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WUR Celebrates Anniversary with a Focus on AI for a Sustainable Future
How can scientists and students responsibly use AI to promote sustainability? This question was central to the Dies Natalis 2025 of Wageningen University & Research. The event also marked the launch of the Academic Career Framework, the Strategic Plan, and a new bachelor's program that teaches students how to apply data science and AI to research today's major global challenges.
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Rector Magnificus Carolien Kroeze opened the Dies Natalis celebration by acknowledging that we live in challenging times and that many people are concerned, referring, among other things, to budget cuts in science and education. “We, at Wageningen University & Research, can play a role in shaping a future that is more hopeful, more peaceful, and more sustainable.”
She continued by highlighting recent milestones, such as WUR awarding its first Engineering Doctorate and celebrating its 9,000th PhD defense. She also provided a brief explanation of a recent study on the use and perception of GenAI among WUR faculty and students. Last but certainly not least, she announced the new BSc programme Data Science for Global Challenges. This was the first time Kroeze opened the Dies Natalis: during last year’s celebration, she took over the rectorship from her predecessor, Arthur Mol.
Opportunities and Risks of AI for Science
Swiss-Italian professor Andrea Emilio Rizzoli delivered the Dies Natalis lecture on the history and development of artificial intelligence. Rizzoli is the director of the renowned AI institute IDSIA. He particularly emphasized the opportunities and risks AI presents for science in general, and for European science in particular. He also briefly addressed the elephant in the room regarding AI and sustainability: its enormous energy consumption.
Early Career Scientists
After the intermission, three early-career researchers shared their perspectives on AI from their respective fields of expertise.
Hilmy Baja, from the newly established Artificial Intelligence chair group, spoke about his PhD research on training AI to optimize crop fertilization while accounting for weather and soil conditions.
MSc student Smaranda Filip explained how GenAI played a role in her thesis on Spatial Planning, which focused on how mobility is described and envisioned in smart cities: “GenAI helped me make the invisible more visible, but it still had many shortcomings.”
Dr. Paulan Korenhof, with a background in philosophy, law, and art, examines how digital representations shape the world. She stressed the importance of human goals, norms, and visions in the use of AI: “We build AI, we are responsible.”
Research Awards
Dean of Research Wouter Hendriks presented the annual Research Awards for outstanding research and promising researchers during the Dies Natalis. This was the last time he would do so, as Edith Feskens will succeed him as Dean of Research on April 1. Awards were given in four categories: Research Paper of the Year, Team Effort of the Year, Transdisciplinary Research of the Year, and Supervisor of the Year. The Research Awards are organized by the Wageningen Graduate Schools and made possible with support from Wageningen Graduate Schools and the University Fund Wageningen.
The winners are:
- Research Paper of the Year: Ralph van Zwieten, Mimicking natural deterrent strategies in plants using adhesive spheres.
- Team effort of the year: EPS postdoc council
- Transdisciplinary research of the year: Kathleen Uyttewaal
- Supervisor of the year: Erik Poelman / Johan Schrama (shared first place)
Strategic Plan 2025–2028
Following the award ceremony, WUR Executive Board President Sjoukje Heimovaara took the stage to present the Strategic Plan 2025–2028. According to Heimovaara, this plan serves as Wageningen University & Research’s compass, outlining who we are, what we stand for, what we must do, and how we must do it. Given the rapid pace of change, WUR must remain agile, Heimovaara emphasized, but the Strategic Plan will serve as a guiding framework. She also addressed the budget cuts in science and education: “We will fight them.”
Rector Magnificus Kroeze concluded the event with the announcement of the start of the implementation of the Academic Career Framework, which introduces a new career system for Wageningen University, replacing the Tenure Track system. University (associate) professors, researchers, lecturers, and personal professors will follow this new career path, which is more personalized, flexible, and inclusive than Tenure Track. Kroeze stressed that this is about more than just a career system change: “It is a cultural shift.”
