External Peer Review Graduate School WIAS Documentation over 2009-2014 June 2015 External Peer Review 2015 Contents Contents Contents .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Preface ............................................................................................................................................................ 5 Part A. .............................................................................................................................................................. 7 1. General .................................................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Organizational Context ..................................................................................................................... 9 1.2 WGS-structure ................................................................................................................................ 11 1.3 Supporting structures for the PhD programme .............................................................................. 11 1.4 Research groups and funding, Tenure Track, Gender Policy, Facilities, Postdoc policy ................. 12 1.5 Research integrity ........................................................................................................................... 14 2. The graduate school WIAS .................................................................................................................... 17 2.1 Organisation WIAS .......................................................................................................................... 17 2.2 The WIAS PhD Programme ............................................................................................................. 22 2.3 Quality assurance in PhD education and supervision ..................................................................... 27 2.4 Graduation rate ............................................................................................................................... 30 2.5 Career prospects for alumni ........................................................................................................... 30 2.6 SWOT analysis and strategy for the future ..................................................................................... 32 3. Bibliometric Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 35 4. Links to all scientific output for period 2009-2014 ............................................................................... 69 Part B. ............................................................................................................................................................ 71 Adaptation Physiology (ADP) .................................................................................................................... 73 Animal Breeding and Genetics (ABG) ........................................................................................................ 91 Animal Nutrition (ANU) ........................................................................................................................... 109 Animal Production Systems (APS) ........................................................................................................... 127 Aquaculture and Fisheries (AFI) .............................................................................................................. 141 Behavioural Ecology (BHE) ...................................................................................................................... 159 Cell Biology and Immunology (CBI) ......................................................................................................... 173 Experimental Zoology (EZO) .................................................................................................................... 189 Host-Microbe Interactomics (HMI) ......................................................................................................... 205 Human and Animal Physiology (HAP) ..................................................................................................... 225 Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology (QVE) ......................................................................................... 243 List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................................................... 255 3 External Peer Review 2015 Preface Preface In the Dutch national research evaluation system, all publicly funded research is evaluated by an international peer review committee once every six years. The outlines for this evaluation are provided by the Standard Evaluation Protocol (SEP) 2015-2021 developed in 2014 by the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). In this system, the graduate school “Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences” (WIAS) has been previously evaluated according to the SEP 2003-2009, in June 2009. The results of the evaluation are intended to assist the research organisation, the management of the Chair groups and the individual researchers in their attempts to improve the scientific quality and relevance to society of the research and to strengthen the viability of the Chair groups. The goal of the present review is twofold. First the WIAS Peer Review Committee is requested to evaluate the overall scientific performance of the individual Chair groups that participate in the graduate school WIAS, according to the criteria set by the Dutch Standard Evaluation Protocol, e.g., the quality of research, the relevance to society and the viability of the group. Second, the WIAS Peer Review Committee is requested to comment on specific elements of the graduate school WIAS, as described below: 1. The graduate school provides a well-organised, coherent, and productive research environment for the PhD programme 2. The graduate school offers a sound and institutionalised programme, in which PhD candidates are trained to become independent researchers 3. The budget of the graduate school is sufficient for the graduate school’s planned capacity and strategy The graduate school generates a ‘self-evaluation report’ once every three years, one in preparation of the external review, and one three years later as a mid-term review. The present report contains the self- evaluations of the graduate school WIAS and its Chair groups for the External Peer Review 2015. In the first part of the report, issues are addressed relating to the research and PhD programmes at the level of the graduate school (Part A). In the second part (Part B) results of the individual Chairs groups are given. In addition, the WIAS peer review committee receives supplementary documents, such as: Curriculum Vitae of all scientific staff members A compiled document consisting of: List of WIAS Staff members List of WIAS courses and seminars 2009-2014 Template WIAS Training and Supervision Plan (TSP) Template WIAS Research Proposal Template WIAS Midterm Progress Report Template WIAS Exit Form Template Go-No go Form WIAS Peer Review 2009 – assessment report WIAS Midterm Review 2012 – assessment report Wageningen University PhD programme self-evaluation 2015 Wageningen University PhD programme review panel (EUA) report 2015 Wageningen University PhD programme response of Executive Board WU 2015 5 External Peer Review 2015 Part A Part A. 7 External Peer Review 2015 Graduate School WIAS 1. General 1.1 Organizational Context Wageningen University and Research Centre Wageningen University and Research Centre (Wageningen UR) combines Wageningen University (WU) and 10 research institutes of the Foundation “DLO”. The joint mission is ‘to explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life’. The whole organisation, the University and the reseach institutes, work on the broad domain of Healthy Food and Environment. About 10,000 Bachelor and Master students, 1,900 PhD candidates, and 6,500 staff work on the pursuit of this mission for the benefit of science, policy, business, and society at large. The Executive Board is responsible for the overall management of Wageningen UR. The Board is accountable to a Supervisory Board, appointed by the Minister of Economic Affairs. The Rector Magnificus is vice-president of the Executive Board. Within the executive board, he is specifically responsible for education, student affairs, and research. Wageningen UR is organised in five management units called Sciences Groups. The university is also organised along five departments. Each Wageningen UR Sciences Group consists of one university department and one or more research institutes. Wageningen UR also includes some specialised organizations with a specific assignment: Wageningen International (responsible for policies regarding internationalisation), Wageningen Academy (responsible for translating Wageningen UR’s knowledge into professional training courses for industry and other societal groups), IMARES (Wageningen’s marine research institute), and RIKILT (Wageningen’s food safety institute) (see Figure 1.1). Each Sciences Group is chaired by a director general, who reports to the Executive Board of Wageningen UR. The Sciences Groups create the environment in which research groups