Dow Energieprijs komen alleen personen of groepen van maximaal 4 personen in aanmerking. Bij de selectie van de prijswinnaars zal de voorkeur uitgaan naar onderzoekers of technologen voor wie de prijs als aanmoediging kan gelden voor verder onderzoek naar een ontwikkeling van duurzame processen en technologie. Alleen toepassingen die hun meerwaarde in de industriële praktijk, in de vorm van een succesvolle pilot, reeds hebben aangetoond, komen in aanmerking. Een persoon kan niet zichzelf nomineren voor de prijs.

Voor de Dow Energie Dissertatieprijs komen proefschriften in aanmerking die veelbelovende toepassingen en/of ideeën beschrijven. De waarde van de genomineerde toepassing/ het genomineerde idee hoeft zich in de praktijk nog niet te hebben bewezen. Een persoon kan niet zichzelf nomineren voor de prijs.

Last minute registration for SENSE PhD Course S340 on:

INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE:
CAUSES AND RESPONSES

Follow WEB-LINK to go to details and Online Registration

Peer review or Beer review?

Here are two publications in relation to the effect of beer drinking on ecologists and their publications:

OIKOS: A possible role of social activity to explain differences in publication output among ecologists, available for download HERE.

AGORA: Hope for Bohemian ecologists — comments on "A possible role of social activity to explain differences in publication output among ecologists?" available for download HERE.

International Workshop, 5 September 2008,
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

With globalisation, the 'rules of the game' of international problem-solving through intergovernmental treaties is changing. A number of different trends in international environmental governance involving non-state actors are becoming visible...
READ MORE in the full workshop programme, which is available for download HERE.

Registration

Participation is free of charge. Please send an e-mail to aysem.mert[at]ivm.vu.nl before the day of the workshop indicating your participation.

Venue

Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1087, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands (see the campus map included in the programme which is available for download above)

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Welke onderzoeksvragen krijgen uw prioriteit?

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Deze bijeenkomst op 17 juni 2008 in Wageningen is bijzonder succesvol verlopen met zeer actieve deelnemers. Een verslag zal hier binnenkort beschikbaar zijn, inclusief een selectie van de schitterende cartoons die zijn gemaakt.

[click picture to enlarge]

Sprekers:

• Willem Ferwerda (IUCN)
• Sible Schöne (Klimaatbureau)
• Alphons Rommelse (Rommelse Communicatieadvies)
• Ekko van Ierland (WIMEK, WUR)
• Frank Biermann
  (IVM, VU)

De kennisvragen uit de samenleving zijn cruciaal om de onderzoeksprioriteiten voor een milieuvriendelijke en duurzame samenleving van morgen en overmorgen te identificeren.

De publieke participatieronde op dinsdag 17 juni aanstaande in Wageningen speelt in dit proces een belangrijke rol. Alle relevante partijen uit de samenleving — zoals onderzoekers, beleidsmakers, werknemers en werkgevers, milieubeweging, en consumenten — zijn op deze dag uitgenodigd om hun kennisbehoefte actief in te brengen.

Deze uitnodiging is tevens beschikbaar in pdf format ter verspreiding in uw netwerk: PDF Uitnodiging: Brede participatie-bijeenkomst SENSE Questions

Spinoza Prize for Professor Willem de Vos On 2 June 2008, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) announced which four Dutch researchers will receive the NWO/Spinoza Prize for 2008. Professor Willem de Vos, microbiologist at Wageningen University, was one of them receiving this prestigious prize for the groundbreaking research into the contribution of microorganisms to human food and health. The NWO/Spinoza Prize, the highest Dutch award in science also referred to as the 'Dutch Nobel Prize', is awarded to Dutch researchers who rank among the world's top scientists. The laureates are internationally renowned, and know how to inspire young researchers. Each researcher receives one-and-a-half million Euros, to be spent on research of their choice. Dutch Education Minister Ronald Plasterk will perform the official presentation of the monetary prize and the Spinoza statuette on Wednesday 19 November 2008 in the Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague.

The overview of issues of SENSE e-News is available at:
www.sense.nl..
../newsletter/archives

The SENSE Research Committee has chosen the dissertation that was successfully defended by

René Rozendal

on 24 October 2007 as the laureate of the SENSE PhD Award 2008:
Hydrogen production through biocatalyzed electrolysis.

This is indeed an excellent effort by René Rozendal, who was awarded this prize on 22nd of April in Maastricht. On the same day, René ALSO received the MAD (Most Appealing Dissertation) PhD Prize. Of course, the fact that René graduated Cum Laude was already a good indication of the excellence of his work.

The Board of Directors and General Board of SENSE wish to heartily congratulate René Rozendal on his highly appreciated work.

The members of the SENSE Research Committee are:

• Prof. Ernst Worrell (Director of Research)
• Prof. Jacob de Boer (Core Theme 1 Chair)
• Prof. Jan Hendriks (Core Theme 2 Chair)
• Prof. Pier Vellinga (Core Theme 3 Chair)
• Prof. Arthur Mol (Core Theme 4 Chair)

As was announced before, Prof. Rik Leemans contributes a regular column to the SENSE e-News in which he reflects on relevant events and topics.

Over the last months two important SENSE initiatives have matured...

SENSE PhD Award 2008

The SENSE Research Committee hereby invites nominations for the SENSE PhD Award 2008 (competition is open for dissertations successfully defended in 2007), which will be announced on the occasion of the upcoming ICIS/SENSE Symposium on 22 April 2008.

This honour will be awarded to the laureate together with a prize of one thousand euro's.

Nominations include:

• a motivated nomination,
• CV of the candidate,
• 6 copies of the dissertation,
• letter(s) of recommendation by third parties and/or the judgement of the graduation committee.

Deadline for nominations is 14 March 2008

Read more below for the specific guidelines and for sending your nomination to Johan.Feenstra@wur.nl

Wageningen University has appointed toxicologist Dr Tinka Murk (WIMEK-WU) Personal Professor starting 1 January 2008. This title, specific to Wageningen University, is granted annually for a period of five years to the top few percent of the tenured faculty staff based on their outstanding scientific performance.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 24-31 August 2008: The Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) of the VU University Amsterdam welcomes applications for the 2008 European PhD Summer School on Earth System Governance (SENSE Course S460).

The 2008 PhD Summer School on Earth System Governance aims to help students to better understand the causes of global change in an integrated manner and at the same time to develop options for the governance of a transition to more sustainable development paths at the national and global levels. It brings together insights from the modeling, integrated assessment, and sustainability science communities and from the social science, governance-oriented research communities.

Most of you have probably heard about the WIMEK PhD-Council (WPC) over the years, but wondered who exactly we are and what we are doing. The latter we hope to change for good in the new year.

For this, SENSE generously gave us the oppertunity to publish our own internet page under their domain (www.sense.nl/wpc) with some interesting extras. Next to an introduction, you will find there pretty everything else about us, i.e. news, events, documents, and an forum entry.

You are kindly invited to take a look at www.sense.nl/wpc and to send us your questions, suggestions, remarks or other feedback!

In the first SENSE e-News in 2008, Prof. Rik Leemans gives us a brief overview of how we are presently 'making SENSE'. In this and future newsletters, he will contribute a column reflecting on relevant events and topics.

To begin with, a reflection on 2007 seems appropriate — 2007 was a hectic but also very successful year for SENSE...