RESOURCE - Nr. 03 2025 (ENG)

Big fall in student intake Campus troublemakers get area ban

Vidi for butterflies’ sense of taste Francerious Request helps AED Wageningen

Chair group policy on course?

Just made it: 3 0 per ce nt of professors are women | p.12

Inquiry

It was not the first time news about the cutbacks was published on a Friday afternoon just before a holiday (on intranet, now Teams Connections — see also the Comment on page 4). You might be tempted to draw conclusions, but our inquiry revealed the timing was pure coincidence. Even so, not everyone is keen on talking about this phase in the cost-cutting exercise. The WUR Council is saying nothing for now, intent on keeping its cards close to its chest and staying on good terms with the Executive Board. The board doesn’t want to say much either because the measures could then be linked to specific individuals, which is not permitted. Two people who can and are willing to say more are the directors Gerda Feunekes (Wageningen Food & Biobased Research) and Joost de Laat (Wageningen Social & Economic Research), because they are already in the midst of a reorganization (p. 20). Their accounts give an impression of what restructuring involves. In addition to this rather gloomy topic, we also have some upbeat articles in this issue — essential in these times. Take the amazing story on page 14 about the student doing almost six (!) Master’s degrees. If there’s a story you think we missed or you have tips for our journalists, including for online, send an email to resource@wur.nl.

Willem Andrée Editor-in-chief

CABBAGE COAT

The assignment was to design a new product made from biobased materials and come up with a media strategy for marketing the product. Five Molecular Life Sciences Master’s students had the idea of using the water-repellent wax found on cabbages to make raincoats. ‘Thirty per cent of cabbage leaves are thrown away,’ says one of the students. ‘We are using those leaves to turn a waste product into something of value.’ But how do you market it? By creating your own coat from cabbage leaves and uploading amusing clips to the Instagram account cabbage_coats. lz

Comment Dump Microsoft

The decision to integrate the intranet in the existing Teams environment raised some eyebrows here among our journalists. Ever since 2019, Dutch university vice chancellors have been warning about the dangers of dependency on American tech companies. This year, SURF — the higher education IT organization — moved part of its network to a Dutch institute. And the Young Academy recently raised the alarm about the power of Big Tech in education. These warnings are hardly surprising. Take Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk: they both had front-row seats at the inauguration of the American president, Donald Trump. Not long afterwards, Zuckerberg announced his platforms would no longer be fact-checking. And Musk regularly ignores the European rules on Big Tech.

Microsoft, ChatGPT and Google are part of our lives.

Scientists use ResearchGate, students have Brightspace and so on.

Imagine what would happen if Trump, capricious as he is, decided to shut off Europe, even if it’s only for a week. It’s a shocking thought. And on the subject of capriciousness: Microsoft owner Bill Gates recently changed his mind and now thinks we shouldn’t be focusing on reducing CO₂ any more. Is our data safe with him?

This all ought to be enough to persuade large institutes like WUR to break their links with these companies and look for alternatives. Of course that is incredibly difficult, but it is possible, as was demonstrated last week. According to a headline in Dutch newspaper NRC, ‘The International Criminal Court is dumping Microsoft for an alternative, European option’. The US has put a lot of pressure on the International Criminal Court recently and now the ICC has opted for a German solution for its office software.

Resource made a similar move recently. Obviously on a completely different scale to the ICC action, but along the lines of ‘every little bit helps’. Our photographer recently told us that he would no longer be sharing his photos via Dropbox (another American company) but via Jottacloud, a Norwegian alternative. That decision met with understanding nods among our journalists rather than raised eyebrows.

Let’s hope this sets a trend in Wageningen. Let’s make WUR the first university to stop using Microsoft and other US software and switch to European solutions. The Communications department will then have set up Teams for nothing, but many a major change is preceded by a ‘for nothing’. Scientists know all about that.

This Comment presents the views and analyses of the editorial board, formulated following discussions among the editors.

Fewer students are joining sports clubs

The decline in the student intake is impacting student sports. The number of students who are members of a sports club has fallen by 9 per cent from 2,983 to 2,719. This drop brings an end to the upsurge during the pandemic, says Henri ten Klooster, head of De Bongerd Sports Centre. ‘Back then, we saw an increase in one year to 2,800 club members and later to 3,100. Numbers declined slightly over the past two years, and now we are seeing a substantial drop.’ That does not yet have consequences for the survival of the clubs. ‘We apply a lower limit of 15 members for sports clubs; we don’t provide instructors for clubs smaller than that. That limit has not yet been reached, but I expect to see a couple of clubs getting to that point in the near future. Plus it is obviously harder to find people for the boards and committees when membership numbers are falling.’ rk

In ‘Uncle’ Jan’s footsteps

Almost two and a half centuries after the physician and botanist Jan IngenHousz discovered what photosynthesis does, a dozen descendants gathered to measure that process in a field behind Unifarm. The family were visiting the photosynthesis institute founded two years ago in Wageningen and named after their ancestor. The photo shows Jan Maarten Ingen Housz (he writes the surname as two words) measuring photosynthesis. IngenHousz demonstrated that plants use light to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugars. rk

Photo Resource

539

That’s how many first-year members were admitted to seven Wageningen student societies over the last couple of months. Each year, Resource surveys the intake at WSR Argo, WSV Ceres, KSV Franciscus, SSR-W, Nji-Sri, JV Unitas and NSW Navigators. Last year, these societies admitted a total of 646 new first-year members. That means the intake is 17 per cent less this year. lz

No more graduation badges

From next week, Master’s students will no longer get a silver alumnus badge on graduation. The trinket is the victim of the cutbacks by Education & Student Affairs. MSc students graduating this week will still get handed the badge during the ceremony — while stocks last. The decision to get rid of the badges was taken in July after a survey of dozens of graduates.

‘The badge was rarely mentioned in their assessment of the ceremony,’ says WUR spokesperson Jan Willem Bol. ‘We briefly considered an alternative gift but decided against it because of the logistical challenges and the results of the survey.’ Apparently, one silver badge costs 25 euros. Assuming roughly 2,300 MSc students graduating each year, that means annual savings of 58,000 euros. rk

Big fall in intake of new students

Fewer students, both Dutch and internationals, have started a degree at WUR this year. That is shown by the intake figures on the reference date of 1 October.

A total of 1,294 new students started a Bachelor’s degree in Wageningen this year. That is 9 per cent less than

last year, with 1,426 new students. The intake for the Master’s programmes fell by 8 per cent (from 2,066 last year to 1,891 now).

‘The decline in the BSc intake is entirely due to a smaller intake of Dutch students,’ explains Geertje Braat of Education & Student Affairs. ‘We were

expecting this as the preliminary registrations already showed a fall. The international intake for the Bachelor’s is small but stable.’

China and Indonesia

The picture is different for the Master’s intake, where there has been a decline in the intake of Dutch students (down 4 per cent) and the intake of students from European Economic Area (EEA) countries (down 9 per cent). Braat: ‘But there has been an even bigger drop in the non-EEA intake, students from countries outside the European Union, Norway, Liechtenstein or Iceland. Last year, 480 non-EEA students started a Master’s at Wageningen; this year, it’s 392, a drop of 18 per cent. In particular, the intake of

new MSc students from China is less than half what it was: 59 now compared with 129 in 2024. The number of new Indonesian students has also seen a big fall, from 86 in 2024 to 52 now. Braat: ‘We are investigating the reason for this.’

In recent years, the biggest intake has been from China, usually followed by Indonesia. India now makes up the biggest group of new non-EEA students as its intake has remained stable (70 in 2024, 71 now).

The total number of WUR students as at 1 October 2025 is 12,028, compared with 12,733 last year. That means the student population has shrunk by 6 per cent since 1 October last year. lz

NB. This excludes pre-Master's students, who average about 100 a year

Francerious Request helps AED Wageningen

The annual three-day charity radio marathon that student society KSV Franciscus organizes will start on 21 November. This year, the student society will be raising money for AED Wageningen, a foundation that wants to reduce the number of people dying from heart attacks. You can request a song to be played in return for a donation. There are also lots of activities and actions. Last year, for instance, a year group drove two rickshaws from Zeeland to Wageningen to raise money. A total of 8,445.99 euros was raised then for the Wageningen Toy Bank lz

Fast bus link with Nijmegen

If transport company Transdev get the go ahead, there will be a fast bus service between Wageningen and Nijmegen from next summer. The buses will run from Campus/Forum via Wageningen bus station and Nijmegen train station to the Nijmegen campus. The journey from Wageningen campus to Nijmegen train station will take about 40 minutes with this bus line, the same as going by Bus 303 to Ede-Wageningen and getting the train to Nijmegen. The advantage is you don’t have any changes. Gelderland’s Provincial Executive will consider whether to grant permission in January. dv

TROUBLEMAKERS GET AREA BAN

Two youngsters who have spat at people, verbally abused and harassed them on campus have been given an area ban, says Martijn van den Heuvel, head of Integrated Facility Management. The municipality recently started a hotline for street harassment. Following reports, the police soon had their eyes on two suspects. ‘Things moved fast after that,’ says Van den Heuvel. The ban means these youngsters are not allowed on the campus. If they violate the area ban, they could be prosecuted under criminal law. lz

A look at the hot Wageningen

Alumnus Frank Westerman will present his most ‘Wageningen’ book in Hotel De Wereld.

You really have to present your book in Wageningen if the title is Hotel De Wereld. Especially if you are a WUR alumnus and your book is about ‘postcolonial tragedies’, including the rise and fall of Wageningen. The Surinamese version of the town, that is. Westerman’s book (written in Dutch) is a collection of old and new travel reports. The (new) title story is about the rice-growing village of Wageningen, which arose from the marshes in the Surinamese jungle in the midtwentieth century. The village was intended as a shining example of WUR knowledge and expertise, until the Dutch scientists were forced to leave when Suriname gained independence in 1975. The book presentation on

Wednesday 19 November will coincide with the launch of the new foundation Wageningen SURI-NL. This foundation wants to strengthen the ties between the two towns. The initiators hope a new partnership will improve living standards in the Surinamese Wageningen.

Film

An impression of the living standards in the past can be gained from the documentary Wageningen by the director Peter Creutzberg. The film from 1971 is being screened in the Visum Mundi Auditorium. Stills from the film will be shown during the book presentation and there will be a panel debate about collaboration in the past and in the future between the two Wageningens, with guests including Mavis Brewster (daughter of one of the rice-growing village pioneers), Harmen

Boerboom, (former NOS reporter in Suriname) and Frank Westerman. The occasion will also be used to present a new walking and cycle route via Wageningen’s colonial heritage. The route, which is an initiative of the Nationaal Vrijheidskwartier Foundation, reveals the ‘traces of colonialism and decolonization’ in the town and includes various buildings with a WUR connection. rk

Read the interview with Westerman on page 22.

Visum Mundi, from 20.00 SAVE THE DATE

BOOK PRESENTATION 19 NOVEMBER

Vidi for butterflies’ sense of taste

Cabbage whites only eat and lay eggs on plants that produce glucosinolates. But the green-veined white is an exception. This butterfly has learned to use wallflowers (Erysimum) as a host plant. That is surprising, as it is a plant that produces not only glucosinolates but also toxins that can be fatal to the butterfly. Text Roelof Kleis

The group of organic compounds in question are the cardenolides. The wallflower produces them to protect itself against insects. Caterpillars of the large white and small white would rather starve to death than feed on the wallflower. So how did the green-veined white acquire its taste for this plant? Alexander Haverkamp has secured a Vidi grant to find out.

‘Tasty’ and ‘poisonous’ Haverkamp, an entomologist, has a theory, of course. He thinks a mutation in the butterfly’s taste processes is responsible for this major change. ‘Caterpillars have neurons (nerve cells) that indicate “tasty” and “poisonous”. I think a mutation in this cabbage white turned that back to front.’ Taste neurons detect chemical compounds when receptors (proteins) on the cell’s surface bind with substances. Haverkamp thinks that in the case of the green-veined white, the ‘wrong’ receptor

proteins are expressed. The neuron that signals ‘tasty’ actually binds the toxin. Butterflies taste with their forelegs rather than their mouths. ‘A butterfly at rest usually has its forelegs pressed against its body. Butterflies don’t use those legs to stand on, they use them for tasting. Caterpillars taste things via four hairs that protrude when they open their mouths.’ But why would this cabbage white fool itself like this? ‘Cardenolides may be toxic, but they aren’t hugely toxic,’ says Haverkamp. ‘Three-quarters of the caterpillars on the plant survive.’ And that downside is offset by a big plus: ‘You have the plant entirely to yourself.’

Rewiring

Natural selection does the rest. Over the course of time, the butterfly evolved to become immune. The first step in that process was to rewire the detection process. That is the theory. ‘Essentially, a kind

of mutation took place in the butterfly’s perception. This project will investigate whether that change in the taste perception could have been the first step in the evolutionary process.’

‘That downside is offset by a big plus: you have the plant entirely to yourself’

Haverkamp will use CRISPR-Cas technology to switch the expression of receptors in the neurons on or off. ‘We will look at what the taste neurons do then and see if that’s the same in both the caterpillar and the imago. Then we will apply the same change in other cabbage whites to see whether that really was the decisive step in the adaptation to the wallflower.’

‘We are basically investigating how the taste process works at the neurobiological level,’ says Haverkamp. ‘How do plant-eating insects choose between different plants? Ultimately, we want to know what the deciding factor is in explaining why an insect eats a particular crop. Perhaps we could even change that decision process.’

Photo shutterstock

The Vidi grant Haverkamp was awarded for this research is worth 850,000 euros. That will let him take on two PhD candidates and a postdoc. Six other WUR researchers received Vidi grants from the Dutch Research Council in the latest round in addition to Haverkamp.

Live&Learn

A botched experiment, a rejected paper: such things are soon labelled as failures in academia. As for talking about them — not the done thing! But that is just what WUR scientists do in this column. Because failure has its uses. This time, it’s Martine van den Heuvel-Greve, an ecotoxicologist and polar researcher at Marine Research. Text Nicole van ’t Woud Hofland  Illustration Stijn Schreven

‘My very first graduation project is a while ago now but I still remember it well. I was studying whether enzymes in the livers of marine mammals could break down polluting substances such as flame retardants. The plan was relatively simple: I would repeat existing experiments, following a fixed protocol, only with a new substance. But when I put my samples in the gas chromatograph to measure the results, I didn’t get the right data. The machine only detected the small molecules; it looked as if the large ones had disappeared.

‘After studying the literature, I decided to try an alternative analytical method. To do that, I needed to clean the extract using sulphuric acid and then rinse it thoroughly. But it all went wrong in the gas chromatograph. It seems I hadn’t rinsed it thoroughly enough: some acid was left in the sample and that damaged the gas chromatograph column. It was ruined. I felt awful. This was my first research project and I’d already destroyed some expensive equipment. With my tail between my legs, I went to my supervisor.

‘Fortunately, he was very understanding. We looked through a

thick paper catalogue together (this was in the pre-internet age) to find a replacement column. We ordered a different type this time and I repeated the experiments. Contrary to what I was expecting, the chromatographic analysis worked perfectly. It turned out

‘Awful. My first study and I’d destroyed expensive equipment’

that the original column hadn’t been appropriate anyway for the large molecules I was studying. Ironically, my error with the acid was needed to reveal that. In retrospect, we shouldn’t simply have repeated the standard protocol; we should have reconsidered the experimental design instead. Since then, I take a critical look at every research project from start to finish. What needs to be done, what could go wrong and how can you prevent it? That preparation is definitely worth the effort in my research on Spitsbergen, where it’s freezing cold, resources are scarce and transport time-consuming.’

Tracking wolves and humans in park Hoge Veluwe

Five wolves will be roaming around De Hoge Veluwe National Park with transmitters for the next year. The animals are part of a study WUR ecologists are carrying out on the behaviour of wolves and their prey in a nature area popular with humans. Visitors can also elect to be ‘fitted’ with a tracker.

In addition to the five wolves, ten red deer, ten wild boar and ten roe deer will also have GPS transmitters. The transmitters record the animal’s position every five minutes (if it is moving) or once an hour (if it is resting). This data is then read off remotely at set times.

The data will give information on how the animals move around with respect to one another. This will then be linked to similar data on visitors to the park. They can also record their movements — on a voluntary basis — with special trackers.

The person in charge of the study is Professor Frank van Langevelde (Wildlife Ecology & Conservation). According to him, the key question is how the animals behave in the presence of humans. ‘We want to know whether the wolves get used to humans and whether they change their behaviour when in the vicinity of humans.’

Tranquillizer gun

As far as is known, there are two wolf pairs living in the park. Eight cubs were born this year, says Jakob Leidekker (head of the park’s business operations). In addition, wolves from outside are able to get into the park. The fencing closing off the park is literally not insurmountable for wolves. To fit the transmitters, the wolves are shot by a specialist vet using a tranquillizer gun. This operation is carried out in places frequented by wolves. The transmitter is fitted by an authorised park employee. A WUR researcher makes sure everything is done in accordance with the protocol. rk

‘Empower pregnant women’

Let obstetricians work more closely with dieticians and add a dose of empowerment to the mix. PhD candidate Renske van Lonkhuijzen says that is the recipe for improving pregnant women’s diets. She obtained her PhD at the end of October.

Text Dominique Vrouwenvelder

 Illustration Shutterstock

‘If you get any advice at all about your diet during pregnancy, it is often limited to all the things you are no longer allowed to eat,’ says Van Lonkhuijzen. ‘You are told to avoid alcohol and red meat. That is indeed the most important thing for a healthy pregnancy, but there is so much else that could improve too — and pregnant women are keen to do whatever they can to help their baby.’

The PhD candidate developed, implemented and evaluated ‘Power 4 Healthy Pregnancies’ (P4GZ in its Dutch acronym), a programme that helps women to eat more healthily, with empowerment as the starting point. ‘I take empowerment to mean the feeling that you are seen, that people are listening to you and that you can make your own informed health choices. The professionals support you in a way that you choose. Some women need educating in nutrition, whereas others need confirmation that they’re on the right track.’

In the programme, obstetricians and dieticians collaborate to give pregnant women the nutritional support they need. ‘Obstetricians are skilled at communicating with their clients and building trust, but they often don’t have the expertise or time to give die -

tary advice. Dieticians do have that expertise, but pregnant women often only go to see them if they have problems such as gestational diabetes. Also, they have to pay for that advice from their insurance deductible.’

Dietician

In the P4GZ programme, women got four more appointments in addition to the regular check-ups. ‘There was one early in the pregnancy to discuss motivation and objectives with the obstetrician, then a longer consultation with the dietician and shorter appointments

‘At present, pregnant women only see a dietician if something is wrong’

later to monitor progress.’

The programme combined fixed elements with flexibility in how it was incorporated into the existing routines of the obstetricians’ practices. That made it doable, says Van Lonkhuijzen. In a randomized controlled trial, 16 obstetric practices advised 342 pregnant women. Half did the P4GZ programme and the other half received the regular care. Questionnaires about eating

behaviour showed a clear improvement in the quality of the diets of pregnant women in the P4GZ group.

These women learned from the programme, but so did the professionals. ‘The obstetricians now have a better idea of when they can refer women to the dietician, and dieticians are more aware of what recommendations women without a health problem need,’ says Van Lonkhuijzen.

Sceptical

At first, the professionals involved were sceptical about the potential effect of the programme. ‘But the evaluation interviews regularly revealed big improvements in the quality of their clients’ diets, specifically regarding aspects they had discussed, such as the vitamin D intake.’

‘This advice based on empowerment is worthwhile,’ concludes Van Lonkhuijzen. ‘It’s no longer “Congratulations, you’re pregnant and now you must stop eating this!” Each woman gets the space and support to look at her own situation.’

PhD theses in a nutshell

Cool fruit

Fruit often spends a long time in transport and storage between being harvested and consumed. Cooling, sometimes combined with low pressure or low oxygen, is the main method used to prevent loss of quality. And the fruit needs it, according to research by Celine Verreydt (from Belgium). She investigated the loss of quality in pears and citrus fruits during transport and storage. Her study shows that transport in particular leads to a substantial loss of quality. If not kept at the right temperature, the fruit can go… well… pear-shaped, as they say. rk

Mapping fruit quality variabilities within refrigerated unit operations of fresh fruit supply chains using multiphysics modelling and high-resolution sensing.

Celine Verreydt Supervisor Kasper Hettinga

Chewing longer

If you want to lose weight, you need to eat less. That can be made possible by eating meals that require a lot of chewing. Lise Heuven demonstrated this convincingly in her study of the influence of ultra-processed and other food on eating behaviour. In figures, if it takes you 20 per cent longer to eat a meal, you will eat 11 per cent less food on average. The effect is significant and lasting. But you need to be careful with your combinations. Adding a sauce to a plate of penne and carrots increases the rate at which you eat by 30 per cent. So sauces are not a good idea. In short, chewing food for longer works – but does it make a meal any nicer? rk

Slowly eating less. Lise Heuven Supervisor Ciarán Forde

THE PROPOSITION

PhD candidates explain their most thought-provoking proposition. This time it’s Julia Veser, who received her PhD on 4 September. Her study was about modelling the drying of cabbage seeds. Text Ning Fan

Swarming females

Malaria mosquitoes mate while swarming. That means swarming behaviour could be exploited in combating malaria. Sofía Vielma, from Chile, studied mosquito swarming behaviour and made some interesting discoveries. Female mosquitoes sometimes swarm when there are no males nearby. They also do so for much longer and at greater speeds than the males. It is not clear why. Vielma also found a link between the composition and shape of a swarm of mosquitoes. Swarms with a lot of females are more diffuse. This new knowledge opens up possibilities for tackling mosquitoes effectively. rk

Behavioral Ecology and Spatial Dynamics of Anopheles coluzzii Swarms Sofía Vielma Supervisor Florian Muijres

‘Modelling physical phenomena is an art’

‘My PhD project was mainly based on modelling. As physicists, we build models to represent reality. I like to compare modelling to painting. If you paint a picture of a house, you can use different tools and techniques — such as watercolours or oils — to depict the same house. Modelling is similar: there are many programs and coding styles to choose from, and it’s up to you how to put the pieces together. As long as the model represents reality, it’s a good one.

‘Physical modelling is based on real phenomena, and to describe them mathematically requires creativity. But just like in painting, creativity does not

mean complete freedom. If a model strays too far from reality, you need to refine it until it is logical and produces consistent outcomes.

‘I really enjoyed the modelling process, even though it can be challenging. You constantly ask yourself which formula works best and how can you improve it further. There were definitely moments when I went a bit “crazy”, just like a real artist. Sometimes I thought, “Will this ever end?” But when the model finally worked and matched the experimental results, it was such a rewarding feeling, just like creating an artwork that truly satisfies you.’

Have a good journey

‘Welcome to DGI, Guido! Your next trip starts here — enter your destination and let’s go!’ says Diversity Travel when I try to book a trip. All nice and friendly. But I can’t go ahead with the booking, because a message appears when I press the ‘book’ button: ‘no authorization codes assigned – no booking can be made’. Incidentally, there’s no field where I can enter my destination anyway, despite what that friendly welcome said.

‘I can live with Kafkaesque, but there are limits’

I understand we have an obligation to put large acquisitions out to tender. But just as you can buy a bread roll in Campus Plaza for a decent price in two minutes, whereas a canteen roll has to be entered as a purchase order in our internal ProQme system and sent to the preferential supplier, after which the receipt gets approved by your line manager and recorded in the accounts by the project controller — you can imagine that tendering procedures can lead to Kafkaesque situations with more expensive, less tasty bread rolls with an expected delivery time of two weeks.

But I can live with Kafkaesque. In fact, you can only survive a job at a university if you see the funny side of a hugely hierarchical organization trying to control the behaviour

Guido Camps

of extremely non-hierarchical, independent-minded, intelligent employees. But there is a limit, and my limit is DGI Disaster Travel, some obscure company that led to a ‘tsunami of complaints’ at Erasmus University and gets a score of 3.4 on Trustpilot.

The new manual dates from 5 October and states that the first step is registration via the intranet — a system that was taken offline at the start of October! By the way, did a Smart PIA get submitted for the numerous personal details in my ‘traveller profile’? A mere 45 pages and 10,204 words later, I finish going through the manual. To give a comparison, Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger needed fewer words to win a Nobel Prize. But at least bookings are now possible! Unfortunately, you can’t travel to the destination of your choice, or stay in the hotel of your choice, using the connection of your choice — resulting in a journey that takes longer and is more expensive than if you booked it yourself.

I am not expecting my employer to ignore the law. But if the Public Procurement Act leads to such awful results, I would expect my employer to turn a blind eye to people booking trips their own way.

Guido Camps (40) is a vet and a researcher at Human Nutrition and OnePlanet. He also enjoys baking, beekeeping and unusual animals.

WOMEN PROFESSORS WUR ON TRACK

In 2020, WUR set itself the goal of having at least 30 per cent female professors by the end of 2025. According to the latest overview of professors, WUR is (just!) on track. Is it time to broaden the scope to include gender balance in other prestigious posts and equal opportunities for international staff?

Text Marieke Enter & Bas Belleman (HOP)

Last year, it seemed as if WUR was going to have a tough time achieving its target of 30 per cent female professors. Resource interviewed Sjoukje Heimovaara about it, and she frankly admitted that gender bias was still playing a role in the organization. Things are different now.

Of 182 professors in total (88 with chairs and 94 with personal titles), 54 are women now, which is 29.7 per cent. Add the rector magnificus (a woman), the Dean of Education (a man) and the Dean of Research (a woman), and the proportion of women rises to 30.3 per cent. The vacancies listed in the overview (two chairs and five with personal titles) could still throw a spanner in the works if the positions are filled before the end of the year and don’t go to women. But for now, WUR is nicely on track. ‘Good news, but it’s still not enough — we will continue our efforts!’ said Heimovaara in an initial response to Resource’s calculations.

Among professors by special appointment or holding endowed chairs, the proportion of women is currently slightly lower: 10 of the 40 professors are women, or 25 per cent. That share has increased significantly in recent years; in 2020, it was still a mere 8 per cent. As the national Women Professors Monitor does not look at these categories of professorships, Resource has not included them in its calculation of the proportion of female professors either.

Other prestigious positions

Of course, achieving a good gender balance is about more than just professorial posts. The National Network

‘Good news, but it’s not enough – we will continue our efforts!’

of Women Professors (LNVH) recently produced an overview of the current state of the gender distribution in other high-status positions at the university. The higher up the career ladder, the worse it looks for women. International colleagues also find it more difficult to get to the top.

According to LNVH’s chair Yvonne Benschop, professor of Strategic Human Resource Management at Radboud University Nijmegen, this is because of the culture at the universities: ‘Some places have a traditional “masculine” image of effective leadership. When allocating jobs, for instance, they’ll wonder if that woman can bang her fist on the table and fight for resources for her department. And if women are good at that, they are then often seen as sharp and nasty, rather than as good leaders.’ It is not easy to change such a culture. For example, merely having more women in positions of power does not help women’s careers enough, says Benschop. ‘After all, those leaders are women who have been shaped by –let’s be blunt about it – the patriarchal system. They often apply the same standards and values that give men an

advantage. What does help is if the people who allocate the tasks know about such patterns.’

International staff

International colleagues also find it harder to climb the career ladder. According to Benschop, they come across similar cultural problems. It is not just the language barrier. The Dutch often have blind spots about the capabilities of their international colleagues. ‘The leadership qualities that we appreciate here in the Netherlands are based on Dutch values,’ she says. ‘We aren’t always able to recognize that in the style of our international colleagues. It’s a shame if foreign researchers aren’t given opportunities, because that means a loss of diversity for the organ-

New target: 40 per cent

The Women Professors Monitor, published by the Dutch Network of Women Professors (LNVH), gives a more official measurement than these Resource calculations. It uses a slightly different method to calculate the proportion of women (for instance, using FTE rather than individuals). A new report will be published on 8 December. The Executive Board has now set a new target: it wants women to make up at least 40 per cent of WUR professors by 2030. The share of women in non-scientific roles at and near the top of the organization should also be at least 40 per cent by 2030. The board set that target last year in response to government measures aimed at a better ratio of men to women at the top of public and semi-public organizations.

ization. They’re the ones who could actually offer a broader perspective on Dutch norms and values.’

Recommendations

The recommendations are obvious: LNVH wants structural training and professional development in leadership and inclusive management, to provide more scope for a variety of perspectives. On top of that, LNVH believes that transparent application procedures are

needed at all levels to guarantee that all management positions are truly accessible. The practice of allocating such positions behind closed doors (‘Hey, mightn’t that be something for you?’) ought to end so as to reduce the influence of the old boys network. ■

Illustration Valerie Geelen

Ilias de Feijter will have seven degrees and almost 1,000 credits

‘YOU CAN DO MORE THAN YOU THINK’

Ilias de Feijter (23) did his final exam for his Master’s in Plant Sciences in October. Nothing strange about that — except that he is also doing five other degree programmes and he runs a farm in Slovakia.

Text Dominique Vrouwenvelder  Photo Guy Ackermans

Ilias de Feijter grew up in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. He originally wanted to study Agrotechnology in Wageningen but eventually decided on Mechanical Engineering in Eindhoven. ‘I was afraid Agrotechnology wouldn’t go into enough depth. I’d always been interested in technology and I could learn about agriculture anyway at home on our arable farm.’

When he started in 2019, he was like any other student: doing one degree, with a social life, playing rugby for the national youth team, almost making it to the European championship — until Covid brought everything to a standstill in spring 2020. ‘All the classes went online and social activities stopped, so I decided to do the Plant Sciences BSc at WUR as well. That let me create my own Agrotechnology study, with more depth in both nature and technology.’

Collect them all

After Covid, universities started checking the mandatory attendance again. De Feijter was expecting big problems, but that didn’t happen. ‘So I decided to add another degree.’ This time, he chose Econometrics at

Tilburg. ‘I’d had a disagreement with the bank and wanted to know more about that sector. Then I got into a scrap with a lawyer, so I added the Tax Law programme at Amsterdam.’

‘That meant I had technology, biology, economics and law covered as key subjects, but I felt I was missing something in management and in the humanities. So I started Management in Rotterdam and Philosophy in Leiden. Partly for fun but also for the challenge.’ Of course, he could have tried to do these degrees in the same city, but De Feijter didn’t want that. ‘This way, I get to know the Netherlands.’

Logistical challenge

‘Stress is like a muscle, so you can train it’

‘The logistics aren’t as bad as you’d think,’ he says matter-of-factly. ‘There’s mandatory attendance for the Bachelor’s degrees but the Master’s are mainly about theory and exams.’ But he still had to take risks. ‘At Amsterdam, I had to pass all 12 courses in the Tax Law pre-Master in one year. If you didn’t attend the lectures, you weren’t entitled to resits. That was stressful because I didn’t have time to attend everything.’

It helped that he could be ‘sick’ occasionally. ‘You can miss two or three workgroup sessions per course at each university. I made smart use of that margin, which let me satisfy the attendance obligation everywhere.’ De Feijter

lives in Eindhoven. He got to know his girlfriend while doing his Philosophy degree. She lives in Leiden, so that gives him two ‘study centres’. ‘Leiden is conveniently between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, while I can easily get to Wageningen and Tilburg from Eindhoven.’

Almost free

The exams rarely clashed. ‘Eindhoven has four quarters, Wageningen and Amsterdam both have six periods but they don’t coincide. Tilburg and Leiden have semesters, but the Carnival holiday means they are a week apart. Once I had five successive weeks of exams, for a different university each week. I’ve now done over 100 exams and only failed one. I’ll have nearly 1,000 credits by the end of this academic year.’

De Feijter makes smart use of the education system.

‘As long as you don’t yet have a Master’s, you can study endlessly for the lower statutory tuition fees, including at other universities. Once you have completed a Master’s, you have to pay the institutional fees of thousands of euros per annum if you start a new degree

‘I got into a scrap with a lawyer, so I added the Tax Law programme’

‘Being hung over is a waste of time’

programme. That’s why I am spreading everything over several years. You can study virtually for free here in the Netherlands.’

Stress training

Does he ever get stressed? ‘Sometimes. But stress is like a muscle, so you can train it. Going from one to two degrees was tougher than going from three to four. I definitely found it stressful when I started the Eindhoven–Wageningen combination. The first few weeks, I almost starved because I didn’t allow myself time to eat. That was how I learned about meal prepping, which works well for me. I spent a while too staying overnight at a campsite in Rhenen to save time travelling to the campus. I like coming up with such solutions — it makes you more resilient.’ He has now perfected his schedule and has a fixed

Ilias de Feijter: ‘The logistics aren’t as bad as you’d think. There’s mandatory attendance for the Bachelor’s degrees but the Master’s are mainly about theory and exams.’

routine. ‘If eating, exercise and your social life run like clockwork, you still have energy for the other stuff.’

Four theses in one year

De Feijter was shaking with nerves when he took his first exams. But not any more. ‘I get a bit stressed sometimes in the weeks before the exam if I realize I left it too late. Doing exams is a skill you have to learn.’ He found the degrees in Engineering and Econometrics the hardest. ‘Eindhoven was where I started and my point of reference. It meant the rest seemed doable in comparison.’ He wrote four theses last year. ‘The one for Eindhoven took 30 times longer than the ones for Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Of course it depends on whether you are doing a one-year or two-year Master’s: there is a huge difference in the study load and number of credits. He finds the graduation phase the least pleasurable part of the degree. ‘In Eindhoven, you can only start graduation after you have passed all the courses, so I deliberately postponed that moment. This summer, I graduated with my first Master’s. I could have done that much sooner, but then I wouldn’t have been able to start the other Master’s.’

Slovakia

In addition to his degree studies, he and his parents bought a farm last year in Slovakia: 1,100 hectares of pasture, 900 hectares of arable land, 800 head of beef cattle and a factory for straw and alfalfa. ‘There’s no room in the Netherlands, so as a young farmer it’s better to go somewhere with more potential for growth. Slovakia has space and good prospects. We’re on the edge of the hills, close to Vienna and Budapest.’

Overveiw of his degrees

2019-2022 BSc in Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven 2020-2023 BSc in Plant Sciences, Wageningen 2022-2024 BSc in Econometrics, Tilburg | did not graduate

2023-2024 pre-Master in Tax Law, Amsterdam 2024-2025 pre-Master in Philosophy, Leiden

2022-2025 MSc in Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven 2023-2025 MSc in Plant Sciences, Wageningen 2024-2025 MSc in Tax Law, Amsterdam 2024-2025 MSc in Management, Rotterdam 2024-2025 MSc in Econometrics, Tilburg

This is his final year. If all goes well, by summer 2026 De Feijter will have obtained two Bachelor’s degrees and five Master’s degrees in seven years.

The farm did put a spanner in the works for his schedule. ‘I’ve been appointed the CEO, so I have to go there regularly to sign things. I missed a pre-Master exam in Leiden because of the purchase and that meant I couldn’t start my intended final Master’s programme last February. I could have started the Philosophy degree in September but I’d already started the graduation process in Eindhoven and I got my first Master’s degree certificate in the summer. If I start the Philosophy Master’s now, I will have to pay the expensive institutional fees. That also means I could actually have done the WUR course last year that I now had to complete in period 1.’

The philosopher in him nuances the problems: ‘We’re in a real luxury position here. If you don’t realize that, you need to get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself. I do that by studying loads.’ Then he laughs. ‘If I decided to do yet another degree, that would only increase my workload by one seventh. But don’t worry, I’m not going to do that. It’s fine as it is. ■

1

2

‘Go to as few lectures as possible. It costs a lot of time: you have to cycle there and back, you can’t fast-forward or rewind the lecturer or get them to talk faster, and you have a mandatory break halfway through. All really inefficient.’

‘Draw up an honest schedule. I put everything that takes longer than 15 minutes in my diary: shopping for groceries and other things, the trip back, showers and so on. In the evening, I correct it based on what I actually did and how much time it cost me. That way, you learn how much time something really costs and you take responsibility. If you spend three hours on TikTok, you should be honest and record that. It gives you a better picture of how much free time you have and it leaves you with more leisure time.’

3

‘You can do much more than you think. You can study at university virtually for free in the Netherlands. If you like studying and can’t decide between two options, do them both. I don’t know many students who genuinely spend 40 hours a week on their degree. Even if you are active in a student society, you often still have time left. How you spend it is a choice. I like a beer now and then, but I never get drunk — being hung over is a waste of time.’

Ilias de Feijter’s study tips

Policy review for chair groups and professors by special appointment

In its 2025-2028 professorial chair plan, WUR announced that it intended to review its policy on chair groups and on professors by special appointment (‘special professors’). Two committees have now been set up for that purpose. Resource spoke with the committee chairs, who will be reporting to the rector with their advice in the summer. Text Marieke Enter  Illustration Shutterstock

What is the background to your task?

Jack van der Vorst (chair group committee): ‘Wageningen now has 95 chair groups, which are organized in various ways. The roles and mandates of the chair holders, professors with personal chairs and other staff have also been implemented in a wide variety of ways. The committee aims to identify the organizational models used by the Wageningen chair groups and their pros and cons, and see which seem to be most successful.’

Simon Oosting (committee on special professors): ‘The current policy on professors by special appointment is quite old. The key question is really whether that policy is basically sound. Does it just need dusting off and being made more explicit or are there aspects that need to change fundamentally? There are inevitably questions and discussions sometimes about the professors by special appointment because they are funded by external organizations. It’s therefore good if WUR can refer to clearly formulated policy. In any event, WUR wants to handle this issue carefully because it affects our scientific integrity and quality.’

How much is your task aimed at cutting costs?

Oosting: ‘It isn’t. We were asked for example to examine the extent to which WUR should tighten its policy for determining the scientific relevance of an externally funded chair and to explore

WUR hopes the revised policies for chair groups and professors by special appointment will keep it on course for the next 10 to 15 years.

how the position of a special professor relates to the Academic Career Framework. Things like that.’

Van der Vorst: ‘Finances play a role in organizing the university as effectively as possible, of course, but they aren’t the name of the game here. It’s mainly about being proactive, able to make adjustments when groups become larger, for example, or when renewal is needed.’

What approach is the committee taking?

Van der Vorst: ‘We’re currently in the phase of internally investigating all the available models in the chair groups and their respective pros and cons. We are organizing a digital survey, and we’ll discuss the results with various stakeholders. I’d also like to look at how other universities have organized this. The awkward bit is that WUR’s funding

and its organizational model are utterly different from those of other universities, so we have to be careful that we’re comparing like with like.’

Oosting: ‘The committee has only recently got up and running. We started with a literature review. What policy does WUR have exactly, what quality requirements do other universities have for special professors and how do they monitor that? I’m afraid there just isn’t enough time to interview people about it, but if we come across cases of institutions pursuing a very strict – or very lax – policy, we may want to talk with them nevertheless.’ ■

For the complete interviews, see resource-online.nl; this is a summary.

BAKERY

Once a month, the kitchen window on the ground floor of Rijnveste turns into a bakery shop. Food Technology Master’s students Pedro Pão and Isa Zarza from Brazil started La Ventanita (the little window) last summer because they felt the building lacked a community spirit. ‘We thought: we like baking and we like bringing people together. So why not create our own spot where people can get to know one another?’ The bakery is a great success. A long queue forms the moment the windows open, and it has even led to new friendships. lk

Photo Kayla Delvers

How two institutes are having to take the lead

Wageningen Food & Biobased Research (WFBR) and Wageningen Social & Economic Research (WSER) are the first two WUR institutes that are restructuring. As a result, the directors Gerda Feunekes and Joost de Laat are (reluctantly) creating a blueprint for the cutbacks. Text Willem Andrée

The shortfalls have been getting bigger every year, but last year was a turning point. WSER lost some major programmes funded by the Foreign Affairs ministry, good for between 25 and 30 per cent of its income. At WFBR, costs have been increasing faster than income, while companies and government bodies have become more reluctant to commission external research.

‘At a certain point, you have to ask yourself whether this is a structural issue,’ says Joost de Laat, who became director of WSER in October 2024. ‘Can we turn the tide? Sometimes you conclude that it isn’t possible unless you reduce the size of the team.’ That was indeed the conclusion. At WSER, the Global Food domain will have to be cut from 64 to 40 FTE — a reduction by over a third. Feunekes too faces a major challenge, with structural budget deficits of several million euros. Neither institute can rule out redeployment of employees or redundancies.

Learning

WSER started discussions with team leaders and other stakeholders in October 2024. In April this year, they submitted a ‘viability plan’, which was approved by the Executive Board on 16 June 2025 after the Works Council issued a positive recommendation. WFBR

‘You lose fine colleagues. That is really tough.’

followed a few months later with a targeted reorganization. WSER became the pioneer that WFBR could learn from. ‘For example, our HR staff discussed the timing and the procedures you need to follow to take the right steps after a final decision about a reorganization. Communication is another aspect.’ That’s right, says De Laat. ‘Communication is essential! You need to be transparent and take great care in these kinds of processes.’ Taking great care is not an optional aspect or merely for show. The reflection principle, the method for deciding who should go, has to be applied strictly in reorganizations. ‘You can’t decide yourself who has to go,’ explains Feunekes. ‘If you have several people in the same role, you must apply the reflection method; you can’t select people based on age or whatever. Quite right too, of course.’ De Laat adds, ‘You lose much-appreciated colleagues, talented people who have added value for years. They could be young researchers or highly experienced people. Fine colleagues. That’s really tough.’

Redeployment processes

A lot of WSER employees found new jobs, either within or outside WUR, between October 2024 and June 2025. That left six redeployment candidates, says De Laat. The process at WFBR started in October (2025). Thirteen members of staff will lose their jobs. They will have a period of ten months in which a Transfer Office will help them find alternative work within WUR or elsewhere. De Laat: ‘The colleagues in question will remain working here for now, but if they haven’t

found somewhere else after those ten months end, they will be made redundant.’ Employees can lodge an objection. An independent commission has been set up to deal with such objections and give advice. The uncertainty is hard to bear, says De Laat. ‘You’re in a dilemma. You want to keep the period of uncertainty as short as possible, but you still need to be thorough.’

More resilient

Both directors see the restructuring not as the final destination but as a necessary step towards making their institutes future-proof. ‘We need to be more resilient,’ says De Laat. That requires what he calls diversification: different clients and projects at more locations. ‘For example, our research in low-income and middle-income countries is also relevant in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe.’

At WFBR, managers are also looking further afield and the business development teams are being reconfigured. Feunekes: ‘Our clients are critically reviewing their investments in research. To be more future-proof, our managers are looking at how to set up our business development teams in a smarter way.’ For instance, WFBR is considering how to pool expertise to prevent overlaps. Take the Consumer & Food group: there was overlap with WSER in its behavioural change research. Feunekes: ‘That is more their area than ours. So we

Cutbacks: a reminder of the situation

The reorganizations at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research and Wageningen Social & Economic Research are partly stand-alone developments. However, WUR is also preparing for a 10 per cent drop in income from 1 January 2028 due to more government cuts in research and education funding, rising salaries (collective labour agreements) and the expectation that the private sector and Ministry of Agriculture will commission less contract research. The Executive Board estimates cuts are needed of 80 million euros: 45 million due to the loss of research assignments and education funding for specific research groups, plus an additional 35 million that the board wants to cut to keep the organization financially healthy. At present, cutback plans for the staff departments — already seen by the board — are with the Works Council, which announced in a message on the intranet that it ‘largely accepts the approach’. In that same message, the Executive Board thanked the consultative body for the ‘thorough and constructive collaboration’. On 10 December, the consultative body will discuss the plans with the Executive Board.

pooled that expertise, with a slight shift from us to WSER.’ Feunekes refers to this as two ‘pockets’ within WUR where it doesn’t make sense to keep both going. ‘You really need to look at what is the best for the organization as a whole.’

Future prospects

Despite the pain of the reorganizations, Feunekes is optimistic about the future. ‘We have an institute with a really strong reputation, a large client base and we are well positioned in the challenges facing society in terms of food, new proteins, the climate and biobased research. The cuts are coming, there’s no question of that. And we have to go with the flow and make the best we can of it.’ It is not yet clear whether WUR’s major cutbacks will affect other institutes. Feunekes: ‘Our institutes, at any rate, are feeling the discipline of the market, as Rens Buchwaldt, the former Executive Board member responsible for finance, used to call it.’ Whatever the case, there is at least a kind of blueprint now for reorganizations. ■

Director WSER Joost de Laat: ‘ You want to keep the period of uncertainty as short as possible.’ Photo Guy Ackermans

TRAGEDY OF A RICEGROWING VILLAGE

The rice-growing village of Wageningen in Suriname was the Agricultural College’s largest and most successful colonial project. The writer and alumnus Frank Westerman visited it and – to his surprise – found nostalgia there.

Text Roelof Kleis

It is still standing at number 1, Molenweg. From the outside, the building bears no resemblance whatsoever to the original, as Frank Westerman saw when he visited Hotel De Wereld at the start of this year. This one is in sweltering Wageningen (in Suriname, that is), the rice-growing village built between 1950 and 1975 in the swamps of western Suriname. ‘The Surinamese version is elongated, with a slanted metal roof, apparently without holes. The building is pretty nondescript, and above all... dead.’

In its heyday, this was the social venue for the elite in the model village of Wageningen, created in the image of the Netherlands. Wageningen engineers came to the village to show the world how to mechanize rice cultivation. Not much remains of the success of that time, notes Westerman. ‘This Wageningen has slid down from riches to rags under 50 years of self-government.’

Hotel De Wereld is the title tale in his latest book (which is in Dutch). The book’s subtitle doesn’t mince its words: ‘Wageningen, Suriname’ and other post-colonial tragedies. Or the ‘derailment of the development train’, as the publisher puts it. In the book, Westerman has compiled travel reports from South America that he wrote

in the early 1990s as a fresh-faced journalist and supplemented them with recent work. The new work includes the title story and a visit to Jonestown in Guyana, where the religious fanatic Jim Jones drove 900 followers to commit collective suicide in 1978. There, deep in the jungle, Westerman tries to fathom the ‘mechanism that sooner or later makes dreams capsize and turn into nightmares’. That question actually underpins the entire book.

Don’t do anything

Frank Westerman studied Tropical Land Development in the 1980s. As a passionate young man full of ambitions, he wanted to ‘make the desert bloom’, he says from the top floor of his small canalside house in Amsterdam. It never got that far. An internship in Peru nipped his ambitions in the bud. He studied the local irrigation system of the Aymara Indians in the village of Cucho Esqueña. The aim was to advise them on improvements. His conclusion was unusual for an up-and-coming engineer, trained to intervene: hands off, don’t

do anything. The wisdom behind that advice is hidden in the cover of his thesis, which features a photo of the faena, the collective workdays when the entire village helps to clean the water channels. ‘You spent those five days together, as a group. It was the glue holding the village together. Replacing the channels with concrete versions would destroy all that.’ You can’t simply tinker with that village culture with impunity, thought Westerman. He concludes the story with a sentence worthy of Gabriel García Márquez: ‘Such was the curious outcome of my graduation study, which not only earned me my engineering degree in 1989, but also made me question the meaning of my profession.’ It should be noted that there were also other factors that led the young engineer to decide to become a journalist and writer. The conflict between the left-wing guerrilla movement Shining Path and the Peruvian military made meaningful work

‘THE PROJECT WAS DITCHED, PARTLY OUT OF RESENTMENT –WAGENINGEN WAS TOO DUTCH’

all but impossible. The fact that the Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa decided to run for president at precisely that moment was the final push that Westerman needed. ‘If he were to win the election, I realized, it would have affected Peru’s course much more deeply than all the well-intentioned rumblings on the sidelines of all the foreign aid organizations put together.’ He wanted to be there and report on it.

Writing

The desire to write had always been there, lurking below the surface. While studying at Wageningen, Westerman twice failed to qualify (in the lot-drawing system) for the School of Journalism in Utrecht. ‘I liked writing. I’d always enjoyed writing essays at secondary school. I remember one time I got an essay back with a mediocre mark and a comment asking if it was really my work and saying I needed to explain myself. I walked indignantly up to the teacher’s desk. Yes, this is all mine. OK, said the teacher, and gave it a really good mark instead. It was only much later that he explained that anyone who had actually committed plagiarism wouldn’t have come forward, as they’d have been satisfied with the mediocre mark.’

What is striking about Hotel De Wereld is how consistent Westerman’s voice is. The travelogues he wrote as an inexperienced twenty-something are not much different in style from his recent work. ‘But I haven’t included a lot of the old ones,’ he explains, ’because I don’t think they’re good enough anymore. Or because they don’t have enough of that timeless quality. I do see some differences myself, mind you, in the sense that I’ve become more economical in my use of metaphors. And nowadays, I relate the story to myself more: it starts from something that intrigues, bothers or angers me. I’m better at picking the precise angle.’

The reports stand out for their attention to composition. Westerman thinks it is essential to order the material in this way. ‘Reports are definitely vertebrates: they need a backbone of facts. The rest is narration, explanation and arrangement. In other words, a true story but told differently. Without that arrangement, you can’t show what you want to show. But it all starts with a question that you set out to answer – what you want to know and

what the issue is.’

The story about the tropical Wageningen had been simmering for several years in a scrapbook under the title A Tale of Two Cities. ‘I remember being told in my Wageningen lectures about the record harvests that were being achieved in the Surinamese Wageningen. Four years or so ago, I came across an odd little anniversary booklet, written on the eve of Suriname’s independence (25 November 1975, ed.): Wageningen, a Pearl Arisen from Swamp and Jungle. That’s so touching and moving and hopeful. Look at what we’ve built. Marshland has been cultivated. We’ve built a sense of community here. We’re doing great.’

The Wageningen in Suriname started out as a colonial project, says Westerman. ‘It was set up in the fifties for Dutch farmers who were unable to take over a farm. That approach was abandoned fairly quickly.

Wageningen in Suriname in 1962  Photo Dutch Government Information Service

The few dozen Dutch farmers who went there at first were eventually given places in Flevoland in the sixties. A new approach was taken and this Wageningen became a development project for the Surinamese, aimed at generating income from rice exports. Wageningen became a model village with two churches, a carillon, infirmary, sports hall, cinema and two swimming pools.’ That idyll came to an end when Desi Bouterse seized power in Suriname in 1980. Wageningen went rapidly downhill from that moment on, says Westerman. ‘The project was ditched, partly out of resentment – Wageningen was far too Dutch.’

University friend Westerman has dedicated the story to his university friend Manodj Hindori, who he spent a semester with in 1986. Manodj is the son of George Hindori, a Hindustani from Suriname, and was born on Dijkstraat in Wageningen (the cold one, that is); Hindori senior studied at the Agricultural College from 1955 to 1962. After completing his studies, he returned to Suriname with his family and became supervisor of the rice-growing venture in the late 1960s. George Hindori witnessed both the heyday and the decline of the rice project. The fall came abruptly for him: after Bouterse seized power in 1980, he was placed under house arrest. At the end of November, Manodj and his wife Asha will symbolically receive the first copy of Hotel De Wereld over a video link, from Hotel De Wereld in the Netherlands. Nowadays, we would call the rice-growing village of Wageningen a colonial venture.

‘RESIDENTS SAY UNANIMOUSLY THAT THINGS WERE BETTER BEFORE INDEPENDENCE’

‘AFTER 50 YEARS OF MESSING AROUND, THE TIME HAS COME TO DO THINGS BETTER’

‘There’s a lovely film by Peter Creutzberg about this project, made in 1971,’ says Westerman. ‘As part of the book presentation, we’ll be showing excerpts from it in Visum Mundi. Creutzberg is a filmmaker in the tradition of Bert Haanstra. You won't believe your eyes. There’s milk being delivered in bottles by a delivery bike, Zündapp mopeds driving around, a carillon playing. There are sports and games, all ethnic groups intermingling. Everyone’s working hard, everything is tidy and working properly. The community spirit really stands out.’

Nostalgia

But it’s not colonial? Westerman is cautious about that conclusion. He cites a Master’s thesis that Eefje van Dael wrote about ‘colonial Wageningen’. A survey showed that those involved in the rice project look back at it almost unanimously with nostalgia. Westerman also came across that feeling during his encounters in Suriname. ‘I was utterly astonished,’ says Westerman. ‘Current and former residents say unanimously that things were better before independence and wonder why the white engineers aren’t returning. Van Dael explains this attitude by saying that these people are so colonialized that they still praise their colonial masters of yesteryear. I have some serious doubts about that. What right do we have not to take what they say seriously? The Belgian daily De Standaard published a preview of this story with the headline, What if the colonial era did actually produce something good? That’s essentially the question I’m asking in the story.’ However, Westerman is well aware that a return of the people from

the Dutch Wageningen is inconceivable. Any nostalgia for the colonial era evokes too much discomfort. ‘Vigilance in the academic world for anything colonial is so widespread now, on all fronts, permeating every nook and cranny. This age wants decolonization, not recolonization.’ At the same time, Suriname has been independent for 50 years now. Westerman asks, provocatively, what that has achieved. ‘They’ve been able to do things for themselves for 50 years, without treaty funds or white engineers. And look at what they’ve made of it. As a Dutchman, am I allowed to have an opinion on that? On Bouterse’s coups, the December Murders, drug trafficking, on letting Wageningen bleed to death? If that’s the net result of 50 years of decolonization, well, it’s not much to celebrate.’

Nevertheless, Westerman does not want to be cynical. ‘Good things happen sometimes too. Following Bouterse’s death and after 50 years of messing around, the time has now come in Suriname to do things better. I’m still hopeful.’ Meanwhile, something beautiful is cautiously blossoming again between the two Wageningens. Simultaneously with the book presentation, a foundation is being set up that aims to revitalize the ties between the two towns. The first shipment of goods is already lined up: musical instruments. It could hardly be more symbolic. ■

Frank Westerman Hotel de Wereld (in Dutch) Querido Publishers 255 pages € 22.50

Viewpoint

All WUR scientists should pay more attention to biodiversity

Liesje Mommer, the head of the Wageningen Biodiversity Initiative and professor of Belowground Ecology, comments on some recent disheartening news reports. Text Marieke Enter

The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) recently reported that the Netherlands’ climate and nature plans are nowhere near enough to achieve the statutory targets for the climate, nature and the environment. The Red List of endangered animals, plants and fungi has got longer again. And coral reefs have probably passed the tipping point beyond which recovery is impossible, whatever humans do now.

Don’t news items like this make you despair?

‘No, quite the opposite — they make me want to fight back. I am deeply concerned. All the scientific reports are saying the metaphorical Jenga tower of biodiversity is starting to wobble. But humans can’t survive without nature. It’s our greatest ally in producing food and in providing clean water and air and fertile soil. And let’s not forget its importance for our health and the fight against climate change. I think that WUR, as a leading institute in agriculture, food and the environment, has a huge task in helping to come up with solutions.’

How do you see that task?

with the landscape in a way that is healthy for humans and for the planet? If even we at WUR are unable to figure out what steps need to be taken and in what timeframes, how can we expect politicians to do that?’

‘In all our domains, we should pay more explicit attention to the consequences of our proposals for biodiversity. We should also consider how we can improve the situation and resolve any unintended consequences of a certain policy or technology. That implies that scientists should look at issues not just from the perspective of their own discipline but also by involving other disciplines — even when pressure is put on them, for example when reports have to be written based on a rather restrictive research question.’

Wouldn’t that be overambitious of WUR?

‘This is exactly what WUR ought to be doing! The issue is incredibly complex; the decline in the number of species involves a lot of factors in which humans play a

Are you then failing to allow for the reality of a high workload, tightly worded research assignments and increasing pressure on funding?

‘That’s tough, yes — but it’s something we still need to do. I like to quote Jane Goodall: “What you do makes a difference. You have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” You make choices every day. I realize it’s often difficult, but taking this extra step is so worthwhile. I’d also like to mention one small, positive aspect. I’ve been leafing through the report on the Red List and a few things are improving. To give an example, the green sea turtle, an iconic species, is doing much better now. So nature conservation does work and recovery is not impossible. But humans need to get their act together, and soon too. As far as I’m concerned, that applies to us here in Wageningen as well.’ ■

Argo uses a bequest to buy a boat

‘I

name this boat A.G. van Opheusden Seveer ’

It is a sunny Saturday afternoon in early November and the Grebbedijk in Wageningen is busier than usual. Argo student rowing club is celebrating its 112th anniversary. This will be accompanied by naming ceremonies for no fewer than five new rowing boats. And there is a very special story behind one of them.

The boat – for a coxed four –will be christened by Paulien Westerling. She is the widow of Karel Westerling, a former Argonaut who passed away in January 2023 at the age of 89. Karel Westerling had stated in his will that he wished to donate a rowing boat to Argo, the association that had meant so much to him in his youth.

Today is the day: the ceremonial unveiling of the name of the boat that Argo purchased with the money left by Westerling. A group of spectators, both young and old, stand by the raft on the river, in a semicircle around two folding trestles where the boat will shortly be placed. Four competitive rowing heavyweights, clad in long thermal shirts and rowing shorts, carry the new rowing boat out of the equipment shed. Two pieces of dark grey bin liner are stuck to the sides of the boat with masking tape where the name is written. The name of the boat is traditionally kept secret until the christening. But in this case you can guess what it will be, says one of the four women who have

just finished training. ‘This boat’s surely going to be called Karel Westerling, right?’ Two board members tie a club flag around the shell of the boat, at the point where the hidden name is. Underneath it, they carefully pull away the pieces of bin liner without letting those present see the name.

The curse of six

Paulien Westerling tells us how her husband Karel came to Wageningen in 1953, where he joined Ceres and took up rowing (and mountaineering). He turned out to be pretty good. ‘As early as 1955, he was able to compete in the Oude Vier discipline at Varsity, the main event at the biggest student rowing competition in the Netherlands. They came sixth. The following year, in 1956, with exactly the same crew, they came sixth again. Then in 1957, with a slightly changed line-up, it was sixth again.’ The spectators chuckle at this.

In 1960, the experienced rowing coach Ab Wit, who came to Wageningen as a

Text Dominique Vrouwenvelder

GP, became coach of the Oude Vier. ‘He turned the group of men into a closeknit and self-confident team,’ says Mrs Westerling. ‘The next year’s Varsity was a thrilling race: Argo and Njord, the student rowing club from Leiden, crossed the finishing line at exactly the same time. Both crews were awarded the victory.’ The curse of sixth place had been broken.

A.G. van Opheusden Seveer

Karel Westerling was not in the winning boat in 1960, but was allowed to compete a year later. ‘His father didn’t really want him to row; he wanted him to study,’ says his widow with a grin. ‘He was in his seventh year by then. So he registered under a false name, A.G. van Opheusden Seveer.’ A.G. was for the names of coach Ab, Albert Gerard. Van Opheusden Seveer refers to the idyllic ferry between Opheusden and Wageningen a few kilometres further

along. Karel thought it sounded chic.’ Argo won by several lengths that year. It would be Wageningen’s last Varsity win.

‘Mr Westerling and Karel’s eldest brother Frits saw Karel win the Varsity on the newsreel,’ says Paulien Westerling. ‘“Gosh! That’s Karel!” They jumped into the car straight away to congratulate him at the ceremony at Ceres. But after that, rowing really was over.’ Karel Westerling graduated in Landscape Architecture.

A pile of green clogs

Mrs Westerling says that her husband always remained involved with Argo. ‘In 2000, we were living in Houten, where the Varsity event took place. That year, Karel was at the rowing club and invited anyone who looked like they came from Wageningen and were “green” (Argo

rowers wear green kit, ed.) to come and have a drink if Argo didn’t win the “Race der Oude Vieren” that day. Argo came third, which led to a huge invasion of Argonauts at our little terraced house, leaving a massive pile of green clogs in front of the door. We scrounged some beers from our neighbours and put everything edible out on the table. It was a very sociable gathering.’

‘A rowing crew from the same period later came to help us clear and chop up some trees at our new house in the Achterhoek region,’ says Mrs Westerling, ‘because Karel wanted lines of sight. That was the landscape architect in him coming to the fore again.’ Later, other teams and crews also came

‘Karel’s father didn’t really want him to row; he wanted him to study’

to help, or simply for team building, according to Paulien Westerling.

Long live Argo

Karel Westerling came to Wageningen every year to help motivate the new competitive rowers, says his widow. New board members visited them annually in Winterswijk, in the Achterhoek region.

‘Karel wanted to use his bequest and the rowing boat to give Argo’s competitive rowing a new boost,’ says his widow. ‘It was something that had brought him so much benefit.’

After her speech, Paulien Westerling is given a jug of water from the Rhine. She holds it above the boat and states, ‘Karel wouldn't have poured this water carefully over the boat, he’d just have sloshed it all over...’ And as she says that, she pours a generous splash of Rhine water over the new boat. Two board members who quickly try to pull the flag out of the way get splashed in the face. Everyone laughs and claps. Mrs Westerling concludes, ‘I name you A.G. Van Opheusden Seveer and wish you a safe journey.’ ■

Paulien Westerling, the widow of Karel Westerling who donated the boat, christened it formally with a jug of water from the Rhine  Photo Herman Stöver

The golden age of the university fund

WITH THANKS TO OUR GENEROUS DONORS

University Fund Wageningen raises millions for science. And it could be much more.

Some reports stand out, for example ‘Elderly lady donates millions to science’. This spring, WUR received one such a gift of 2.5 million euros — its largest bequest ever. That’s a feather in the cap for the fundraisers of University Fund Wageningen. In fact, they are rather successful anyway. No Dutch university raises more money from trusts and foundations than Wageningen. The total last year was 11.4 million euros, almost double the amount for the previous two years. ‘And this year, we’ll reach the ten million euro mark once again,’ says its director, Lies Boelrijk. By far the lion’s share of that money goes to research.

UFW depends on generous donors. ‘We don’t have much capital and so the return on investments is limited,’ says Boelrijk. ‘The Erasmus Trust Fund in Rotterdam, for instance, has capital of 70 million euros with an annual return of around 8 million. It’s a luxury position that we don’t have. We’re a registered charity and are therefore not permitted to accumulate the donated funds. Ninety per cent of our funds are earmarked for projects that help fulfil WUR’s mission in education, research and value creation.’

‘We are doing reasonably well in terms of recruiting alumni,’ she continues, ‘but not nearly as well as Amsterdam or Leiden, for example. Their law degree programmes give them have a completely different alumni profile. What we’re really good at is annual

revenue from trusts and family foundations. We have several very large international long-term donors too.’ She summarizes them: ‘The Gates Foundation (owned by Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates), the Bezos Earth Foundation (Jeff Bezos, Amazon), the Rockefeller Foundation and the FFAR (Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research). Those American institutions are doing a great deal in our domain of food security and sustainable agriculture. In Europe, there are the Novo Nordisk Foundation in Denmark and the IKEA Foundation in Leiden.’

Number one

Boelrijk thinks it is no coincidence that these generous donors have set their sights on WUR. ‘They hear about us because of Wageningen’s good reputation. The fact that WUR is the world number one in its field helps us enormously. These donors want to achieve their own goals and aims with us, so we’re the first place they come looking. On top of that, we also carry out our own “prospect research”: we identify which foundations would be interesting to approach for our projects. Sometimes the initiative comes from professors who’ve been in talks with a donor for some time and then come to us for the legal side of the agreement, monitoring and cooperation with local partners in Africa, for example. And there are also cases where we aren’t in the picture

Text Roelof Kleis

at all. Donations also go directly to WUR, such as the money for founding the Jan IngenHousz Institute.’

As well as the substantial funding provided by wealthy foundations, the university fund is increasingly focusing on legacies. ‘That’s a genuine growth market,’ says Boelrijk. To put it mildly. ‘We’re entering the golden age of wealth transfers. Many from the post-war generation no longer pass on all their money to their children, who are often already fairly well off, but instead look for good causes. Together with other universities, we’ve been running the Bequeath to Science campaign for three years now, encouraging people to consider leaving a bequest to a university.’

Philanthropy

Philanthropy is becoming increasingly important for WUR, according to Boelrijk. ‘The university is having to make cuts on various fronts, which means you need to take a serious look at how you can increase this cash flow. We commissioned studies to find out how people perceive WUR. In terms of the content of our research, we’ve struck gold, but we are still missing out on lots of opportunities. My ultimate aim is getting UFW involved as soon as someone comes into contact with a potential donor. We want to be the focal point for philanthropy; we are a neutral player. It’s not only about financing

‘Bill Gates wants to spend his wealth of 200 billion within 20 years’

individual projects – it’s about building long-term relationships, so that a single donation leads to several others. The cooperation within WUR needs to be improved. That will require input from the Executive Board – they have to think the same way. We have to get closer to the management, so that we can jointly determine the priorities we will pursue.’

For the time being, however, the serious cash will continue to originate from abroad. ‘Bill Gates wants to spend his wealth of 200 billion within 20 years,’ says Boelrijk, ‘So that means a lot of donations. A lot of money is available for agriculture. We’re working with the Gates Foundation and other universities to develop one or more programmes that they could contribute to over the coming decade.’ ■

University Fund Wageningen project in Geuldal valley: restoring landscape elements between nature reserves by reintroducing flowers and rare plant species or species typical of the area.  Photo David Kingma

Two young WUR researchers contributed to the EAT-Lancet report

‘I DIDN’T REALLY KNOW WHAT EAT-LANCET WAS’

PhD candidate Vera Bekkers and researcher Wolfram Simon contributed to the latest EAT-Lancet 2025 Commission report, published in early October (see inset).

Together with Professor Hannah van Zanten, they co-authored one of the deep dive papers that formed the foundation for the main report.

Text Dominique Vrouwenvelder

How did you end up involved in this?

Vera Bekkers: ‘I kind of rolled into it. When I applied for another role at WUR last year, they told me a more suitable PhD position would start this autumn. In the meantime, I worked here as a research assistant. Hannah (van Zanten, ed.) asked me to help with the modelling for the EAT-Lancet 2025 report and deep dive paper. To be honest, I hadn’t heard about EAT-Lancet before this — my background is in Geo-Information Science. I didn’t realize how big and influential it was.’

Wolfram Simon: ‘I finished my PhD last December. It was on the potential of circularity at the European and global scales to reduce environmental impact. During my PhD, I worked extensively with the CiFoS model – the same one used for the deep dive – to simulate food systems and test how dietary changes affect environmental impacts. Since I knew the CiFoS model so well, I joined the modelling team for this deep dive paper.’

How much of your work ended up in the main report?

Simon: ‘You never know in advance how much of your results will be used, but we ended up with almost a full page in the main report – quite prominent! The authors of the EAT-Lancet report were very interested in circularity. They even mentioned it during the launch conference in Sweden.’

Bekkers: ‘The main report includes some of the results of our deep dive paper, mainly on the importance of circularity for staying within the planetary boundaries for nitrogen and phosphorus use. A special issue due to be published later this month will include more extensive results from our study, focusing on greenhouse gas emissions, land use and diet.’

Did you both attend the launch in Sweden?

Bekkers: ‘Yes, it was a really amazing experience in Sweden! During one session, they invited Hannah van Zanten and her modelling team — us! — to stand

up, and we got a round of applause. I didn’t expect that.’

Simon: ‘Fabrice DeClerck, the last author of the main report and Chief Science Officer at EAT, was very enthusiastic about our work. It’s rewarding when people recognize its importance after the countless hours we put in. It was also great to connect with this global network of modellers, as we all deal with similar questions and struggles.’

Did you meet any celebrity scientists in Stockholm?

Bekkers: ‘For me, Fabrice DeClerck’s recognition was a highlight. That gave me a lot of energy and confidence. It was incredibly inspiring.’

Simon: ‘I met Professor Walter Willett, first author of the 2019 EAT-Lancet report and one of the most cited nutrition scientists. He gave several talks

‘WE STOOD UP AND GOT A ROUND OF APPLAUSE’

– very inspiring, even at 80 years old. It was also great to hear Johan Rockström talking live about planetary boundaries and I had a longer chat with Marco Springmann, a British researcher known for diet modelling and the nutritional adequacy of diets. We got a chance to compare our methods.’

What surprised you the most?

Bekkers: ‘Before this project, I wasn’t really familiar with food systems science. It surprised me how much impact food systems have on the environment. As stated in the EAT-Lancet 2025 report, food systems are the main driver of planetary boundary transgressions. The CiFoS model shows the environmental impact could be much lower.’

Simon: ‘We were the only modelling team that managed to bring nitrogen and phosphorus levels below the planetary boundaries for 2050. Our approach was quite radical since we didn’t include economic factors. That allowed us to completely redesign the food system from an environmental perspective. That it was possible to remain

within the limits surprised many people, including myself.’

What does your contribution mean for WUR researchers and students?

Simon: ‘It’s inspiring that such an impactful report includes contributions from WUR scientists. Hopefully we can play a role in the next one too. Hypothetically, even thesis students working on global food systems could get involved.’

Bekkers: ‘That was also mentioned in Stockholm. It is exciting that we now have a modelling framework to compare scenarios. Now others can add their own ideas – students included.’

What is next?

Simon: ‘We’re now adding more practices, like regenerative, agroforestry or permaculture systems, to test how they might change the food system. We’re also zooming in on local planetary

In 2019, the EAT-Lancet Commission produced a scientific report on healthy diets based on sustainable food systems. That report introduced the concept of the Planetary Health Diet: a diet that is primarily plant-based with optional animal-based products in small quantities and limited amounts of sugars, saturated fats and salt. In October this year, a second EAT-Lancet Commission presented a follow-up report, with WUR professors Hannah van Zanten and Wim de Vries among the authors. De Vries was the principal researcher for the quantification of the planetary boundaries for nitrogen and phosphorus. Van Zanten was the principal researcher of a study on the impact of changes in diets and improved circularity — the study Bekkers and Simon contributed to.

boundaries with regional case studies to see what sustainable food systems could look like. We have to be able to feed two billion more people by around 2090, yet we are already exceeding many planetary boundaries. We scientists can find and test solutions. This conference really made me realize how relevant and impactful our work is.’ ■

From the left: Wolfram Simon, Hannah van Zanten and Vera Bekkers.  Own photo

Limelight

How do you get people from different bubbles to start conversing? Put them together at the table! At the Wageningen Cheerful Evening (Goede Moed), you can enjoy a meal for free at someone else’s place and share the table with five complete strangers.

Text Coretta Jongeling

Thu 20-11-25

In houses around town and in the Grote Kerk From 18:00 Free

Cheerful Evening in Wageningen

The initiative comes from Arnhem, where similar dinners were organized at the end of last year when there was so much controversy about the Gaza situation. ‘It sometimes seems as if people are trapped in their own bubbles more and more,’ says the co-organizer Ronell Bansie. ‘We are organizing this evening to bring something positive to this all too grim world.’

The idea is simple enough. You register – on your own or as a twosome – and

state your dietary requirements, age and postcode. ‘Our volunteers then set to work to create the best possible mix of ages and neighbourhoods in Wageningen. You find out who you’ll be dining with a week beforehand. All sorts of people are taking part, from students to the elderly.’

After the meal, everyone heads to the Grote Kerk for dessert. There will

be a dessert buffet plus an evening programme that includes a silent disco. You can also stay simply for drinks (at your own expense) or continue chatting with other participants. ‘Some pretty deep conversations get started during the dinner at times and it can then be nice to keep chatting afterwards.’

When it was first held, in May this year, there were 350 people eating and 60 chefs. Bansie: ‘When I was handing out flyers, someone came up to me and said that she’d eaten in a student house and is still in touch with her tablemates. Which is what we hope for, of course.’

To get the planning finalized, the organizers would like to know in good time what they need to take account of, so you need to register quickly: by no later than Friday 15 November.

TIPS

Saturday 15 November

Culture for the climate • music, poetry • De Superette

Wednesday 19 November

How progressively elite is Wageningen, actually? • Interview • Visum Mundi

Friday 21 November Kabaal am Kwartaal • Rock • JV Unitas

Meal at the Cheerful Evening in Wageningen last May

Own photo

You find all the flavours of the world in Wageningen. Mohamad Reyza Ramadhan (35), a Business Economics PhD candidate from Indonesia, shares a recipe for spicy chicken.

Flavours of WUR

Ayam panggang petjel

(chicken in spicy coconut sauce)

‘This classic recipe comes from West Java, the region where I was born. Ayam Panggang Petjel is one of those dishes that has disappeared from many modern Indonesian dining tables. Luckily it is in the Mustikarasa cookbook*, first published in 1965. The grilled chicken combines a medium spicy kick from red chillies with the creaminess from coconut milk and kemiri (candlenuts).’

1 Rub the chicken evenly with the salt and white pepper.

2 Grill the chicken until lightly golden.

3 Heat the cooking oil in a pan over medium heat.

4 Blend all the spice paste ingredients, then sauté the paste over medium heat until fragrant and slightly darkened. Add the coconut milk to the mixture, bring to a gentle boil, and stir continuously.

5 Once the sauce thickens, add the grilled chicken and spoon the sauce over it until well coated.

6 Remove the chicken and grill once more for a smoky finish.

7 Serve hot, generously drizzled with the remaining sauce.

Tip: Use fewer chilli peppers for a milder taste, or more for a bolder, West Javanese-style hot variant.

Ingredients (4 to 5 persons):

• 1 kg chicken drumsticks

• 500 ml coconut milk

• 3 tbsp sunflower oil

Spice paste (bumbu):

• 5 shallots, chopped

• 4 cloves garlic, chopped

• 5 red chillies

• 5-7 candlenuts(kemiri)

• 1 tsp ginger powder

• 3-4 tamarind seeds(asam jawa)

• 2-3 bay leaves

• 2 tbsp salt

• 1 tsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp sugar

• 1 tsp shrimp paste(terasi)

Preparation time:

45 minutes

Resource cooking videos Scan the QR code

*Published in 1965 by the Indonesian government, Mustikarasa is more than a cookbook — it’s a cultural archive. Compiled under the direction of President Sukarno, it features over 1,600 regional recipes from across the archipelago, preserving traditional cooking methods and local tastes before they faded from memory. For many Indonesians, Mustikarasa remains a culinary time capsule uniting the nation’s diverse flavours and histories through food.

Meanwhile in… Italy – Ski helmets

WUR is incredibly diverse, with hundreds of internationals working and studying here. In the Meanwhile In column, we ask one of them to comment on events in their home country.

Food Technology Bachelor’s student Luna Sartori (22) shares her views on the helmet requirement for winter sports, which has been in force in Italy since 1 November.

Text Coretta Jongeling

Italy is the first country in Europe to introduce compulsory helmet use for adults. In Slovenia and parts of Austria, helmets are compulsory for children under the age of 15, but not for adults. Anyone skiing or snowboarding without a helmet in Italy risks a fine of up to 150 euros, and the police — on skis — can also confiscate your ski pass for up to three days.

‘It’s an hour's drive from my parents’ house to the mountains. As a child, I loved to bobsleigh, and I’ve been skiing almost every year since I was 14. I always wear a helmet, although I must admit that’s not only for safety reasons but also because it’s warmer.

‘Many novice skiers overestimate their abilities and rush down the mountain uncontrollably. I never go on the black slopes myself because I don’t want to end up in a tree, but there

are plenty of people who do stupid things. In recent years, the slopes have got extremely busy, so you have to plan in advance where to go. Beginners are not really able to do that. ‘Everyone knows the story of Michael Schumacher (the former racing driver who suffered permanent brain damage after a skiing accident, ed.), but I've also seen things go wrong closer to home. My mother refused to ski for years after she crashed into a snow machine and injured her leg. A helmet wouldn’t have prevented that, but everyone knows people who have had nasty falls.

‘Many novice skiers overestimate their abilities’

‘It's good that it’s now mandatory, although I also think that after the age of 18, you have to take responsibility for your own safety. And I really don’t like wearing a helmet that has been worn by a thousand other people. So please, make sure they are cleaned between rentals!’

Advert

Streamer’

Column Willy Contreras-Avilés

Good SupervisorHappy Supervisee

I recently bumped into an editorial piece in the scientific magazine Nature which discussed what makes PhD students happy. The answer: good supervision.

In the article it was revealed that according to Nature’s Global Survey 2025, PhD students were more likely to be at least moderately satisfied if they had one hour or more of weekly supervision. Moreover, the most satisfied doctoral students — the ones from Brazil and Australia — reported that the relationship with their supervisors was built on openness, mutual respect and collaborative leadership. Other studies reported that better relationships between the PhD and supervisor translate into more productive, collaborative and intellectually stimulating groups. The article closes by saying that the time spent on conscious and dedicated supervision is a long-term investment that will benefit research environments and eventually generate more great supervisors.

As a PhD student myself, I am fortunate to recognize that having had sufficient supervision time, clear communication, empathy and reliability from my supervisors has allowed me to navigate my PhD programme with ease, empowerment and confidence. Nevertheless, I should also recognize that it has been my responsibility, as the supervisee, to clearly communicate the good and the bad, to be assertive and proactive, all in constant collaboration with my supervisors. I do agree that supervisors may have a greater responsibility because of the nature of their duty. Although we must not forget that the relationship with our supervisors is about dynamics that can only be successful once the priorities are aligned towards the same goal, whether that’s a publication, the completion of your programme in four years, or even resolving a conflict.

WEEKLY UPDATES ON STUDENT LIFE AND WORKING AT WUR?

Go to resource-online.nl (Subscription page) and subscribe to our digital newsletter.

Colophon

Resource is the independent medium for students and staff at Wageningen University & Research. Resource reports and interprets the news and gives the context. New articles are posted daily on resource-online.nl. The magazine is published once a month on a Thursday.

Contact Questions and comments for the editors: resource@wur.nl | www.resource-online.nl

Editorial staff Willem Andrée (editor-in-chief), Helene Seevinck (managing editor), Roelof Kleis (editor), Luuk Zegers (editor), Marieke Enter (editor), Coretta Jongeling (online coordinator), Dominique Vrouwenvelder (editor).

Translations Clare Wilkinson

Design Alfred Heikamp, Larissa Mulder

Overall design Marinka Reuten

Cover illustration Valerie Geelen

Printing Damen Drukkers BV, Werkendam

Subscription A subscription to the magazine for one academic year costs 59 euros (135 euros if abroad). Cancellations before 1 August.

ISSN 1874-3625

Publisher Corporate Communications & Marketing, Wageningen University & Research

Willy Contreras Avilés (34) is in the final year of his PhD research on the biochemistry of medicinal cannabis. He comes from Panama. He likes to dance (perreo), cook Italian food and swim.

[SERIOUSLY?]

Kooky news

GENDER GAP FARMING PILOT

WUR will be starting a pilot next year to see which plants can be cultivated in the gender gap. This type of crevice is found worldwide, including on WUR campus. Mars farmer Wamer Wiegelink is heading the project, which has funding of three million euros from the Dutch Research Council.

‘Farming the gender gap is a challenge,’ says Wiegelink.

‘It’s a barren, depressing environment, which actually looks a lot like the landscape on Mars. I admit I hadn’t actually noticed this gap on campus before, until a female colleague pointed it out to me. It’s an ugly area, but we don’t need to treat it as a problem. Given that the gender gap is found worldwide, it’s literally a gap in the market and I think there are piles of money to be made here.’

In the Netherlands, the average gender gap is getting smaller but it’s not clear whether that is the case for the WUR gap. ‘If so, it’s shrinking so slowly that I reckon we’ll be able to plough this particular furrow for a few decades yet,’ says Wiegelink.

The flowers suitable for growing there are varied, but they have one thing in common: only the female Flora are suitable. ‘They cost a lot less than the male plants. We’ll be starting next year with Violets, Roses, Daisies

and Irises. We will be using a special cultivation system that we know gets good results with minimum effort, namely the old boys’ network.

WUR plans to sell the flowers to exclusive florists and high-end wedding caterers. It sees this as a new source of income for the university. ‘WUR is in the middle of a cost-cutting operation,’ says Peter Buck, the Executive Board’s new CFO. ‘We are facing challenging times and all new revenue streams are welcome. This project will let us earn tons of money... and make a significant contribution to the problem of how to maintain global biodiversity.’

‘WUR is in the middle of a cost-cutting exercise and all revenue streams are welcome’

Photo Shutterstock