Completed research

The Adaptation Pathways project, also known as the Perspectives Project, finished in autumn 2012. In this interdisciplinary and participatory project, MSI, Utrecht University, Twente University, Deltares, KNMI, Pantopicon and Carthago Consultancy, have developed and applied a novel scenario method to identify sustainable water management strategies for lowland rivers.

The general aim of the ORGANEXT project is to research and develop nano-materials and innovative deposition techniques for next-generation opto-electronic applications and thin-film solar cells.

Water management faces major challenges to cope with potential global change impacts, fundamental uncertainties surrounding future developments, and a diversity of societal perspectives.

Academic partners, the main cities of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine and people from the five urban neighbourhoods are involved in the project in order to improve the quality of live of these neighbourhoods, reinforce participation to sustainable development and increase exchanges and synergies between these cities.

The main objective of the project ‘Producing a shared vision on how to harness Research & Development for Sustainable Development (VISION RD4SD) is to ensure that Europe is able to contribute to a Sustainable Development of the world by formulating policies and decisions based on robust, up to date knowledge of highest scientific quality.

The ENHanCE Project aimed to assess the effects of future climate change on the spread of infectious diseases in Europe and its impacts on human health and wellbeing.

Weather and climate are closely linked to outdoor recreation activities and tourism in general. So far, coastal regions, and more specifically beach tourism, have received most of the attention regarding the impacts of climate change.

The project aims at investigating how sustainable development can be attained at the regional level. The Province of Limburg will serve as a case study. Stakeholders will play an important role throughout the project.

This NWO funded research project examines experiences with knowledge co-production and the use of coproduced knowledge by decision-makers. A typology of knowledge co-production in the science-policy interface will be developed, based on existing classifications, as well as normative criteria to assess the effectiveness of co-production.

INTARESE is a 5-year project, funded by the EU, on developing and applying new, integrated approaches to the assessment of environmental health risks and consequences, in support of European policy on environmental health.

The main objective of this project has been to enhance our understanding of climate change impacts on coastal and marine tourism in Europe and to assist in the vulnerability assessment of the sector.

MSI performed an inventory of education on sustainable development in Limburg. The aim of the project was to make a quick scan of educational programmes on sustainable development at schools in Limburg at primary, secondary and tertiary level; to analyse the role of external providers; and to explore the role of the Province.

The project developed an integrated assessment of the mobility problem. It examined initiatives with alternative mobility in the Netherlands and in other countries. On the basis of the causality analysis and experiences with alternative modes of mobility, sociotechnical scenarios are developed that describe the co-evolution of policy, technology and behaviour.

The Earth and Life Sciences (ALW) and Social Sciences (MaGW) have launched a new programme ‘Vulnerability, Adaptation, Mitigation and Adaptation-Mitigation’ (VAM). Complementing the earlier NRP programmes that targeted the natural sciences, VAM focuses on research into the social and behavioural aspects of climate change, drawing on disciplines such as public administration, geography, environmental economics, socio-cultural sciences, environmental law, and psychology.

ADAM will lead to a better understanding of the trade-offs and conflicts that exist between adaptation and mitigation policies. ADAM will support EU policy development in the next stage of the development of the Kyoto Protocol and will inform the emergence of new adaptation strategies for Europe.

The ATLANTIS project is an integrated assessment of future trends and impacts of tourism in Antarctica (ATLANTIS = Adventure, Tourism/Leisure in ANtarctica: Towards Integrated Scenarios). The project is funded by the Netherlands Arctic/Antarctic Research Program (NAAP) of NWO and is expected to take four years.

Network of Excellence on Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning. MARBEF is the first FP6 network and aims to integrate marine biodiversity research at a European level.

The central theme of the NeWater project is a transition from currently prevailing regimes of river basin water management into more adaptive regimes in the future. This transition calls for a highly integrated water resources management (IWRM) concept.

PESETA project focused on the impacts of climate change on the following sectors: Coastal systems, Human health, Agriculture, Tourism, and Floods. For each of these sectoral categories, a corresponding sectoral-based study is developed.

The objective of MATISSE is to achieve a step-wise advance in the science and application of Integrated Sustainability Assessment (ISA) of EU policies. In order to reach this objective the core activity of the MATISSE project is to improve the tool kit available for conducting Integrated Sustainability Assessments.

This pilot project focused on a new method of scenario development for dealing with uncertainty. In these scenarios, there is a focus on various uncertain developments (climate, space, economy etc.), and explicit attention to possible developments of social perspectives.

This project aims to contribute to the development of effective management policies to preserve the Antarctic environment, while accommodating tourism. This project – funded by NWO – made these views explicit, and connected them with policy. Special attention was given to the scale aspect: is it necessary, desirable and possible to limi tourism in Antartica?

This scoping study (funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research), in collaboration with Erasmus MC and RIVM), has identified the potential consequences of global environmental change on human.