Copernicus Community Event a success
On Thursday 11th October, staff and students from Utrecht University’s Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development came together for the Copernicus Community Event. New collaborations and friendships were formed through a diverse poster marketplace, interesting presentations and some food and drink.
The Thursday evening event was kicked off with some sandwiches, soup and soft drinks. Staff and students wandered around a diverse set of posters from PhD candidates, post-docs and faculty members from the four research groups that make up the Copernicus Institute: Environmental Sciences, Energy and Resources, Innovation Studies and Environmental Governance. Stakes were high - everyone wanted to win the best poster award!
Event attended by students from diverse study programmes
After submitting votes for the best poster the event moved to plenary with few words from Copernicus Chairman Prof. Marko Hekkert. Students in the room came from a diverse range of Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes, including Bachelor Global Sustainability Science, Master Energy Science, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Business & Innovation and Innovation Sciences.
Insights from the four research groups
The audience was given some great insights to what goes on in the different research groups. Did you know that the Innovation Studies group looks at (among other things) responsible behavior and transition behaviors, sustainable business models and responsible entrepreneurship? Or that the Environmental Governance group is the largest team of political scientists and policy scientists in the field of sustainable development in the Netherlands?
The Energy & Resources group presentation showed us how they explore the energy transition through investigating how to design and build a sustainable energy system (see left).
We also learned more about how the Environmental Sciences group works “to elucidate interactions between global change and ecosystem processes for sustainability of ecosystem services to humans,” through its work on climate change, biodiversity loss, defaunation, land-use change, invasive species, nitrogen deposition and pollution.
Thanks Dr. Mariska te Beest (Environmental Sciences), Prof. Frank Biermann (Environmental Governance), Prof. Gert Jan Kramer (Energy & Resources) and Dr. Frank van Rijnsoever (Innovation Studies) for providing these insights!
Closing with informal drinks
After the announcement of the best poster award (well done Lukas Weimann!), the fun continued with some interesting conversations over drinks. With such a large and diverse institute, this kind of event proves how important it is for both staff and students to come together to learn more about the different things we do. With new friendships formed, who knows what kind of future collaborations are in the pipeline!