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Advancing Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Seed Money Projects for Sustainability Research
The board of the Wageningen Global Sustainability Programme, formerly known as INREF, has granted eight seed money projects. Preparing full research proposals is a major effort, requiring extensive time investment to work on the proposal and on the network involved. As Wageningen Global Sustainability Programme is focused on interdisciplinary collaboration, the board is providing the opportunity for researchers to get a small compensation for the investment in network and research ideas through seed money projects.
Climate-Smart Food Crops for Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
Recurring droughts, worsened by climate change, are causing food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa due to widespread crop failures. This project addresses Climate-Smart Food Crops (CSFCs), specifically their markets (business adaptation), fermentation technology (optimized processing), and policy (formulations, evaluation, and monitoring) for the inclusion of CSFC nutritious foods in school feeding programs. By focusing on these three areas, the project aims to meet the nutritional needs of children while also stimulating local economies. The implementation of CSFCs in school feeding programs not only addresses immediate food insecurity but also promotes sustainable agricultural practices and local economic development.
TRAC-K: Towards Resilient African Coasts - Kenya as a Role Model
Kenya’s nearly 500 kilometers of tropical coastline are home to highly biodiverse ecosystems such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangrove forests. Coastal development and climate change have reduced the area covered by these ecosystems and threaten the condition of the remaining natural resources. To combat these challenges, the Kenyan government established a Coral Reef and Seagrass Ecosystems Conservation Strategy in 2015 and a National Mangrove Ecosystem Management Plan in 2017. While coordinated actions to implement the mangrove management plan have commenced, conservation of seagrass and coral reefs is still in a preliminary phase.
These projects exemplify the kind of interdisciplinary and collaborative efforts that the Wageningen Global Sustainability Programme aims to foster, addressing complex global challenges through innovative and sustainable solutions.
All approved proposals:
- Pluralizing values of livestock in Africa’s food systems: between production commodity and Ukusisela - Simon Oosting
- Developing a Novel Air Quality Platform for Improving Indoor/Outdoor Air Quality in Urban Philippines through transdisciplinary Collaborations – Establishing Proof of Concept - Anita Hardon
- On the verge to a FARMer-led, on-farm soil HEALTH monitoring in east Africa (FARMHEALTH) - Stefan Geisen
- Resilience in a turbulent world: lessons from smallholder farming communities across the globe - Miranda Meuwissen
- Towards Just Sustainability Transformation - Otto Hospes
- Fish farming to improve food and nutrition security, mental health, and wellbeing among adolescents in rural areas of Indonesia: development of a longitudinal study-based intervention - Alida Melse-Boonstra
- TRAC-K: Towards Resilient African Coasts - Kenya as a role model - Ronald Osinga
- Boosting Nutrition and Resilience: Fermenting Climate-Smart Crops for School Meal Programs - Ruth Ngadze