This Strategic Plan 2025 – 2028, ‘Shape responsible change’ is an open invitation to Wageningen University & Research (WUR), our staff, students and partners to explore nature and its potential with us, to improve the quality of life together.
We are proud of this ambitious plan. Together, we are seeking solutions to global challenges and contributing to a future where people and nature are in harmony. The strategy provides direction and identifies the key focus areas for the coming years.
This plan came about through close cooperation with people and organisations inside and outside Wageningen University & Research.
Mission
For many years WUR has adopted the mission ‘to explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life’. This mission is unashamedly ambitious in reflecting our drive to maximise the potential of WUR as a force to accelerate the transitions required to achieve a more sustainable world for all life on Earth.
Vision
The vision of WUR is to strike a delicate balance between the well-being of our planet with its diverse species and the needs of humanity for healthy food and environment. We tackle this global challenge by asking the right questions, fuelling curiosity, educating students and professionals, forging bold partnerships, and pushing the boundaries of curiosity-driven and applied science.
Ambitions
As an independent world leading university and research organisation in our domain, embedded in society, we deliver knowledge to accelerate the required transitions in our domain. We educate learners to become responsible changemakers for science and society. Collaboration with partners is essential to achieve these goals.
WUR aims to foster a transparent and resilient organisational structure with clearly defined roles and responsibilities to enhance effectivity, efficiency and adaptability. We are committed to cultivating an inclusive working environment that promotes a healthy work-life balance for staff and students, both socially and physically. As a sustainable organisation, we also practice what we preach.
To support these ambitions, we strive to have all staff, students, and alumni take great pride in their affiliation with WUR and to engage collaboratively on global challenges. We continuously inspire our team by offering personalised development opportunities and career flexibility, recognising and valuing each individual’s contributions to our collective effort.
Themes
We describe our work in six key themes. The themes represent our primary areas of focus, each interconnected with overlapping boundaries, involving inherent trade-offs and synergies. Addressing the complex global challenges both within and across these themes, requires comprehensive, interconnected, and systemic rethinking in order to be effective.
WUR contributes to resilient, adaptive food systems and to deepen our understanding of their sustainability.
WUR aims to foster resilient ecosystems and global biodiversity in a world where people value and take responsibility for each other and nature.
WUR’s approach is to develop strategies that reduce lifestyle-related, foodborne, and zoonotic diseases, prepare for pandemics, and improve global food safety and nutrition for all ages worldwide.
WUR is committed to working towards a carbon-neutral and climate-proof world.
For a biobased, circular society WUR focuses on creating closed cycles that optimise the connection between agriculture, food & materials, production & consumption, and energy.
WUR contributes to sustainable water and land use developing strategies and practices that ensure fair access and distribution, integral to society's essential transitions.
