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Scope: ~ 6 months 

Level: Master student

Suitable background related to: Sustainable Development, Sustainable Business and Innovation.

The new Living Lab platform that is currently being developed by the Sustainability Programme aims to foster transdisciplinary research and experimentation at Utrecht Science Park. 

The project’s objective is to realise a platform that permanently facilitates the campus as a test-bed for interdisciplinary groups of stakeholders to explore, experiment and experience solutions to global and local complex sustainability challenges, generating knowledge for sustainability transitions, at the same time stimulating sustainability education.

The Sustainability Programme would like a student to monitor and evaluate the Living Lab as it under-go’s the design and execution phases along with various pilot projects that will be on-going during these phases. 

You will be working within the UU Living Lab network, with stakeholders from all over the campus, from operational managers to researchers and students. 

Your work will lead to the development of monitoring strategies, KPI’s and methods to evaluate the success of living pilot experiments, as well as the Living Lab platform itself. With your help, the Living Lab platform can iterate and evolve to provide the infrastructure and support necessary to foster experimentation, education, and the development of innovative solutions. 

Scope: ~ 6 months 

Level: Bachelor thesis or Master's minor

Suitable background related to: Microbiology / Ecology

Start: September 2021 at the latest

A new parking garage is being built on campus. Part of the UU’s ambitions is to increase biodiversity on campus, and this includes this new garage. The campus & real-estate team would like a student to investigate how we can increase the bio-receptivity of a series of concrete baskets (gabions) to be more suitable for colonisation by bryophytes (lichens, moss etc.). The research involves two approaches: 

1. The creation of a bacteria/ micro-organic mix that improves the Bio-Receptivity of concrete, and/or stimulates the growth of bryophytes
2. A simple yoghurt and moss mix to be pasted onto the concrete gabions. (Moss-Graffiti)  

This would be a comparative study, analysing the best approach in terms of settlement and growth of Bryophytes while developing a series of recommendations to increase the bio-receptivity of these gabions.  

Scope: ~ 6 months 

Level: Bachelor thesis or Master's minor

Suitable background related to: Microbiology / Ecology

Start: September 2021 at the latest

A new parking garage is being built on campus. Part of the UU’s ambitions is to increase biodiversity on campus, and this includes this new garage. A research project increasing the bio-receptivity of concrete gabions to bryophytes surrounding the garage will be conducted. Surrounding this gabion is a small 1m - 1.5m of meadow. The campus & real-estate team would like a student [3^rd year bachelor thesis/ master minor project] to investigate how we can design, implement and foster a mutualistic ecosystem promoting the growth of bryophytes on the adjacent gabions whilst simultaneously supporting the bio-diversity of the bio-diverse meadow ribbon. Establishing this new ecosystem, subsequent research can be conducted regarding the CO₂ and micro-particle absorption capabilities of this meadow.