SENSE highlights

This course is about one of the greatest challenges of our time: climate change. What are the latest insights of the science of economics into its causes and potential solutions? How large are the costs of climate change? Should we tax carbon, cap-and-trade emission rights, or subsidize solar and wind power? Why is it so difficult to stick to environmental agreements such as ‘Paris’, despite the evident benefits to all? How can we prevent our industry from moving abroad if we take a leading role and ‘go it alone’ in taking environmental action? What is the role of economic growth and development? Should we stop it to avert a climate catastrophe and biodiversity loss, or can we pin our hopes on green growth?

For more information and registration see here.

In this one-week course, we go onsite on a dairy farm where many recommended carbon sequestration practices are implemented. We talk to soil and social scientists, legislators, carbon certifiers. Using a transdisciplinary and immersive approach, we seek to see, to witness, experience, and truly understand: What is carbon farming?

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The focus of the course is on design of innovative microbial fermentations, for bio-products such as amino acids and monomers for bio-plastics, complemented with examples of marine and mammalian processes, for micro-algae products and bio-pharmaceuticals. A substantial part (ca. 40% of the time) will be dedicated to a case study, executed in teams of 4-6 participants, on the design of a bioprocess for the production of a chemical (1,4-butanediol). Basic theory on thermodynamic, microbial stoichiometry and kinetics, transport phenomena and scale up/down will be extensively applied and integrated. The team with the best design performance wins the Genomatica Bioprocess Design prize.

For more information and registration see here.

This course focuses on theoretical concepts, such as autocatalytic loops and positive and negative feedbacks between organisms in ecological networks as well as the importance of non-trophic interactions by ecosystem engineers. The course will address how these principles can be used to link communities to ecosystems enabling a better understanding of how environmental changes affect community and ecosystem dynamics. Students will construct ecological networks of their own study system or based on literature data and analyse these using structural equation modelling.

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This course brings together PhD candidates from different institutes that are part of SENSE, and that have the ambition to work on environmental issues.

During the course, you will discuss your own personal wishes and ambitions, what impact you would like to have with your research, and set personal learning goals for your PhD.
We will have open discussions on finding your own way within science, and how inter- and transdisciplinary science can play a role for you. The course will also be an introduction to personal leadership, exploring what is important to you, and talking about how to tackle challenges you may face along the way.

For more information see here registration starts August 1st.

This course will examine our current understanding of the diversity and functioning of the relevant microbial communities in the above systems.
A limited number of expert teachers will deliver lectures and the students will also have the opportunity for in depth study a topic of their choice from the literature, after which the topic will be put up for discussion with the teachers and other students.

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This course brings together contributions from different disciplines: bioprocess technology, applied physics, transport phenomena, molecular biology and biomedical sciences. They all address different elements on the coupling between several time and length scales in the simulation of different bioprocesses (e.g. bioreactor and bioprocess operation, microbial strain improvement, tissue and organ cultivation, plant design and integration). Computational methods will deepen the understanding of the connecting principles between different scales.

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Transformation of society and sustainability governance requires significant reordering: one that changes existing drivers and structures to drive change towards fundamentally novel systems. During the conference we focus on thecentral question, can sustainability transformation be governed? And if so by
whom, what and how?

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This conference offers leading trainers, researchers, practitioners, and students from around the world the opportunity to share their knowledge, insights, and expertise on the critical issues in inter- and transdisciplinarity needed to build capacity in and through research, education, policy making, activism, and artistic engagement.

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A just and sustainable future can only be reached with a feeling of HOME for all. All living creatures need a safe place where they can grow and flourish. But what constitutes HOME? What is a sustainable HOME, in the broadest sense, and how do we achieve that?

For more information, see here.