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Research School for Socio-Economic and
Natural Sciences of the Environment
SENSE e-News
    Newsletter March 2019
19 March 2019
Table of contents
Editorial
Your own sustainable development? ››
SENSE News
Behaviour essential in energy-efficient living ›› 
Heleen de Conick (RU) during March for Climate: We do have a choice ›› 
Upcoming PhD Graduations
Overview of PhD graduations upcoming period ››
Upcoming courses and discussion groups
A1 SENSE Introductory Course, 27-29 March ››
Summer School on the Governance of Socio-Ecological Systems, 7-12 July ››
Overview of PhD / postdoc courses March - May 2019 ››
Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses ››
Discussion groups ››
Upcoming Events
SENSE Forest walk with Shinrin Yoku and Soul Voice®, 22 March ››
SENSE conferentie Ons Toekomstige Energielandschap: Hoe creëren we draagvlak voor de zon- en windenergietransitie op land?, 20 June ››
Overview of upcoming events ››
Tips
Citizen Science Earth Observation Lab - Call for Ideas! ››
Information session Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships ››
PhD news
PhD candidates don’t know their rights ››
‘Promotierecht moet aan elke universiteit worden verruimd’ ››
Monitor Arbeidsvoorwaarden Promovendi: minder transparantie en ruim 10% dubieuze contracten ››
Job vacancies
Vacancies at SENSE Partners ››
Other vacancies in the SENSE field ››
SENSE headlines
Heleen de Conick (RU) during March for Climate: We do have a choice
A1 SENSE Introductory Course, 27-29 March
Summer School on the Governance of Socio-Ecological Systems, 7-12 July
SENSE Forest walk with Shinrin Yoku and Soul Voice®, 22 March
PhD candidates don’t know their rights
Editorial
Your own sustainable development?
Perhaps one of the lessons to be learned from reflecting on ‘sustainable development’ is that it will always depend on individuals taking the corners that will lead us there. This lesson may perhaps be even more relevant for PhD candidates in the sustainability sciences. Your own individual development will give colour and depth to the progress of sustainable development and thus it makes sense to ask yourself: which contribution do you wish to pursue, how is your own personal and academic development going to be part of our common future – which will hopefully be sustainable?

Asking this question may be a challenging and stimulating way to consider your own individual Training and Supervision Plan: what do you expect from yourself and by consequence, what do you expect from your research school? Please let us know what support and input you are looking for and in what way we can help you finding it. This interaction can be made practical by making use of the SENSE PhD Council, which will have its next meeting on Tuesday 23 April. If you have requests or ideas on specific trainings, courses, or general activities – then please do not hesitate to inform your network by sending a message to spcsense@gmail.com. Your input and feedback is most welcome – if you send your message asap then it will be on the agenda for the upcoming SPC meeting too!

In the meantime, you may consider the interesting upcoming meetings listed in this edition of the SENSE newsletter. Sustainable development will ultimately have many ‘shapes and colours’ and your own ‘shapes and colours’ will be among them..
      
Let’s make SENSE together! 

Ad van Dommelen
SENSE News
Behaviour essential in energy-efficient living
After renovating their home, some people actually start using more energy. Researchers from Wageningen signalled that behaviour plays a big role and they now help local authorities, energy cooperatives, and housing cooperatives to provide customised solutions.

“People who go from a single gas heater to a full central heating system can now heat all the rooms. Or residents of houses with a linked heating and ventilation system open the windows, meaning that it needs additional heating”, says Bas van Vliet (WUR). The result is that a house that was upgraded from energy level E to B could suddenly use more energy.
Read more  ››
Heleen de Conick (RU) during March for Climate: We do have a choice

On 10 March 2019 tens of thousands of people attended the March for Climate in Amsterdam. One of the speakers was Heleen de Coninck (RU), climate scientist of the UN panel IPCC. An abbreviated version of her speech was published in the Dutch newspaper Trouw. "Our world is changing rapidly anyway. With an ambitious climate policy or without it. The Netherlands too will never be the same again."
Read article (in Dutch) ››
Upcoming PhD Graduations
Overview of PhD graduations upcoming period
  • Isnaeni Murdi Hartanto
    Integrating Multiple Sources of Information for Improving Hydrological Modelling: An Ensemble Approach
    19 March 2019, IHE Delft, Hydroinformatics
       
  • Isabel de Sousa Brandão
    Use of geospatial and multivariate statistical analysis in support of water quality monitoring of hydroelectric reservoirs
    20 March 2019, University of Twente, Department of Water Resources
      
  • Eskinder Zinabu Belachew
    Estimating combined loads of diffuse and point-source pollutants into the Borkena River, Ethiopia
    26 March 2019, IHE, Aquatic Ecosystems
     
  • Kevin Raaphorst
    More Than Meets the Eye: A critical semiotic analysis of landscape design visualizations
    9 April 2019, Wageningen University, Landscape Architecture
     
  • Sarah Stattman
    Biofuel Governance in Brazil and the EU
    15 April 2019, Wageningen University, Environmental Policy
     
  • Didier de Bakker
    40 years of change on the coral reefs of Curacao and Bonaire
    17 April 2019, Wageningen University, Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management
     
  • Maíra Nunes Teixeira Mucci
    From green to transparent waters. Managing eutrophication and cyanobacterial blooms by geo-engineering
    18 April 2019, Wageningen University, Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management
      
More upcoming graduations ››
Upcoming courses and discussion groups
A1 SENSE Introductory Course, 27-29 March
In the SENSE course 'Environmental Research in Context' several perspectives and approaches to analyse and to solve environmental problems are discussed. You will find out how your own research project fits within other (multi-) disciplinary approaches and you will discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of your approach compared to these alternatives.
Read more ››
Summer School on the Governance of Socio-Ecological Systems, 7-12 July
The GOSES Summer School is specifically designed not only for doctoral candidates, but also for pre-docs, post-docs, junior and senior scholars, who wish to further explore the governance of socio-ecological systems, discuss cutting-edge research with peers and established scholars alike and develop specific skills such as presenting and discussing their own research, exploring the science-policy interface and modeling socio-ecological systems. It will also be an opportunity to be exposed to both Chinese and Western scholarship in sustainability science. The language of instruction will be English.
Read more ››
Overview of PhD / postdoc courses March - May 2019
Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses
In case you are interested in either participating or teaching a course that is currently not in the programme, please do not hesitate and contact us with your suggestions.
More upcoming courses ››
Discussion groups
Upcoming meetings:
More discussion groups ››
Upcoming Events
SENSE Forest walk with Shinrin Yoku and Soul Voice®, 22 March
High workload, perfectionism, procrastination, comparison with others and many other issues can make you feel stressed during your PhD. They consciously or unconsciously drain your energy. We can either feel victimised by that, or decide to create a more pleasant PhD life ourselves. How? By joining the upcoming SENSE forest walk, in which you will be introduced to two interesting methods to stimulate a healthy body and mind: Shinrin Yoku and Soul Voice®.
Read more ››
SENSE conferentie Ons Toekomstige Energielandschap: Hoe creëren we draagvlak voor de zon- en windenergietransitie op land?, 20 June
Because of the target group of the conference, the main language will be Dutch

De energietransitie leidt tot grote veranderingen in het stedelijke en landelijke gebied en op zee. Deze veranderingen roepen weerstand op bij burgers, boeren, natuurbeschermers, politici en anderen. Deze conferentie richt zich op de energietransitie op land en wil inzicht geven in de verschillende ruimtelijke, sociale, financiële en politieke mogelijkheden om de energietransitie te realiseren, rekening houdend met de verschillende (soms conflicterende) claims op landgebruik, mogelijkheden voor multifunctioneel landgebruik en participatieve processen die het draagvlak voor de energietransitie kunnen vergroten.
Meer informatie ››
Overview of upcoming events
Recently announced:
Full list of interesting upcoming events:
See SENSE website ››
Tips
Citizen Science Earth Observation Lab - Call for Ideas!
CSEOL (we say Sizzle) is an initiative funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) to find people and organizations with the energy, imagination and creative talent to help Europe’s big Space data address some of our biggest problems.

We’re looking for ideas that provide fantastic opportunities for citizen scientists – or the wider public – to validate what satellites observe or to put those images to use.
Read more ››
Information session Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships
Are you a post-doc or experienced researcher and would you like to expand your research experience with a stay in a foreign group? Are you ready for a new challenge and an international career? Do you want to broaden your network and mature as an independent researcher? Or would you like to attract an experienced researcher from abroad to your research group here in the Netherlands? Maybe the Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships are just what you need!
Read more ››
Rubicon
Rubicon aims to encourage talented researchers at Dutch universities and research institutes run by KNAW and NWO to dedicate themselves to a career in postdoctoral research. 
International research experience is often essential for building up one’s scientific career. Rubicon offers talented researchers who have completed their doctorates in the past year the chance to gain experience at a top research institution outside the Netherlands, as international research experience is likely to be an advantage at a later stage in the applicant's academic career.
Read more ››
PhD news
PhD candidates don’t know their rights
Leave, remuneration, working part-time or full-time: PhD candidates barely know what they’re entitled to. The Promovendi Netwerk Nederland (PNN) aims to change this.

Since Friday, 22 February, the PNN and academic union VAWO haven been organising information sessions to educate PhDs about their employment conditions. The organisation for PhD students says the lack of knowledge leads to ‘abuses and mental issues’.

‘We find that especially international PhDs often don’t know what rights are standard and what aren’t – although some of the Dutch don’t know either’, says Anne de Vries, PNN president. ‘That leads to all kinds of problems.’
Read the whole article in Utoday ››
‘Promotierecht moet aan elke universiteit worden verruimd’
In 2017 stemde ook de Eerste Kamer in met een wetsvoorstel van toenmalig minister Bussemaker: niet alleen hoogleraren, maar alle gepromoveerde universitaire docenten konden promotor worden. De universiteiten vonden deze uitbreiding van het ius promovendi te ruim en stelden in VSNU-verband aanvullende richtlijnen op. Daarin staat als belangrijkste voorwaarde dat alleen universitair hoofddocenten als promotor mogen optreden, mits zij goede onderzoekers en begeleiders zijn.

Ruim een jaar na de wetswijziging wilde De Jonge Akademie weten hoe de universiteiten gebruikmaken van het nieuwe promotierecht. Ze legde alle promotiereglementen naast elkaar. ‘De verschillen blijken enorm’, zegt Martijn Wieling, vicevoorzitter van De Jonge Akademie. ‘Dat laat zien dat veel universiteiten het niet eens zijn met koepelorganisatie VSNU. Haar richtlijnen zijn ook volgens ons te restrictief.’
Read the whole article in Utoday (in Dutch) ››
Monitor Arbeidsvoorwaarden Promovendi: minder transparantie en ruim 10% dubieuze contracten
12 maart 2019 presenteerde het Promovendi Netwerk Nederland op NPO Radio 1 de resultaten van een grootschalig onderzoek naar de arbeidsvoorwaarden van PhD contracten in 2017-2018. In 2017 nam het aantal dubieuze contracten, met te weinig onderzoekstijd voor de promovendus, verder toe tot 15%. In 2018 nam dit percentage iets af, maar tegelijkertijd verdubbelde het aandeel vacatures waarin de onderzoekstijd onduidelijk bleef. Dit is zorgwekkend omdat in 2018 in de cao voor universiteiten is vastgelegd dat PhD contracten in principe minimaal vier jaar (fulltime) dienen te zijn.
Read the whole article (in Dutch) ››
Job vacancies
Vacancies at SENSE Partners
Other vacancies in the SENSE field
More vacancies
During the month new vacancies are regularly posted on the SENSE vacancy page.

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SENSE Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment.

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