MSc project options at WEN
Welcome to the WEN's MSc project page!
The WEN group is part of the GSLS and follows the same research project structure ('Major Research Project', 'General Research Profile', 'Mini-Project', 'Writing Assignment'). You can find more information about research projects here and about writing assigments here. This page only describes the specific topics the WEN group offers in these formats.
You can find our projects on Konjoin searching for the tag: #WENUU. Note that you need to log in with your Solis-id to see all projects. You can contact researchers directly to apply if their e-mail is in the KonJoin project description.
Not all projects may be on KonJoin, so to apply for a project in general, or if you are not from the UU, or if you have any questions about projects at the WEN group (not about the MSc or track in general), please mail Yannick Wiegers (MSC.coordinator-WEN@uu.nl). If you want to apply for a project this way be sure to include the PI or project you are most interested in, as well as a summary of your motivations, key skills, and prior research experience.
Current MSc projects accepting applications at the WEN Group
The growing global demand for palm oil, fuelled by population growth and prosperity, is a major driver of biodiversity loss through deforestation and forest fragmentation. This has had devastating impacts on wildlife in South-East Asia, and plantations will inevitably expand into Africa and Latin America. This project seeks to unravel the ecological rules that can promote wildlife coexistence in oil palm landscapes, thereby informing realistic solutions for future sustainable land use in tropical forest landscapes.
Forest fragmentation adversely affects wildlife by limiting access to food, disrupting gene flow and social structures, which increases vulnerability to disturbances. Extensive literature underscores the significance of forest connectivity for species survival in agro-commodity landscapes. This importance escalates in the context of climate change, where wildlife's adaptive movement becomes even more critical.
Initiatives to restore landscape-level connectivity exist, but a fundamental understanding of the ecological requirements for effective connectivity for wildlife in oil palm landscapes is lacking. While oil palm plantations are traditionally viewed as hostile to wildlife, recent research suggests that under certain conditions these areas may, together with remnant forest fragments, support more diverse and abundant wildlife populations than previously believed. Forest fragments can also serve as essential stepping stones between undisturbed forests. This raises the urgent question: How does forest fragment spatial configuration, size and quality influence landscape connectivity?
My research will quantify the interfragmentary distance, size and quality of forest fragments that are required to support landscape connectivity for a broad range of species using a novel, reiterative, adaptive approach involving remote sensing, modelling, and empirical observations using camera traps, acoustics and drone monitoring.
Details
Contact: Joeri Zwerts - j.a.zwerts@uu.nl
Tropical forest fragmentation, driven by land-use change such as oil palm expansion, has profound impacts on biodiversity. Understanding how species respond to edge effects within these fragmented landscapes is critical for conservation planning. This research, based in Central Kalimantan and hosted by WWF Indonesia, uses bioacoustic monitoring to investigate how species composition shifts near forest edges in oil palm-dominated regions.
Under the supervision of a PhD student, two students will contribute to this project. One will focus on species recognition using acoustic data, while the other will analyze ecological patterns through soundscape metrics. Both projects integrate fieldwork – although this is not a requirement and the project can also be entirely based in the Netherlands - with a strong analytical component, applying innovative bioacoustic methods and coding-based data analysis to gain insights into biodiversity in human-altered tropical ecosystems.
Details
Contact: Joeri Zwerts - j.a.zwerts@uu.nl
Fieldwork: Yes (but flexible)
The Pangolin Conservation & Research Foundation (PCRF) offers supervised student research placements focused on the ecology and conservation of pangolins in Namibia. Based in remote field sites such as the Nyae Nyae Conservancy and the Waterberg Plateau, students will contribute to ongoing conservation research aimed at understanding pangolin behavior, habitat needs, and their ecological role in savanna and woodland ecosystems.
Students may engage in diverse research themes, including feeding ecology, burrow use by multiple species, habitat preferences, and biodiversity assessments using camera traps and bioacoustic monitoring. Projects typically combine fieldwork—using tools such as GPS/VHF tracking and acoustic devices—with data analysis to generate insights that inform conservation policy and practice.
Fieldwork is often physically demanding and conducted in remote, rustic settings. A minimum three-month commitment is required, and students are expected to contribute to daily project costs. PCRF provides training, logistical support, and supervision by experienced conservationists. These placements are ideal for students interested in wildlife conservation, behavioral ecology, and applied field research in one of Africa’s most biodiverse and conservation-driven countries.
Details
Contact: Joeri Zwerts - j.a.zwerts@uu.nl
Fieldwork: Yes
In de rainforest of Suriname, animals and indigenous/tribal peoples live alongside each other and human-wildlife interactions are a daily part of life. Agoutis, pacas, deer and peccaries visit crop fields and often eat, trample and destroy crops. Villagers are highly dependent on cassava, rice and vegetables from their crop fields, and crop foraging by these animals can thus lead to emotional and financial damage, as well as food insecurity. Very little is known about these interactions between indigenous people and crop foraging mammals. To understand why animals choose to eat crops instead of wild food, I have collected millions of camera trap pictures from crop fields and the forest, as well as data on wild and cultivated food availability. Now, I am looking for students who want to help with analysing this wealth of data. By annotating camera pictures and analysing them together with ecological or behavioural data, we will try to understand why animals forage on crops.
Projects can range from trying to understand vigilant behaviour in animals, to building spatio-temporal models to unravel the trade-off between food availability and fear for crop foraging mammals. Since I only offer data-based projects at the moment (fieldwork has sadly come to an end) and my datasets are large and complex, some experience with programming (or a willingness to learn!) is an advantage. I am happy to discuss research questions proposed by students, as long as they fit within the larger frame of my PhD project. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
Details
Timing: major, minor and mini projects (9 ECTS minimum) can begin at any time!
Fieldwork: no
Contact: Ronja Knippers (r.h.m.knippers@uu.nl)
Understanding how recreation exerts stress on animals is an ongoing challenge in science. In this project we want to understand how roe deer use their energy budget in recreation disturbed areas compared to recreation free areas.
Details
Whom: MSc
Timing: Any time
Type: literature review, data-only, possibly fieldwork
Skills: literature review, r-scripting, modelling.
Contact: Laurens Dijkhuis, l.r.dijkhuis@uu.nl; Patrick Jansen
Plant–animal interactions are fundamental to structure and functioning of tropical forests, yet they are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic pressures. Key herbivores such as tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) disperse seeds of hundreds of plant species, while also exerting browsing pressure on tree seedlings. Although defaunation effects on seed dispersal are well studied, the ecological role of browsing is often overlooked - partly due to a lack of generalizable insights into how reduced browsing impacts plant communities.
Important questions remain: Which seedling traits drive herbivore selectivity? And how does reduced browsing affect seedling diversity and functional composition?
As part of my PhD, I study how large tropical herbivores like tapirs and brocket deer selectively browse plant species, and how this affects forest composition over time. We combine camera trapping, leaf trait measurements, and long-term seedling monitoring. We work across sites that differ in hunting pressure, within the remote tropical rainforests of French Guiana.
I'm looking for enthusiastic MSc students to join me in the field (3 months) and help with data analysis in Utrecht. You’ll be part of an international team, and your work will directly contribute to our understanding of tropical forest resilience in a changing world. Projects (major, minor, mini) can be tailored to your interests and background. Field experience is a plus, but not essential—motivation and being comfortable working in remote rainforest conditions are more important. Selection will occur soon due to the fieldwork starting in September — get in touch quickly if you’re interested!
Details
Fieldwork timing: September - mid December 2025; and ~April – June 2026.
Contact: Julia Blok – j.e.blok@uu.nl
Monitoring forest insects has always been a challenge. The large heterogeneous habitat, vertical stratification and patchiness of the often ephemeral (temporarily present) habitat together with a large biodiversity poses a challenge in forest restoration and forest management. This topic will explore a variety of traditional trapping methods (cross-window-traps, emergence traps, pitfall traps) with different baiting or non-baiting solutions in different stages of forest clearing. Can modern methods, like camera-detection or eDNA methods be a solution?
Method: For this topic, you need fieldwork, lab-work (identification and sorting of insect specimen) and data-analysis. There are also opportunities for molecular techniques, if interested. Depending on the research topic you use a variety of these methods or shape your own experiment. Period: from November till end of summer
Required background
- Experience with fieldwork and problem-solving in rough forest environments and willing to work on different sites in the Netherlands. A driving license is not mandatory but convenient.
- Basic knowledge of European/Dutch arthropod fauna (at least being able to order level, preferably experience with identification of arthropods to family level). Previous experience with identification keys and insect identification is convenient but not mandatory, but you should be willing to learn is.
- Capable of doing labour-intensive fieldwork on your own and making long days. The fieldwork is done in during the year, mostly in summer and spring, and requires walking and carrying traps or samples through rough terrain, in various weather conditions.
- A decent knowledge of R is necessary
Details
Whom: MSc
Timing: January – July ‘26 / ‘27 (but preference for students also available in august and september!)
Contact: rick.buesink@wur.nl