But you do still have some concerns about the DLO institutes. ‘Because the product boards are being disbanded, their contribution to the funding of research is set to disappear as well. Public funding is dwindling at a rate we cannot keep up with by getting more commercial assignments. We shall need to
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increase our efforts there or we won’t have work for everybody.’ By contrast, the university is going from strength to strength. ‘When I started we were worried about the university. Enrolment of Dutch students had gone down to less than 500. Young people didn’t believe in Wageningen or our domain anymore. We had been through a series of crises: dioxin, BSE, foot & mouth disease, swine fever. It was as we’d been cursed with the seven plagues. ‘The shoe is on the other foot now. We are the fastest growing university in the Netherlands. Enrolment is now three times
PHOTO Hollandse Hoogte
‘T
he thing I am proudest of is the way staff, students, alumni and many others both within and beyond our domain are proud of Wageningen UR once more. That generates energy and opens doors. Young people are coming to us again.’ In his office on the top floor of the Atlas building, looking out over the stillgrowing campus, Aalt Dijkhuizen looks back on the last 12 years. He is proud. Of the growing student numbers, the facilities on campus, and the farmers who have become world market players. But, as he has decided in consultation with others, after 12 years it is time to move on from Wageningen. ‘Otherwise I will start to seem like part of the furniture.’ One of the main tasks facing Dijkhuizen when he took on the Wageningen job was to bring to fruition the collaboration between the applied science DLO institutes and the more fundamental researchoriented university. The two branches of Wageningen UR had been merged under Dijkhuizen’s predecessor Cees Veerman. ‘In the first few years I spent a lot of time establishing the structure of the organization, streamlining procedures to save money, introducing a transparent management model with clearly defined responsibilities, and establishing monthly financial reporting so as to stay responsive. And I focused on professionalizing our internal and external communication, and strengthening our image in the outside world.’ Dijkhuizen is convinced that both the university and the institutes have emerged from these processes stronger. ‘Our model of fundamental and applied research is now an example to others. The so-called golden triangle of government, research and the business world is our strength.’
Loek Hermans, chair of Greenport Holland and mouthpiece of the Horticulture & Propagation materials top sector
‘Aalt Dijkhuizen was a pioneer of what we call the golden triangle: the collaboration between the business world, research and government bodies. It is his achievement that this triangle is now the model for the cabinet’s top sector approach. Not just a little bit of contact here and there; no, we really need each other on a systematic basis. He also stuck his neck out by making clear that we can and must solve the world food supply problem technologically and not with organic farming alone. I very much agree with him. To quote Gerard Reve: It hasn’t gone unnoticed.’
what it was at our lowest point: almost 1500 first-year students plus another 1000 Master’s students coming from other universities, including applied science ones, and from abroad. Now our biggest concern is how to cope with this growth.’ What is behind this development? ‘Originally the food and agriculture sector tended to function in isolation but now our domain has come onto the political agenda, both nationally and internationally. When food prices went up in 2007 and 2008, there was talk everywhere about the food supply. And that is our core business. Our concern is that in 30 years’ time we shall need to feed 9 billion people, while at the same time we must conserve nature and the environment as much as possible. ‘And in this regard we do not look exclusively at the countryside. Who would have dreamed 12 years ago that we would be working with Amsterdam on urban developments in the fields of food, waste flows, energy, and water management? ‘It is not like the old days when our only contact was with the former ministry of Agriculture. We now have strong links with our own ministry of Economic Affairs but also with numerous other ministries, with provinces, with the royal family and with the business world. I have been abroad many times, as well, to establish new links or to reinforce old ones. We made sure we did not become isolated.’ Is that an achievement of Aalt Dijkhuizen’s? ‘No, it is an achievement of all of us because this is something you do together. But when you are the one who carries the can, you do have to take the lead, set the course and stick to it. My contribution has been to keep a close eye on things internally, and externally to get out and about a lot. We were helped enormously, too, by the Wageningen Ambassadors: the prominent alumni who stuck their necks out for us 10 years ago during a difficult period. We could quite easily have been wiped off the map five years later. The Ambassadors are very important to us; they help get >