Number 16, November 2011

News Earth and Life Sciences


New theme Agro, food and horticulture
NWO is adding a new theme to its activities for this strategy period: Agro, food and horticulture. ALW will be the theme leader. ALW called for this new theme so that it could make optimal use of the opportunities provided by the top sector Agrofood and the top sector Horticulture and Propagation Materials. Agro, food & horticulture will focus on three lines of research: sustainable and safe production ('more with less'), healthy nutrition, and food security from a global perspective. 		Greenhouse


Ministry of Education, Culture and Science invests € 2.5 million in North Pole research
Despite the economic recession, the Ministry for Education, Culture and Science is investing € 2.5 million in the Arctic part of the Netherlands Polar Programme. Together with NWO's own contribution, a total of € 3.75 million is available for the period 2011-2015. This budget will be specifically used for scientific activities on Greenland and Spitsbergen.		 Money

Progress top sectors policy
In September 2011, the Dutch Cabinet presented the industry letter: in 2012 NWO and KNAW must jointly set aside € 90 million for scientific research within the top sectors, an amount that will increase to € 350 million in 2015. The Dutch Parliament has now accepted a motion which requested that the autonomy of NWO should be respected. The Minister for Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, Maxime Verhagen, has responded positively to this motion. The next step in the top sector policy is the conclusion of innovation contracts, which is expected to take place by the end of this year.

Board member Rinus Wortel receives prize
Prof. Rinus Wortel has been awarded the Van Waterschoot van der Gracht penning 2011. He receives this award for his exceptional services for the earth sciences in the Netherlands. ALW board member Wortel is professor of geophysics and tectonic physics at Utrecht University. 		Rinus Wortel

BWM workbook Baby on board. From conception to first birthday
This workbook Baby aan boord [Baby on board] is about the care for a healthy pregnancy and childbirth and what that involves. The first year of a baby's life is crucial for the further development of the child into an adult. It is therefore important that parents and care providers try to give the baby the best possible start in life. Princess Máxima has written the foreword of this workbook published by the foundation BioWetenschappen en Maatschappij. 		Cover Baby aan boord


IODP searching for new structure
Following the withdrawal of the US from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP) a new form of collaboration is being sought for this global programme. A more informal cooperation of independent consortia will probably replace the old model. ECORD, the European branch of IODP, will hold negotiations about this with the US and Japan. NWO pays for the Dutch participation in this prestigious research programme. In the spring of 2013, the ALW Divisional Board will decide whether or not to continue participating in the new programme.

Call for proposals Vening Meinesz prize
The ALW Divisional Board is looking for candidates for the Vening Meinesz prize. NWO Earth and Life Sciences awards this prize to the most promising earth scientist who has recently gained his or her PhD. The prize will be presented during the 11th Dutch Congress for the Earth Sciences (NAC 11) that will be held on 29 and 30 March 2012.		 Vening Meinesz

ALW Board


Dr Sjoukje Heimovaara (Royal Van Zanten) and Prof. Huib de Vriend (Deltares / TU Delft) have been appointed as members of the Divisional Board.


Grants awarded
  • Six TOP grants were awarded, an investment of € 4.5 million in one go;
  • In the Open Programma there were 12 awards;
  • 22 proposals were approved in the Veni programme;
  • 12 proposals were approved in the programme Biodiversity Works;
  • The Divisional Board has approved the Dutch contributions for four collaborative projects within the transnational Wadden call of the Sea and Coastal Research programme.
Programme news

Added Value round in 2012
The Divisional Board has decided that a further funding round for Added Value programme will take place in 2012. A previous round for this programme took place in 2011. Added Value provides research projects previously awarded funding with additional financial resources for an activity specifically focussed on knowledge utilisation.


User Support Space Research to continue
The Ministry for Education, Culture and Science has decided to continue the funding for the programme User Support Space Research. From 2012 to 2016 almost 2 million euros per year will be made available for the themes earth observation and planetary research. At the Netherlands Space Office, which realises the programme on ALW's behalf, Dr. Radboud Koop will succeed Dr Rolf de Groot as the point of contact for this programme.

Global pollution


Procedure Innovational Research Incentives Scheme changed
The application procedure for the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme (Veni en Vidi) has been shortened by 3 months. The domain assessments for Veni and Vidi will no longer take place from 2012 onwards. An NWO-wide assessment will be held for Vici. Further within the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme the criterion 'Knowledge Utilisation' will always count for 20 percent of the assessment.

Rubicon will continue in 2012
The Governing Board of NWO has decided that the successful Rubicon programme should at least be continued in 2012. Three funding rounds will then be held but the conditions will change compared to previous years. Until 2011, the Rubicon programme was realised with funding from the Ministry for Education, Culture and Science.

 Estuary Rubicone


Final publication LOICZ programme
The programme Land Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) was the Dutch contribution to the global LOICZ programme, which investigated the interaction between land and sea. The Dutch projects were presented together in a special publication that contained interviews with the five principle researchers. LOICZ ran from 2002 to 2010 and was co-funded by the Ministry for Agriculture, now part of the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. The publication also contains an overview of the VLANEZO projects (Flemish-Dutch Cooperation in Coastal Research), a parallel programme that was funded by the Ministry for Education, Culture and Science and the Flemish Ministry for Economic Affairs, Science and Innovation.


Evaluation Sea and Coastal Research (ZKO)
The Sea and Coastal Research programme has undergone a mid-term evaluation. The evaluation committee compared the original objectives of the programme with the results achieved and based on this analysis it presented conclusions, recommendations and suggestions for improvements. Furthermore, the evaluation report contained recommendations for the future of sea and coastal research after the end of the ZKO programme. ALW's Divisional Board will discuss the recommendations further with the ZKO Programme Board.


Cover evaluation ZKO

Calendar

  • 30 November Symposium The Value of Animal Welfare
  • 1 December Rubicon
  • 7 December User Support Space Research
  • 14 December National Polar Symposium 2011
  • 5 January 2012 Veni
  • 13 February 2012 Symposium System Biology and Bioenergetics
  • 16 March 2012 Jubilee Symposium Royal Geological and Mining Society of the Netherlands (KNGMG)
  • 29 March 2012 - 30 March 2012 NAC 11
  • 2-7 April 2012 International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals

More calendar items.



Press releases

Flexible software links biobanks to each other
- Rubicon – The Netherlands has about 150 biobanks: digital libraries containing an enormous quantity of information about plants, animals and humans. Dr Morris Swertz has developed a software system that links a wide range of sources. The system, called MOLGENIS, enables combinations that were previously impossible to realise.

Herbivorous fish still prefers meat
- Veni – The grass carp, thought to be a strict vegetarian, seems to have a preference for amphipoda. NWO researcher Dr Liesbeth Bakker made this discovery during her research into the food preferences of fish. The discovery turns our current understanding of the relationships between plants and animals on its head. Further, herbivorous fish do not seem to have equal preferences for all types of aquatic plants. This means that their grazing behaviour has an important impact on underwater vegetation.		 Grass Carp. Foto: Bureau Natuurbalans

New technique unravels transport in living brain cells
- Veni – Thanks to a new technique the functioning of motor proteins in living cells can be studied. Up until now that could only be done under artificial conditions outside the cell. Motor proteins transport building blocks from one location in a cell to another. Dr Lukas Kapitein succeeded in imaging how motor proteins find their way in brain cells. 		cultured braincell
Understanding cell organisation better
- Veni, Investment Subsidy NWO Medium - Research has revealed how microtubules are linked to each other in larger networks. Just like the poles of a tent, the linked microtubules provide cells with their shape. By sliding microtubules past each other, cells create their own networks and they transmit forces that set chromosomes in motion during cell division. The team unravelled a mechanism that stops two microtubules from sliding too far past each other.

Climate change appears to be unfavourable for toxic blue algae
- Programme Water - The earth is warming up due to rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. Researchers have discovered that the increase in carbon dioxide may well reduce the nuisance caused by toxic blue algae, a bacterium commonly found in swimming water throughout the Netherlands in the summer. At higher temperatures the blue algae grow better, but due to rising carbon dioxide concentrations the non-toxic variant of the blue algae ousts its harmful little brother. 		Warning blue-green algae

Ancient economic negotiations unravelled
- Vidi, Meervoud - Underground plants and fungi depend on each other. They exchange nutrients, but how do they ensure that they do not abuse each other? In a Science publication Toby Kiers describes the mechanism that forces the partners to trade fairly, even when the food supply changes. 		Close-up of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi connecting roots of plant hosts. Plant and fungal partners form complex markets to trade nutrients. Photo Credit Yoshihiro Kobae

Error-free gametes thanks to molecular protection system
- Rubicon, Veni - A molecular protection system ensures that chromosomes are divided undamaged between gametes. Errors during the division can cause congenital defects such as Down's syndrome. In an article in Nature, Dr Gerben Vader described how two collaborating proteins can prevent errors.