Project Gallery
Welcome to our gallery, where we highlight a variety of projects and initiatives aimed at fostering sustainability. Explore Seed, Incubator, and Signature projects to see how innovative research and collaborative efforts are shaping a greener future whilst also stimulating inter- and transdisciplinary interactions. Inspired? Find out about the funding opportunities.
Pathways Projects
The University in a Changing Climate
What is the future of the university in a post-fossil society? How could the university contribute to transformative change? In this one-year post-doc project commissioned by Pathways to Sustainability, Dr. Lisette van Beek explores inspiring examples of transformative research and education across other European universities. She aims to inspire scholars and teachers at the UU and beyond, and stimulate cross-university exchange.
Transdisciplinary Field Guide
Ecological crises, social injustice, political polarization and other pressing challenges are all complex problems that don't fit into disciplinary boxes. They are better understood by engaging directly with societal stakeholders. Transdisciplinary research enables integration of scientific and non-scientific knowledge to address these challenges. This field guide is developed by the PtS programme team and can be used by academics that are curious about new ways of working and producing knowledge.
Signature Projects
Shaping the Future of Sustainable Peatlands
Peatlands are a vital part of our natural environment, serving as significant carbon sinks, preserving unique biodiversity, and regulating water systems. In the Netherlands, these low-lying peatlands face severe challenges such as land subsidence, high CO2 emissions, salinization of water sources, and pressure from competing land uses. This Signature project focuses on developing a sustainable future vision for Dutch peatlands, particularly in the 'Groene Hart' region.
Healthy Foods: (im)possible marketing?
Healthy and sustainable foods have become part of an undesirable frame of ‘oat milk elites’, ‘governmental meddling’ and ‘tastelessness’. Considering the enormous positive impact a plant-forward diet can have, this needs to change: we therefore want to make healthy and sustainable food fashionable by extending the mainstream marketing mix with additional partnership and policy aspects to reshape these foods into trending topics for the upcoming generation.
Financing Biodiversity
How can Dutch pension funds use their investments towards a more sustainable future? These funds are uniquely positioned to address biodiversity concerns, because of their substantial assets and long-term focus. The Financing Biodiversity project aims to help them pursue nature-positive investments through a theoretical framework, active engagement and innovative strategies.
Tackling Gender Inequality and Sustainability in Agribusiness
The cut flower industry in Colombia is an example of the complex interaction between gender, labour, social and environmental issues. The low-skilled labour is mainly done by female workers. This Signature Project aims to unfold the intricacies of global value chains, hopes to raise awareness from consumers to producers through the power of theatre play.
Whose Ocean?
The ocean is crucial to life and climate, but its voice is barely heard in law and policy decisions. While the UN explicitly speaks about “our ocean”, it is completely unclear who the “our” refers to. This project will produce a charter and organize an assembly to give the ocean a meaningful voice in international and national discussions, inspired by similar initiatives, bringing together academics, with artists and writers.
Conceptualizing Ecocide
In the current era of unprecedented threats to the environment, the push to make Ecocide an international crime is gaining momentum. This project explores how the concept of Ecocidecan create breakthroughs in biodiversity protection, with a keen eye for indigenous rights. Next to a Knowledge Hub and policy briefs, it aims to use mock trials (simulations of a legal trial using real examples) as experimental and creative test setting.
Rethink Hydrogen
The North Sea is considered a hotspot for production of green hydrogen as it offers ideal conditions, being situated in close proximity to market demand. But currently, researchers, politicians and the wider public have a limited overview of the known and unknown aspects of hydrogen production. This project team proposes to take up the challenge to develop a holistic view on hydrogen production in the North Sea by identifying and quantifying critical relationships, to close knowledge gaps and develop an interface between complex academic knowledge and the societal debate on the future role for green hydrogen.
People's Energy
Energy transition is not just about technology; it's about people. Across the Netherlands, more than 800 local energy communities are stepping up to take control of energy production and decision-making, bringing neighbours together to create sustainable solutions. But how do these communities establish trust and legitimacy in the eyes of governments, partners, and their own members? This is the central question driving the Signature project People’s Energy.
Resourcefulness
The energy transition is causing a steep increase in mining of critical minerals, which are essential for renewable energy technologies. This also intensified the extractive processes often resulting in human rights violations, environmental degradation, and the perpetuation of global inequalities. The Resourcefulness project aims to highlight the role of finance institutions in resource extraction, and how their role (re)produces (un)just outcomes of the energy transition.
Water-Energy-Land Impacts of Compound Weather Events
The WELCOME project addresses the growing challenge of compound weather events, extreme or co-occurring weather phenomena with significant cross-sectoral impacts on the water-energy-land nexus. The project develops a holistic framework to analyze these events, support climate adaptation strategies, and enhance preparedness through education and actionable insights.
Incubator projects
Tackling the Polycrisis
Global challenges cannot be seen in isolation; they cross-affect each other and what we are dealing with is a polycrisis. The team focuses on three socio-economic, cultural-symbolic vectors that continue to drive and uphold this polycrisis: (racial) capitalism, patriarchy, and (neo)colonialism (CPC). What makes CPC so ‘sustainable’ as a system and enables it to block real transformation?
Stories of Earth and Home
This Incubator aims to develop an art- and culture-based data collection approach embedded in education that will result in a multimedia database with short videos, testimonies, pictures, art forms or literary pieces developed by young people. By involving youth not only as subjects but also as active participants, the team intends to recognize their potential as agents of change in climate action.
Follow the Food
Follow the Food is an approach to trace the workings of the global food systems: agricultural production, processing, trading, and consumption. Geographical Indications will be used as a lens to address the sustainability and equity challenges, while keeping in mind that they may also be a case of sustainability-washing.
Digitally Green @ Utrecht University
This Incubator aims to assemble an interdisciplinary team to tackle the challenge of operating a fully digitized university in ecologically sustainable manner, and to create awareness for the impact of our digital infrastructure.
From Lab to Mouth
Transformations towards sustainable food systems are necessary and will become more pressing in light of climate change, especially in parts of Africa. Food system innovations have been developed through Living Labs, but will intended users adopt them?
Data-driven sustainable building design
This team aims to combine ecological knowledge and computational science/technology, and develop a decision-support system that can quickly inform decision-makers in the building industry about innovative regenerative design strategies and the ecological benefits.
Impact of Urban Design Choices on Health and Wellbeing
The challenge to ensure healthy and sustainable urban development has become more complex due to population growth, urban expansion and densification. Addressing these challenges involves integrating the three domains of health, climate adaptivity and biodiversity.
Retrofit cities with nature-based solutions
Cities face diverse planetary crises, climate change, biodiversity loss and pollutants. Nature-based Solutions (NBS) can offer innovative redesign options that can integrate ecological, social and technological factors to enhance urban resilience. The Incubator team aims to investigate where, how, when and what type of NBS can be implemented, and wants to explore the use of geo-data streams to identify potential vertical and horizontal spaces.
Reimagining Constitutional Ecology
The EU constitutional legal framework (Treaty provisions) contains a plethora of opposing aims and tasks that could either contribute to a fair, sustainable and inclusive society, or precisely the opposite. This Incubator team seeks radical approaches how to bring about a paradigm shift in the constitutional, political and economic foundations of our society.
Naturicity: Everyday narratives of urban futures
This Incubator awarded project aims to contribute to new imaginaries of cities, where nature is viewed as an integral part of environmental, social resilience and social justice, with changing perceptions driving its uptake through culture, markets and policies.
Plastics on your Plate
This Incubator funded project aims to build an improved understanding of contamination pathways and health impacts of plastics and plastic exposure in humans and farm animals, and explore how diets and food type may affect the exposure to plastics.
Seed Projects
Maroon Agricultural and Agri-Food Heritage
In Suriname, Maroon women are vital custodians of agricultural knowledge, maintaining traditional practices to sustain food security and adapt to climate change. This project of researchers Eugenie Waterberg and dr. Patricia Wijntuin investigates their resilient food systems and land stewardship, using indigenous methodologies to explore how they navigate socio-environmental challenges. By centering the stories and practices of Maroon women the research speaks to the idea of traditional storytelling as ‘a way of expressing indigenous knowledge, culture and oral traditions’ which is common in Maroon societies.
Human-AI Interactions in Urban Governance
How does artificial intelligence impacts urban governance and sustainability? This project addresses challenges of ethics, transparency, and social justice. By linking planning, political science, and computer science, the team of dr. Yanliu Lin develops a ‘society-in-the-loop’ framework to ensure AI supports collective human values. The framework offers actionable insights for cities using AI, promoting equitable, sustainable urban planning through collaboration across stakeholders.
The Politics of Environmental Action
What happens when you bring together historians, social scientists, and environmental scientists to explore the deep political roots of environmental decision-making? By examining past and present ideologies, this project led by dr. Frank Gerits focusses on how worldviews impact environmental policies, scientific research, and activism. Outcomes include interdisciplinary workshops, a case study on Dutch NGO Milieudefensie, and a PhD project on environmental politics, fostering collaboration between academia and environmental advocates.
Filming System Earth
The System Earth docuseries, led by dr. Daan Beelen and filmmaker Annick Luijkx, aims to make geology accessible and captivating for a broad audience. Amid declining interest, it emphasizes the importance of geosciences for understanding climate, resource sustainability, and natural disaster prevention. By blending scientific depth with engaging storytelling, the series aims to inspire renewed interest, particularly among high school students.
Safe, Scalable Hydrogen Storage
Hydrogen storage is challenging due to the high energy demands of cooling and compressing it into liquid form, leading to efficiency loss and safety risks. This project aims to create a safe, efficient electrochemical storage solution by using nanostructured metal hydrides at ambient conditions. By developing a scalable prototype, the team of dr. Zhu Zhang aims to advance hydrogen technology for a sustainable, low-CO2 future.
Climate Justice: Strategies for Action
Climate justice involves fair distribution of climate change benefits, risks, and burdens, emphasizing inclusive decision-making with local communities, especially marginalized ones. However, their voices are often underrepresented. This project aims to review various definitions and approaches to climate justice, and collect examples of inclusive climate adaptation practices, focusing on Dutch case studies, including the Dutch Caribbean islands.
Human Manure in Sustainable Agriculture
This project addresses the environmental challenges of overfertilization in Dutch agriculture by exploring the use of human manure as a sustainable alternative. Excessive use of artificial fertilizers and animal manure harms water quality, biodiversity, and human health. Collaborating with organizations like Broodje Poep and farms such as Veld en Beek, this project aims to identify and overcome barriers to the commercial use of human manure.
Human-Centered AI for Climate Adaptation
This project introduces a framework using Visual Analytics (VA) and Explainable AI (XAI) to develop climate adaptation strategies across sectors. Using advanced AI tools like multi-objective evolutionary algorithms and reinforcement learning, the project will simulate adaptive pathways surpassing human-made strategies in test scenarios. Starting with a Dutch case study along the Waal River, the project will build interactive VA tools for decision-makers, promoting broader adoption of AI in climate resilience planning.
Art-Science for Radical Transformation
Despite calls for significant changes to address the planet's breakdown, progress remains slow. Radical imagination, challenging the status quo and envisioning new societies, is essential. Art-science collaborations, leveraging the distinct perspectives of both fields, offer promise in fostering such imagination. Bringing together 25 artists, researchers, and curators, this project, led by dr. Josephine Chambers, seeks to explore methodologies, identify supportive conditions, and establish a European network for future joint projects.
Sustainable Public Procurement
Public procurement, the process by which governments purchase goods and services, plays a crucial role in sustainability, influencing 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Integrating environmental and socially responsible practices into these processes is often overlooked. To address this, the team, led by Dr. Vitezslav Titl, is building an interdisciplinary network of experts from social sciences, economics, and law to collaborate on sustainable procurement policies. This network will bring together international universities, governmental agencies, NGOs, and other stakeholders to share knowledge, develop joint research projects, and influence policy-making.
Pedagogy of Hope in Vocational Education
This project aims to expand the successful "Pedagogy of Hope" initiative, previously implemented in HAVO and VWO classes, to include VMBO students. Preliminary studies show varying attitudes among youth towards climate change and sustainability, with many VMBO students facing immediate concerns like financial issues that overshadow environmental issues. Recognizing the need for collective action against climate change, it is crucial to involve all students
Trans-local Learning for Regenerative Agriculture
Regenerative agriculture aims to address climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, and soil degradation by creating positive impacts through alternative farming. A collaboration between universities in the USA, Netherlands, and Colombia found that North American farmers are motivated by relational values. The project will study successful American organizations to identify key factors and explore their application in the Netherlands.
Hidden Impacts of Hydropower
Hydropower is often considered a form of clean and renewable energy. This caused blind spots of the critical impacts of hydropower on the environment and society. Understanding and envisioning these environmental and societal impacts are very crucial for selecting, designing, and managing existing and future hydropower facilities more appropriately to harmonize, conserve and recover the original benefits.
A Degrowth Framework for Children's Education
Despite increasing interest in degrowth and education, there has been limited research specifically addressing children's education. This project seeks to bridge this gap by exploring how children's books and reading can encourage young minds to question and challenge dominant societal narratives. This initiative aims to develop theoretical and practical frameworks for children’s education from a degrowth perspective.
The Impact of Interactive Eco-documentaries
What are the affective and persuasive effects of interactive eco-documentaries and how can they attribute to climate change awareness? The team will study this through interviews, and complete the project with a transdisciplinary symposium, featuring discussions with participants and the filmmaker.
Cultivating Island Futures
Documenting and sharing indigenous ecological and sustainability knowledge from island communities in the Philippines. Through participatory mapping workshops, the initiative will create a living atlas of local practices to aid sustainable development and cultural preservation.
Patent Labels for Sustainability
Patents that involve green technology are named 'green labels' by the European Patent Office since 2012. In what way have these labels influenced green innovation in terms of quantity and quality? This interdisciplinary project seeks to underscore the significance of clearly defining and labelling issues of social relevance and aims to combine scientific research with policy recommendations.
Indigenous Peoples Energy Futures
Indigenous communities can benefit from the energy transition through local initiatives. Recent forays suggest that these projects can help communities achieve energy independence, alleviate poverty, and bolster community resistance to the manifold threats. More attention for and better understanding of indigenous energy futures could potentially accelerate change.
Democracy in Grassroots Initiatives
To what extent is democracy considered as a value in different forms of grassroots initiatives? How is it understood, practiced, and organized, and does it support or hinders sustainability transformations? A diversity of grassroots initiatives is experimenting with alternative ways of thinking and practicing democracy, understanding enabling and hindering conditions could generate learning for other grassroots initiatives.
Co-funded Initiatives
International Transdisciplinarity Conference
This conference offers trainers, researchers, practitioners and students from around the world the opportunity to share their knowledge, insights, and expertise on the critical issues in inter- and transdisciplinarity needed to build capacity in and through research, education, policy making, activism, and artistic engagement. The purpose of the ITD Alliance is to strengthen and to promote the global capacity and the calibre of collaborative modes of boundary-crossing research and practice. We are sponsoring this conference.
Global Goals Conference
GlobalGoals2024 is an international academic conference designed to support global debates on the future of the Sustainable Development Goals – until and beyond 2030. GlobalGoals2024 will serve as an important academic stepping-stone for the UN Summit of the Future. We are sponsoring this conference that will be held in Utrecht om 29-30 August 2024.
Boosting Biodiversity Community
This community project aims to strengthen biodiversity globally and locally. This ambition is part of the Utrecht University Strategic Plan. Follow the link to find out how the community aims to make this happen and why is it deemed necessary.
How to integrate sustainability as a university-wide theme for education
Postdoctoral researcher Tim Stevens will be using Utrecht University as a case study to explore how to integrate sustainability as a university-wide theme for education, tailored to the needs of various academic disciplines. In this project, he aims to develop a multidimensional model for understanding sustainability education in higher education, apply it to map education at UU and advise on how to further embed sustainability education.