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Research School for Socio-Economic and
Natural Sciences of the Environment
SENSE e-News
    Newsletter April
31 March 2016
Table of contents
Editorial
SENSE News
• Province Brabant subsidises Plant-e from SENSE alumna Marjolein Helder ››
Upcoming PhD Graduations
• Overview of PhD graduations upcoming period ››
Upcoming Courses
• Making an Impact! How to increase the societal relevance of your PhD research, 25-26 May ››
• ENP Summer School "Tackling Transparency: the Challenges of Operationalising Research on Disclosing Sustainability", 21-25 June ››
• PhD summer school on Urban Metabolism and Water Management: Smart Solutions for the Urban Metropole”, 4-15 July ››
• Overview of PhD / postdoc courses April-June ››
• Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses ››
Discussion Groups
• Discussion group Modelling and Statistics Network (MSN), 1 April ››
• Environmental Governance Seminar Series: Post-Paris Climate Research and Politics: What's New?, 5 April ››
Upcoming Events
• International Conference Disclosing Sustainability: The Transformative Power of Transparency, 24-25 June ››
• Overview of upcoming events ››
Tips
• DenkTank zoekt Promovendi - Meld je nu aan voor de Nationale DenkTank 2016! ››
• Vacature Nieuwe Voorzitter PNN, deadline 15 April ››
• Amsterdam Science is looking for new content for its 4th issue, deadline 14 April ››
New vacancies
• Assistant or Associate Professor in Geo-Information Science, Wageningen University, deadline 15 April ››
• PhD position ‘Large Scale Hurricane modelling and economic risk under climate change’, VU Amsterdam, deadline 27 April ››
• Postdoctoral fellow in microbial ecology, Lund University, deadline 6 May ››
• More vacancies ››
SENSE headlines
• Province Brabant subsidises Plant-e from SENSE alumna Marjolein Helder
• ENP Summer School "Tackling Transparency: the Challenges of Operationalising Research on Disclosing Sustainability", 21-25 June
• SENSE course Making an Impact! How to increase the societal relevance of your PhD research, 25-26 May
• DenkTank zoekt Promovendi - Meld je nu aan voor de Nationale DenkTank 2016!
Editorial
The EURO-AGRIWAT conference "Water Footprint of agricultural products: progress, challenges and solutions", the first international conference co-organised by SENSE, has been quite successful, with many international participants and lively discussions. The Powerpoints of most presentations and the Book of Abstracts can be found on the conference website.
 
Co-creating knowledge with societal partners is becoming increasingly important. Two upcoming activities (co-)organised by SENSE will offer you the opportunity to strenghten your competencies in this respect:
 
Research for impact involves much more than communicating research findings to the wider public, formulating recommendations for policy makers or engaging in public debates as a scientist. The PhD course Making an Impact! How to increase the societal relevance of your PhD research (25-26 May) builds on a transdisciplinary understanding of impact of sustainability research. It introduces PhD candidates to the philosophy and practice of integrative knowledge development and a set of techniques designed to ensure the value of the research process and subsequent results which are optimised for solving complex sustainability problems.
The course will enable participants to understand the rationale of collaboration with practitioners and policymakers, and to learn practical techniques for collaborative knowledge generation and impact activities.

A large private, public partnership from the Netherlands and Italy (Climate-KIC, Comune di Bologna, Aster, AMS, University of Bologna, Urban Center Bologna and SENSE) join hands to organize the two-week entrepreneurial PhD summer school on Urban Metabolism and Water Management: Smart Solutions for the Urban Metropole (4-15 July).
Cities increasingly face challenges of sustainability and quality of life, challenges that put at risk resource and food security, mobility and logistics, water and waste management, health and wellbeing. Cities need smart sustainable solutions. Such solutions are made possible by today’s revolution of new technologies, new methodologies and design. But no party can do this alone; the new, smart metropolises of the future require cooperation between knowledge institutes, companies, cities and citizens and it needs a system approach to be realised. We believe that PhD’s are the future worlds change agents that use their scientific knowledge, their idealistic attitudes, and research skills to come up with new, smart and sustainable solutions for our future cities.
SENSE News
Province Brabant subsidises Plant-e from SENSE alumna Marjolein Helder
The Dutch province of Brabant awards a subsidy of €273.000 to the start-up company Plant-e of David Strik (WU) and Marjolein Helder. Plant-e has developed a technology to generate electricity from the roots of living plants. Marjolein Helder graduated in 2012 as a SENSE PhD on her dissertation "Design criteria for the plant-microbial fuel cell : electricity generation with living plants : from lab tot application".
Read more ››
Upcoming PhD Graduations
Overview of PhD graduations upcoming period
  • Blagoj Delipetrev
    Nested algorithms for optimal reservoir operation and their embedding in a support platform
    8 April 2016, UNESCO-IHE, Hydroinformatics
     
  • Maarten Fije de Jong
    The ecological effects of deep sand extraction on the Dutch continental shelf. Implications for future sand extraction
    8 April 2016, Wageningen University, Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management
       
  • Emma Daniëls
    Land surface impacts on precipitation in the Netherlands
    11 April 2016, Wageningen University, Earth System Science
       
  • Fernanda Minikowski Achete
    Multiple scales of suspended sediment dynamics in a complex geometry estuary
    12 April 2016, UNESCO-IHE, Coastal Systems and Engineering and Port Development
     
  • Sjoerd Kerstens
    Sanitation planning in developing countries: Added value of resource recovery
    12 April 2016, Wageningen University, Soil Physics and Land Management
       
  • Adam Wexler
    Electrically Excited Liquid Water. Lessons from the Floating Water Bridge
    19 April2016, Wageningen University, Environmental Technology
       
  • Bui Thi Phuong Nam
    Ecophysiology of Novel Intestinal Butyrate-Producing Bacteria
    22 April 2016, Wageningen University, Microbiology
     
  • Koen Wetser
    Electricity from wetlands: Technology assessment of the tubular Plant Microbial Fuel Celll with an integrated biocathode
    22 April2016, Wageningen University, Environmental Technology
     
  • Concillia Monde
    Impact of natural and anthropogenic factors on the trophic interactions of molluscivores and Schistosoma host snails
    25 April 2016, Wageningen University, Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management
       
  • Jennifer Poussin
    Flood damage mitigation investments: An assessment of (cost-)effectiveness and household decision making
    28 April 2016, VU University Amsterdam, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Spatial Analysis and Decision Support
More upcoming graduations ››
Upcoming Courses
Making an Impact! How to increase the societal relevance of your PhD research, 25-26 May
Generating impact of research requires intense and ongoing collaboration with industry, government, societal organizations and citizens. It involves much more than communicating research findings to the wider public, formulating recommendations for policy makers or engaging in public debates as a scientist.

This new SENSE course builds on a transdisciplinary understanding of impact of sustainability research. You will discuss challenges and dilemmas, especially in the context of individual or small team PhD projects. At the end of the course, you will make an informed decision on whether and why you desire to integrate ideas of transdisciplinarity into your research and if so, in what way, and with what intended impact.
Registration deadline: 27 April
Read more and register ››
ENP Summer School “Tackling Transparency: the Challenges of Operationalising Research on Disclosing Sustainability”, 21-25 June
The aim of the Summer School is to explore the methodological challenges of operationalizing research on disclosing sustainability. The Summer School will highlight a number of themes and contexts in which these challenges manifest themselves.

The Summer School will be organized in conjunction to the International Conference “Disclosing Sustainability; The Transformative Power of Transparency?”. The Summer School participants are therefore able to generate expert insights and experiences for operationalizing research on the presented themes in the International Conference which takes place on June 24 and June 25, 2016 in Wageningen.
  
Extended registration deadline: 1 April
Read more ››
PhD summer school on Urban Metabolism and Water Management: Smart Solutions for the Urban Metropole”, 4-15 July
Turn your research into practice with our two-week PhD summer school on the circular metropole. We will support, train and coach PhD students with different scientific specialisations to transfer their research knowledge into smart sustainable solutions for the metropolises of the future. You will gain experience with multidisciplinary collaboration, creative skills, commercial thinking, and communication with different stakeholders. Based on the active involvement of municipality problem owners you will work on real life cases from the metropolitan cities of Amesterdam (week 1) and Bologna (week 2). The different contexts provided by working in two large European cities gives a unique experience of how global challenges are solved and solutions are implemented locally. 
Read more ››
Overview of PhD / postdoc courses April-June
Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses
More upcoming courses ››
Discussion Groups
Discussion group Modelling and Statistics Network (MSN), 1 April
The discussion group aims at generating discussion on statistical methods and modelling concepts. By stimulating these discussions we intend to encourage PhD candidates to share ideas, explore new methods, or to discuss and seek help to specific problems that they face in their research. Meetings are held six times a year and are organised by two MSN-members. Meetings can consist of two parts. In the first part, there will be a presentation by a PhD candidate or an expert. An expert in a specific field(s) can be invited based on the interest of the participants. In the second hour of the meeting there can be a 'round-table' discussion where everyone can raise modelling or statistics issues he is stuck with and hopefully this discussion delivers a huge contribution to your research. Also, visits to labs in Wageningen or other places are possible.
Read more ››
Environmental Governance Seminar Series: Post-Paris Climate Research and Politics: What's New?, 5 April
Nationally and internationally renowned speakers will highlight a variety of recent topics in Environmental Governance. Lectures are open to the general public. You are warmly invited to attend the lectures.

The Paris Climate Agreement, concluded in December 2015, has been widely heralded as a ‘historic moment’ in the collective effort to address climate change. But what is its significance for research and politics? How does the Paris Agreement change diverse research agendas? (How) does it transform multilevel climate politics?

Four international experts from within and beyond Wageningen University debate these timely questions from social and natural science perspectives. Issues covered include: transformations in multilateral politics that Paris (might) represent; inclusion of land use in the Paris Agreement; transparency in forest carbon reporting and monitoring; and climate accountability. There will be brief presentations by each of the speakers, followed by discussion with the audience.
Read more ››
Upcoming Events
International Conference Disclosing Sustainability: The Transformative Power of Transparency, 24-25 June
Transparency is one of the most widely touted concepts of our age. We live in an era of ever greater openness and disclosure of information, even as a push for more transparency is not discernible to the same extent everywhere and in all social settings.

The driving force of this growing call for transparency is an unwavering belief in its potential to foster more accountable, democratic and effective decision-making and action at different levels and across public and private domains. While the transparency turn is being ever more closely scrutinized in policy domains such as diplomacy, national security, human rights, or economic relations, the relationship between transparency and sustainability remains strikingly obscure.
Read more ››
Overview of upcoming events
Recently announced:
Full list of interesting upcoming events:
See SENSE website ››
Tips
DenkTank zoekt Promovendi - Meld je nu aan voor de Nationale DenkTank 2016!
De Nationale DenkTank werkt met een team van ongeveer vijfentwintig academici en promovendi gedurende vier maanden, van augustus tot december, aan visionaire, creatieve én praktische oplossingen voor een urgent maatschappelijk probleem. Het team kan daarbij rekenen op de input van experts uit de wetenschap, het bedrijfsleven en de overheid.

Het Leren van de Toekomst

Dit jaar is het thema ‘Het Leren van de Toekomst’. De noodzaak van vernieuwing in het onderwijs tekent zich steeds scherper af. Hoe kunnen we het leren in Nederland zo organiseren dat het beter aansluit bij de individuele leerling en de veranderende omgeving? Binnen dit thema zal de Nationale DenkTank zich richten op het beroeps- en wetenschappelijk onderwijs en de aansluiting van leren op werken. De DenkTank gaat bestaande kaders doorbreken en een eigen visie op Het Leren van de Toekomst ontwikkelen.

Promovendi in de DenkTank

Naast maatschappelijke impact betekent deelname aan de Nationale DenkTank een steile persoonlijke leercurve. De vaardigheden die je op doet zijn waardevol voor een carrière binnen de wetenschap of daarbuiten. De DenkTank is een fulltime project, wat in overleg met je promotor kan worden ingepast in je promotieonderzoek. De promovendi die in het verleden meededen zien het als verrijking van hun onderzoek. Lees meer ervaringen van promovendi in de DenkTank op onze website.

Wie zoeken wij?

Wij zoeken mensen die de maatschappelijke leiders een spiegel kunnen voorhouden. DenkTankers zijn afkomstig uit alle studierichtingen: bèta’s, alfa’s en gamma’s; van wiskundigen tot filosofen, van economen tot ontwerpers. Ben jij die ‘maatschappelijke ingenieur’ die verder kijkt dan je neus lang is? Meld je dan vóór 17 april 2016 aan voor een unieke ervaring bij de Nationale DenkTank.

Meer informatie

Bekijk het informatiefilmpje, ga naar onze website of volg ons op social media (Facebook: De Nationale DenkTank, Twitter: @nationale_dt). Daarnaast zal er 31 maart van 19.30 tot 22.00 uur een informatieavond plaats bij THNK, Haarlemmerweg 8-a in Amsterdam. Oud-deelnemers kunnen je op deze avond alles vertellen over de DenkTank en het thema van dit jaar. Wil je hierbij aanwezig zijn? Meld je dan aan via  info@nationale-denktank.nl. Via dit e-mailadres kun je ook bij ons terecht met vragen over promoveren en/of de DenkTank.
Read more ››
Vacature Nieuwe Voorzitter PNN, deadline 15 April
Het PNN is de landelijke belangenorganisatie voor en door promovendi in Nederland. We vertegenwoordigen promovendi op nationaal niveau en zijn daarmee een gesprekspartner voor o.a. Tweede Kamerleden, het ministerie van OCW, de KNAW, Science in Transition en Academic Transfer. We organiseren jaarlijks een National PhD Day, zijn actief in de VAWO (de vakbond voor de wetenschap) en Eurodoc (Europese PhD-overleg). Op onze ALV’s overleggen promovendi van alle Nederlandse universiteiten en UMC’s met elkaar.

Omdat de huidige voorzitter het PNN rond juni gaat verlaten, zijn wij op zoek naar een nieuwe voorzitter. De voorzitter is het externe aanspreekpunt en gezicht van het PNN en dient daarom te beschikken over sterke sociale en communicatieve vaardigheden om ons netwerk te onderhouden en uit te breiden. De voorzitter leidt de vergaderingen (i.e. bestuursvergaderingen en ALV’s), is op de hoogte van ontwikkelingen en bewaakt alle portefeuilles, processen en uitvoering.
Read more ››
Amsterdam Science is looking for new content for its 4th issue, deadline 14 April
Are you conducting your research at one of the Amsterdam universities or research institutes? Are you eager to share your exciting research with others? Are there developments in your field that we should all know about?
Submit a summary of your research for consideration. One of our editors will contact you with our decision. Please note that the scientific content of submissions should have been already validated, for instance, published in a peer-reviewed journal, or successfully examined MSc thesis or PhD thesis.
Read more ››
New vacancies
Assistant or Associate Professor in Geo-Information Science, Wageningen University, deadline 15 April
The laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing invites applications from candidates for the position of Assistant or Associate Professor in Geo-information Science. (S)he will be asked to contribute to the education activities and the group’s research. The candidate is expected to develop innovative scientific research strengthening and complementing the already ongoing themes in the group. Examples are smart cities, big geo-data analytics, spatial thinking, geo-social analysis, spatial gaming, and spatial-temporal modelling; among others. The laboratory is actively seeking to increase its number of female senior researchers therefore qualified women will be treated with preference.
Read more ››
PhD position ‘Large Scale Hurricane modelling and economic risk under climate change’, VU Amsterdam, deadline 27 April
Economic losses due to weather related natural hazards continue to rise rapidly in all regions of the world. For example, extreme flood events and storm surges all have a significant impact on society, and these impacts will increase in the future through climate change and socio-economic developments. Extreme storm surges and coastal floods are often caused by strong wind-fields driven by tropical storms such as hurricanes. A major research question is whether the frequency magnitude and impact of these systems will increase under the influence of climate change and the warming of ocean temperatures. Sea level rise will further increase the probability and potential impact of flooding. In addition, there is a growing understanding that increasing exposure of people and economic assets has been a major cause of the long term increases in economic losses from extreme coastal flooding, and another relating question is what future impacts (economic damage, fatalities) hurricanes will have in a future.
Read more ››
Postdoctoral fellow in microbial ecology, Lund University, deadline 6 May
A postdoctoral position in microbial ecology is available to work with Johannes Rousk, associate professor of soil microbiology at Lund University. The project will focus on microbial responses to climate change factors in soil, including in particular the responses of microbial growth rate, community property and carbon-use efficiency to drought, and recurring drought cycles in soil. The project will be laboratory-intensive, where experimental systems (microcosms) will be used to estimate ecosystem level processes. The candidate will also be expected to help supervise PhD, Masters or Bachelor thesis project students working on related projects. The candidate will work in an active research environment including several postdocs, PhD students, and other thesis students investigating research questions in similar themes, and using overlapping methods, with generous opportunity for collaborative work. It is a 2-year position, with the possibility for extension.
Read more ››
More vacancies
During the month new vacancies are regularly posted on the SENSE vacancy page and in the SENSE LinkedIn group.

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