Number 13, January 2011



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News Earth and Life Sciences

Joint Call Wadden Sea
Within the Lead Agency procedure ALW has set up a joint call for research in the Wadden Sea in collaboration with the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung. The call for proposals is targeted at sediment dynamics and biological invasions.		 Waddenzee


Sustainable Earth Knowledge Catalogue provides a wealth of information
Which current research project is examining the relationship between a green environment and health? Who can tell me something about El Niño? What is the most recent research into wind energy? Which universities are doing research into climate change? The Sustainable Earth Knowledge Catalogue provides answers to such questions. The Knowledge Catalogue is a pilot project within NWO for providing project information in a quick and accessible manner.

ALW will hold consultations with universities
The ALW divisional board will hold a series of consultations with Dutch research schools in 2011. ALW wants to hear researchers' concerns and opinions and discover their views on the new ALW strategy memorandum.


Atlas of Water in the Netherlands
This new water atlas illustrates the role of water for the Netherlands. It details not just the threats caused by climate change but also the benefits of water. ALW made a financial contribution to this atlas (in Dutch: Bosatlas van Nederland Waterland) from its Sea and Coastal Research programme and Water programme.		 De Bosatlas van Nederland Waterland

Grant for Open Access publishing
NWO has set up a fund to encourage researchers to publish in Open Access journals. A maximum of € 5000 is available for each project. With this initiative NWO wants to increase the accessibility of results from publicly funded research.

BWM workbook about bees
Nowadays bees are increasingly synonymous with the word mortality. What causes underlie this disappearance of bees? And what is the function of bees in our modern society? The stichting Bio-Wetenschappen en Maatschappij (BWM, housed at ALW) has published a new booklet on this subject. 		BWM cahier bijen

Board and office

  • Prof. Marian Joëls has retired from the ALW board
  • Irene van Oort has left the ALW office.
  • Mirjam van Kan has joined the office as a new policy officer.

Grants awarded
  • In the TOP funding round for cross-disciplinary research 19 proposals were awarded. These are largely multidisciplinary and four of the projects are being managed by ALW.
  • 19 Veni proposals were awarded funding.
  • 12 researchers have received a grant in the Vidi programme.
  • The divisional board has approved 12 proposals in the Open Programme.
  • Three female researchers have received a grant from the Meervoud programme.
  • 11 young ALW researchers have received a Rubicon grant.
Programme news

Faster working procedure Open Programme
The ALW divisional board has approved a new working procedure for the Open Programme. At present the procedure, from submission via Iris to the award letter, takes 7 to 9 months to complete. With the new approach that will be reduced to about 5 months.

New collaborative programme with China planned
ALW wants to set up a collaborative programme with China in the area of plant developmental biology. The programme will be called 'Cooperation China (NSFC) - Joint Research Projects: Plant Developmental Biology'. The Call is expected to open at the start of 2011. The information will then become available on the NWO website. Meanwhile, you can pose any questions you may have to Theo Saat.

MeerWaarde grant brings researchers and users together
Enabling society to gain maximum benefit from scientific research results is one of NWO's key objectives. ALW has therefore contributed to the development of a new grant, MeerWaarde ('Added value'), which brings researchers and users together.


Calendar

  • 13 January: deadline Green Genetics
  • 15 January: deadline Lorentz Center
  • 20 January: deadline MeerWaarde ALW
  • 4 February: kick-off meeting CSBR centres
  • 15 February: deadline Graduate Programme
  • 28 February: deadline ZKO Wadden Sea
  • 1 March: deadline TOP grants
  • 31 March: deadline Rubicon

More calendar items.



Press releases

Groundwater accounts for one quarter of sea level rise
One quarter of the annual rise in sea levels is caused by our extraction of groundwater from the soil. That water eventually ends up in the sea. It was already known that groundwater contributed to rising sea levels, even though the IPCC did not state this in its last climate report. But now the size of this contribution has been calculated for the first time. Prof. Marc Bierkens (Utrecht University) published his calculations in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, as a result of his research in the ALW programme Water.
Read the press release from Utrecht University here.

Strong correlation between CO2 and temperature change
The IODP expedition to Wilkes Land at the start of 2010, has yielded a first publication in Science. Dutch paleoclimatologists examined climate change in the past by studying sediment layers from the sea floor near Antarctica that contain fossilised algae. They established a strong correlation between CO2 and temperature changes over long periods of time.
Read the press release from Utrecht University here.

River fish need floods
The flooding of river plains is essential for river fish survival. This allows fish to spawn and develop. However, human interventions in the course of rivers threaten the development of river fish. Researchers have demonstrated this for the Volga River in Russia. NWO researcher Konrad Gorski gained his doctorate for this work on 12 November 2010 from Wageningen University. 		De Wolga