Seven Utrecht researchers awarded NWO/KIN grant for climate transition projects and projects that make research practices more sustainable

The woodland of Amelisweerd provides the backdrop for a remarkable research project. Its central question: when making decisions about a landscape, how do you bring to the table not only people, but also the animals, plants, and trees that live there?

Researchers, artists, legal scholars, activists, and local residents will be experimenting with new forms of dialogue, in which ‘more-than-human’ perspectives are also given a place. They call this a multispecies assembly: a gathering of species.

The project ultimately aims to develop new ways of making decisions that are fairer and more inclusive in an age of climate change, with nature not merely as a subject but as a participant. It draws, amongst other things, on indigenous traditions of thought, in which people and nature have been inextricably bound together for centuries.

The applicants are project leader Kári Driscoll and Carolina Sánchez De Jaegher (both Utrecht University), together with Marieke Nooren and Elmo Vermijs. The project team further includes artist Anne de Andrade, legal specialists Sem Bakker and Myra Colis, Tanja Dekker (Soil Food Web), Jos Kloppenburg (Amelisweerd niet geasfalteerd), Susanne C. Knittel (Utrecht University), Semuel Sahureka (Alifuru Foundation), and Anneke Wensing (Vrienden van Amelisweerd).

Cultivating Relationships with Loss in Transitions: A Portfolio Approach to ‘Spaces for Letting Go’ explores how communities can productively engage with loss during sustainability transitions. Rather than viewing grief as something to overcome, we ask: how can transition-makers build sustainable relationships with letting go while remaining actionable? 

Across three coastal contexts, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and the UK, we’ll co-design adaptable ‘spaces for letting go’ with communities facing climate-related losses. By experimenting with culturally-specific rituals and practices, we’ll develop practical portfolios that practitioners can use in their own contexts. This approach recognises that just transitions demand emotional and cultural work, not just technical solutions, and that loss is distributed unequally across communities.

The applicants are project leader Kristina Bogner (Utrecht University) and PhD candidate Femke Coops (&Coops). 

Coops: “This money allows me to continue the work I developed on designing spaces for letting go, and shows recognition that our affective entanglements matter in transitions and we should create space(s) to engage with these dynamics. Specifically around 1) what is disappearing as part of transitions, 2) how we engage with breakdown and letting go, 3) who needs, or is forced to let go of what and 4) how privilege plays a role in this.”

Climate transitions require more than technological solutions; they require shifts in how humans relate to nature and landscapes. This project adds a deliberately unsettling sound-based experience to the Only Planet exhibition, which presents pathways to sustainable futures in the Netherlands.

Through an embodied loss-of-control experience, visitors are invited to feel – not resolve – the tensions of climate change. Alongside public engagement, workshops with scientists, and practitioners explore how control-oriented thinking shapes sustainability efforts. By combining art, science, and reflexive research, the project investigates how ‘Staying with Trouble’ can foster deeper connection, responsibility, and transformative change in climate action.

The applicants are Josephine Chambers (Utrecht University), project leader Wietse Wiersma, Jakob Wallinga (both Wageningen University & Research), and Marlies van Ree (Stichting Wageningen Environmental Research, WENR).

Within Implementing SPARKHub for Sustainable Research: A National Pilot Study, we will try out SPARKHub in six Dutch organisations working in medical, chemical, and diagnostic research. By learning what works well and what does not, the project will provide practical advice for researchers, organisations, and funders to make research more sustainable and to support wider use of SPARKHub.

The applicants are Joep Sprangers and Florijn Dekkers (University Medical Center Utrecht) and Thomas Freese (University of Groningen).

By making scientific travel visible and comparable, the project will help institutions understand travel patterns and see whether their travel rules are working. The method will be developed with Dutch universities and other research organizations to support better decisions about academic travel and climate impact.

The applicants are Nerys de Goede (Utrecht University), project leader Cameron Brick (University of Amsterdam), and Bert van Mourik (Stichting Natuur & Milieu).