Master’s Thesis - master Innovation Science Aquaponics Development in the Netherlands The Role of the Emerging Aquaponics Technology and the Transition towards Sustainable Agriculture Mascha Wiegand 6307345 Tulpenweg 17 63579 Freigericht Germany
[email protected] +49 1607561911 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ellen H.M. Moors Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development
[email protected] +31 30 253 7812 Second Reader: Dr. Koen Beumer Summary A sustainability transition in the agri-food regime is urgently required to interrupt the strong reciprocal effect between current food production standards and climate change (Willett et al., 2019). One sustainable innovation in the agri-food sector is aquaponics. Aquaponics is the combination of hydroponics and recirculating aquaculture in one controlled environment (Somerville, Cohen, Pantanella, Stankus & Lovatelli, 2014). At first sight, the water and nutrient-saving character of aquaponics, amongst other features (Somerville et al., 2014), sound promising for a transition towards sustainable agriculture. Therefore, the following research question emerged: How can the emerging aquaponics technology contribute to the sustainability transition in the Dutch agri- food sector based on Dutch aquaponics developments in the period 2008-2018? To answer this overarching research question, three sub-questions were developed. An integrated framework combining the multilevel perspective (MLP) and the technological innovation system (TIS) was used to understand the dynamics between overall structural trends, the current Dutch agri-food sector and the emerging aquaponics innovation. The innovation was also set into a broader European context. The research was of exploratory nature and used a qualitative content analysis to process 23 interviews, scientific articles, practitioner websites, publication, patent and Google Trend statistics, etc.