Mark RutteCrop Protection Bend and stretch ‘Amsterdam is West Wageningen’ | p.5 | The creeping advance of Exercise in class | p.26 | biological methods | p.20 | RESOURCE For students and employees of Wageningen UR no 17 – 21 April 2015 – 10th Volume Museums are full of hidden genes p.12 2 >> labour of love >> HERCO + BIT PARTS Herco van Gelder, caretaker at Orion ‘A glimpse behind the scenes of a fi lm’ He was spotted by a photographer in an Amsterdam pub on New Year’s Eve. ‘You should go to a casting bureau.’ And within a cou- ple of weeks Herco van Gelder had a bit part in Storm, a historical children’s fi lm directed by Dennis Bots. ‘I play a nobleman. It makes a nice change to be part of such a totally different world.’ Shooting is still in full swing. Early May in the open air museum in Kortrijk. Storm will be showing in cinemas at the beginning of 2017. RK / Photo: www.museumfoto.amsterdam RESOURCE — 21 April 2016 ILLUSTRATION COVER: GEERT-JAN BRUINS >>CONTENTS no 17 – 10th volume >> 4 >> 6 & 18 >> 24 GIRO ACCESS TO CAMPUS LIBERATION Tribute to passing cyclists 6/10 from staff no surprise Where to go on 4 and 5 May? CAMPUS HOTSPOT What’s great about being a journalist is that you learn something new every day. A week ago, I’d never heard of the subalpine warbler, but now I know virtually everything there is to know about this little bird. For example, its Dutch name translates literally as ‘beard grass sparrow’ but it’s not a sparrow at all. A col- AND MORE... league explains that it’s a whitethroat, which occupies a very diff erent branch of 4 ‘Billion extra need the tree of life to the sparrow. for research’ Last week, hundreds of birdwatchers came to the Lumen garden with their 5 Even more art to campus expensive binoculars to see this rare bird. Thanks to an alert student who spot- 7 Subalpine warbler draws ted it. Who knows how long the warbler had been living there undetected, enjoy- birdwatchers ing its surroundings. That makes you think. What other wonderful treasures are 8 Field labs for water expertise hidden on campus? 10 New professor: Beneath my window in Atlas, a wetland nature garden is slowly taking shape. If Arjan de Visser all goes well, it will become a rare example of blue moor-grassland. Our campus 16 Latin dictum on amphitheatre as a hotspot of biodiversity. My prediction is that we’ll be seeing a lot more of 27 Fewer students due those birdwatchers. to loan system 29 Meanwhile in Canada Roelof Kleis >> The Netherlands has its King’s Day, Mexico its Dia de Muertos | p.22 21 April 2016 — RESOURCE 4 >> news APPEAL FOR BILLION EXTRA FOR RESEARCH funding for research and innova- As a consequence DLO is fi nd- Breukink. The executive board and • Appeal to next cabinet in tion will be down by another 200 ing it increasingly hard to exploit other universities and research in- advance million euros compared with now. its research facilities to the full, stitutes therefore intend to appeal • Cuts to innovation too severe Most of the cuts are made by the says Breukink. ‘Although we do of- to the next cabinet. But Wagenin- ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ), ten manage to purchase new re- gen UR can do more to address this which has scrapped one quarter of search facilities. For example, we itself, adds Breukink. ‘We must im- The next Dutch cabinet needs to its research budget. are now going to invest in new prove the collaboration within Wa- spend one billion euros a year EZ allocated 30 million euros buildings for the Central Veteri- geningen UR and with our part- more on research and innovation, less to DLO research in 2015 than nary Institute.’ The problems start, ners. Examples are the collabora- say the Dutch universities, re- ten years ago. That has immediate however, when clients such as sci- tion with TNO in the fi eld of nutri- search institutes and the employ- consequences for Wageningen re- ence organization NWO or the EU tion and the biobased economy, ers’ organization VNO-NCW. Some search institutes. Breukink: ‘Take have to be billed for the use of and with Deltares on water-related of that money should go to DLO, EZ spending on nature research, for these facilities. These clients are issues.’ DLO’s business model says Wageningen UR board mem- instance. The amount actually not willing to pay the full costs. A needs rethinking too, in Breu- ber Tijs Breukink. budgeted for knowledge base re- problem affecting all the techno- kink’s view. ‘A lot of the work is The Dutch government is search at Alterra was more than one logical institutes in the Nether- now just billed by the hour but per- spending less and less on research million lower last year. Because this lands. haps it would also be feasible to and innovation, said the Rathenau money is often used as cofi nancing ‘To maintain the innovative have a share of the profi ts generat- institute this week. That decline is for acquiring projects tendered by strength of the Dutch economy, the ed by our research.’ Working out set to continue at the same rate in other fi nanciers, the potential loss government needs to continue in- these sorts of ideas is a priority for the near future: in four years’ time of turnover runs to 3 million euros.’ vesting in applied research,’ says 2016. AS DAIRY COMPANY CSK IN PLUS ULTRA • Research and sales concentrated here • Company will take up almost half of building ILLUSTRATION: ARDA BECKERS/RECLAME OP GEBOUW BECKERS/RECLAME ARDA ILLUSTRATION: The dairy company CSK Food Enrichment will be moving in- to Plus Ultra on campus. The company will be concentrating its research and sales operations in Wageningen. CSK will be renting almost half the space in the new building. Property developer Kadans announced earlier this month that it had managed to secure a big player. That player turns out to be CSK from Leeuwarden. The company manufactures and develops ingredients for the production of cheese, butter and other dairy products. It was founded over a century ago and has an annual turnover of 60 million euros. The production factory, built only a few years ago, is in Leeuwarden. The company’s research and development division is based in Ede, along with part of the production operations. That site will now go. The researchers will be joining the commercial departments in Plus Ultra. About 50 employees are involved in total. CSK wants to build a pilot plant in Plus Ultra where it can test out new products. Managing director Sanne Melles says there is already a long tradition of cooperation be- tween Wageningen UR and CSK. That made the decision to HELLO GIRO move to the campus a logical one. Incidentally, a lot of The Giro d’Italia won’t take more then rooms of millions of cycling enthusiasts. building work is required fi rst; CSK will only be able to take ten seconds to whizz past the campus on This banner of 9.5 by 16 metres will hang possession in about a year. Saturday 7 May. Just long enough for a on the wall of Atlas in the fi rst week of CSK is the second dairy company coming to Plus Ultra, couple of seconds’ attention in the living May. RK after the Chinese dairy concern Yili. RK RESOURCE — 21 April 2016 Tectona Grandis news << 5 DREIJEN ARTWORKS RELOCATED © OLUMN|STIJN • New homes on campus Keramische Band Post-Panama science Three artworks from the Dreijen compound My colleagues and I don’t dodge taxes. We just have been moved to the campus. The stainless count nematodes, aphids or bacteria and try steel Portalen [gateways] by artist Tim Hoving to write a nice article about them. That’s be- will be placed to the north of the Bornsesteeg cause we are ordinary people who just want to opposite Unifarm. This seven-metre high art- help make the world a slightly better place and work, which presided over the entrance to the then maybe go for a beer. Dreijen on the Generaal Foulkesweg, is now But something is bugging me. Joris Luyendijk, under restoration. the Dutch journalist who has interviewed On the outer wall of the Biotechnion hangs hundreds of people in the fi nancial sector, the Keramische Band [Ceramic Band], a glazed stresses that fi nancial professionals are pretty bas-relief by Henk Tieman. The eighteen panels ordinary people too. In an article in the Dutch will be placed back to back near the pond in newspaper the NRC entitled, ‘Panama is legal, front on Zodiac. Tectona Grandis, the pillar of so what’s stopping them?’ and describes it ‘slices’ of tree by Marinus Boezem, currently could happen that ordinary people facilitated standing in front of the Biotechnion, will grace tax-dodging. the lawn in front of the Restaurant of the Future. His account contains ingredients such as ex- RK Portalen tremely high work pressure, a lot of internal competition and the constant risk of losing your job. Under this extreme pressure, people switch off their moral compass. ‘You become in brief exclusively focused on “corporate survival”: getting your job done,’ writes Luyendijk. Of course, a university is not a bank and our >> AMSTERDAM IS... >> CUT-PRICE MEAT work pressure is doubtless not particularly ex- ‘... West Wageningen’ Professors protest treme, but the principles in our fi eld are com- Prime Minister Mark Rutte sets great store by Seven Wageningen professors have signed a parable.