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
How to integrate sustainability as a university-wide theme for education
Postdoctoral researcher Tim Stevens will be using Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 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.
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 鈥榦at milk elites鈥, 鈥榞overnmental meddling鈥 and 鈥榯astelessness鈥. 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 鈥渙ur ocean鈥, it is completely unclear who the 鈥渙ur鈥 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鈥檚 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.
Follow the Food: using GI's for fairness and sustainability
This project explores how Geographical Indications (GIs), like Parmesan or Champagne, can be used not just for branding, but to empower smallholder farmers, protect cultural heritage and promote sustainable agriculture. With case studies in Italy, Indonesia and Central Asia, the project reimagines GIs as tools for transformation in an unfair global food system.
RICE - Reimagining Constitutional Ecology
How can Europe and in particular the EU constitutionally ensure sustainability, equity, and democratic resilience within planetary boundaries, which is necessary for the survival of human beings and future generations? RICE brings together insights from law, philosophy, history, economics, and the arts to explore how we might reshape the values and assumptions that underpin European governance.
Data-driven nexus for sustainable building
This project will develop a global open-science platform connecting sustainable building strategies to their ecological and social impacts. By integrating fragmented data, the project empowers professionals to design regenerative, nature-based architectural solutions, turning the built environment into a force for ecological regeneration and sustainability.
Incubator projects
The living farm: co-creating a living lab farm for biodiversity and sustainability at Utrecht 木瓜福利影视
This project will establish a Living Lab Farm at Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 to explore how agriculture can support biodiversity, climate resilience, health and social cohesion, while remaining economically viable. In collaboration with all seven UU faculties and external partners, the lab will test innovative farming practices, engage the public, and support landscape-scale sustainability transitions. Contact Yann Hautier for more information.
Warfare Ecologies
The Incubator Warfare Ecologies addresses the overlooked environmental impacts of war, before, during, and after conflict. It tackles critical gaps in knowledge, accountability, and resistance by combining remote sensing, interdisciplinary research, and community collaboration to expose ecological harm, support justice, and envision sustainable, post-conflict futures. Contact Thijs Jeursen for more information. (Photo: Wim Zwijnenburg/PAX)
Ocean governance in a contested world order: weathering the storm
This initiative investigates how growing geopolitical tensions are reshaping the international order at sea. Combining insights from law, history, environmental science and sustainability studies, the team will explore how contestation affects ocean governance and the law of the sea. They will map key flashpoints, assess implications, and build a framework for more resilient and inclusive ocean governance. Contact Erik de Lange for more information.
The refinery of the future: a living lab for circular campus transformation
This project aims to turn Utrecht Science Park into a living lab for circular innovation. By integrating CO鈧 methanation and plastic pyrolysis into campus infrastructure, it transforms emissions and waste into valuable resources. Combining science, law, governance and education, it will offer a scalable model for sustainable campus transformation. Contact Alessia Broccoli for more information.
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.
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 鈥榮ustainable鈥 as a system and enables it to block real transformation?
Digitally Green @ Utrecht 木瓜福利影视
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?
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.
Seed Projects
To Whom It May Concern
To Whom It May Concern is a transdisciplinary research and engagement project that explores how people express their relationship with the planet by writing letters to the Earth. Rooted in the Op Aarde exhibition at Sonnenborgh Museum, Dr. K谩ri Driscoll, Dr. Mia You, Dr. Robert-Jan Wille and Dr. Josephine Chambers curate a growing archive of these letters as both cultural record and research material. It brings together disciplines like environmental humanities, climate science, and education to analyse the letters and understand public climate imagination and emotional responses. Ultimately, it aims to co-create climate knowledge by connecting researchers, artists, educators, and the public.
Co-developing and conducting flash drought experiments with agricultural and ecological stakeholders
This project addresses the increasing occurrence of flash droughts (rapid soil moisture declines due to climate change) that threaten vegetation but are not yet well understood. Collaborating with agricultural and ecological stakeholders, Dr. Gerbrand Koren and his team will co-develop and conduct flash drought experiments on crops and tree seedlings using advanced facilities at Utrecht 木瓜福利影视. The goals are to build strong connections between societal partners and university faculties, gain experience with flash drought research, and lay the groundwork for future, larger projects.
Wounded Territories: visualizing human-earth relations in Latin America鈥檚 damaged landscapes
This project brings together Latin American environmental defenders and artists to critically visualize the narratives of violence and resilience informed by wounded territories, landscapes damaged by armed conflict, extractive industries, deforestation, or climate change. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, Dr. Gijs Cremers, Dr. Elisabet Rasch, Dr. Jesse Jonkman, and Dr. Floor van der Hout explore how new political forms, human-earth relationships, and practices of resistance or care emerge from these damaged landscapes. Activities include workshops, a seminar series, an exhibition, and the creation of a multimedia online archive to document and share stories, testimonies, and visual artworks from affected communities.
Bye, bye, hello, hot K貌rsou
This project explores how climate change affects intangible cultural heritage on Cura莽ao, such as traditions, stories, and practices, that are disappearing due to rising sea levels and extreme weather. In collaboration with IBB students and local communities, the team of Dr. Kristina Bogner and Femke Coops map losses, creates rituals to honour what鈥檚 vanishing, and imagines resilient, just futures through visual storytelling and an exhibition. Rather than a one-way knowledge exchange, the initiative embraces a co-creative, action-research approach that values mutual learning and addresses colonial legacies with care.
Visual lab for Water, Climate and Deltas
This project, the Visual Lab for Water, Climate, and Deltas, aims to train students, scholars, and communicators in visual literacy to better represent climate-related water issues like melting glaciers, sea level rise, floods, and droughts. Dr. Tessa Diphoorn, Dr. Emanuele Fantini and Dr. Tatiana Acevedo Guerrero address the politicized nature of these visualizations and their emotional impact, helping participants create compelling visual stories that imagine sustainable and just futures. The project includes educational programs such as a winter school for Master鈥檚 students and hybrid masterclasses for scholars. Outputs will be showcased at public events to build a community skilled in applying visual methods in climate and water research.
Sea Futures: Seaweed environmental & nutritional aspects
Sea Futures explores seaweed as a regenerative and nutritious resource by combining biological science, sustainability research, and artistic engagement. Dr. Raquel Ledo Doval and her team study the nutritional and immunological benefits of selected seaweed species using lab models, while also analyzing its potential role in sustainable food systems. Collaboration with a seaweed cultivation company and artists helps create interactive experiences that communicate scientific findings and involve local farmers, ensuring real-world relevance. The project aims to generate foundational data, build new interdisciplinary partnerships and raise public awareness.
Visualising and learning biobased futures
This project aims to bring bio-based futures to life and circulate them through social media. Addressing a key gap in sustainability communication, Dr. Abe Hendriks and his team combine scientific insights with creative storytelling to make sustainable futures more visible and relatable. Using futuring methods from the Urban Futures Studio and expert knowledge on bio-based materials, MBO students will co-create short video clips designed for online platforms. Through workshops and cross-disciplinary collaboration with scientists, designers, educators, and students, the project explores how different forms of knowledge intersect in creating compelling visions of a sustainable future.
Pathways towards responsible Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR)
This project focuses on Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR), a promising but complex climate mitigation approach with scientific, environmental, legal, and ethical challenges. Dr. Cale Miller and his team aim to build an inclusive foundation for future mCDR research by engaging diverse stakeholders to co-create research priorities that are socially relevant, scientifically sound, and aligned with ocean governance. The project will map key open questions on mCDR鈥檚 scalability, risks, ethics, public support, policies, and legal frameworks. By combining ocean science with insights from politics, business, and ethics, the initiative seeks to develop a roadmap for responsibly scaling mCDR by 2050.
Diluting the binary between consumers and producers: supporting the transformative potential of community-supported agriculture (CSA)
Community-supported agriculture (CSA) offers an alternative to capitalist food systems by sharing farming costs and risks between producers and consumers. At Tuinderij de Volle Grond (TVG) near Utrecht 木瓜福利影视, the farmers aim to involve consumers as active 鈥榩rosumers鈥, but inherited a transactional model that limits this potential. Overburdened with responsibilities and lacking time and resources, the farmers struggle to initiate change. This participatory action research project by Dr. Giuseppe Feola, Dr. J.R. Spanier and Prof. dr. Eggo M眉ller aims to mobilize consumers and unlock the CSA鈥檚 transformative potential.
Sustainability and climate education platform for secondary schools
Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time - yet the current Dutch secondary education curricula are 15鈥20 years old, with climate change only explicitly mentioned in geography standards. Fortunately, there is no shortage of high-quality teaching materials. This seed project by , and aims to develop a central platform for climate change education in the Netherlands (as an extension of ) allowing secondary school teachers to easily discover climate-related lessons across the alpha, beta, and gamma subjects.
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 鈥榓 way of expressing indigenous knowledge, culture and oral traditions鈥 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 鈥榮ociety-in-the-loop鈥 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 , 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-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.
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鈥檚 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
Boosting Biodiversity Community
This community project aims to strengthen biodiversity globally and locally. This ambition is part of the Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 Strategic Plan. Follow the link to find out how the community aims to make this happen and why is it deemed necessary.