Seed Projects
Discover the ocean-related seed funding projects. With Pathways to Sustainability seed funding, we aim to stimulate interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary interactions that can 'plant a seed' and contribute to creating impact. Seed funding is geared towards accomodating small teams of scholars who collaborate on projects with a defined scope.
Bye, bye, hello, hot Kòrsou
This project explores how climate change affects intangible cultural heritage on Curaçao, 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’s 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’s 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.
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’s 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.
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 15–20 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.