How can we get better results that let us progress towards a future that is sustainable, healthy and equitable? It was clear to the five programme leaders in the Knowledge Base Programme what they needed to do: focus on boosting collaboration between the researchers of Wageningen University & Research. That is the only way to ensure knowledge is shared more and innovative projects are started.
The Netherlands and the world at large face major challenges: global warming is continuing apace, the loss of biodiversity has yet to be halted and poverty has still not been eradicated. Such immense challenges require a fresh approach, and a broad perspective from pioneers who understand that these challenges are inextricably interlinked. Pioneers who realise the solutions lie in a sustainable future where the priority is collaborating to make the planet a liveable place for all.
In the Netherlands too, this outlook on the future is highly relevant for the government’s policy over the next three to five years. The Knowledge Base (KB) research lays the foundation for knowledge in the policy domain of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, as used by the ministry itself, the private sector and other stakeholders in this domain. The five programme leaders — Ivo Demmers, Saskia Visser, Lawrence Jones-Walters, Gulden Yilmaz-Jongboom and Jene van der Heide — explain how they set a new course for the most recent KB programme (2019-2022).
This programme differed from previous KB programmes right from the start. In what way?
Demmers: “The biggest difference is that the research was more integrated. WUR’s Executive Board asked us to adopt a more transdisciplinary approach this time. The Ministry of Agriculture also wanted the research to be more coordinated this time round. Previous programmes tended to be carried out by the individual chair groups and institutes.”
Visser: “Ever since the launch of WUR’s strategic plan called ‘Finding Answers Together’ in 2019, the focus has increasingly been on collaboration between chair groups. The research themes WUR selected in this strategic plan also constituted the themes for the KB programme. What is more, this was the first time programme leaders were appointed from outside the research institutes rather than from within them.”
‘Working together isn’t just a pleasure in itself, it also helps you to stay focused on delivering a better future’
Saskia Visser
How did you get started as the new programme leaders?
Visser: “The plans for the various individual programmes had already been drafted before we met with one another for the first time. At that point, the plans were quite separate and each plan had a different setup. We only started as programme leaders after the individual programmes had been approved. So we focused on developing a joint approach that would make a real difference to society.”
Demmers: “We had to figure out our own way as we were a self-organising team. That was a challenge to start with, but looking back I think we got some good results. I’m proud of what we achieved as programme leaders.”
Why was it so important to have a dedicated team for this task?
Visser: “We could make sure the researchers shared their knowledge more. We did this in an effort to serve society better with our results and applications. Working together and learning new things isn’t just a pleasure in itself, it also helps you to stay focused on delivering a better future for people around the world. What is more, we made sure every euro was used effectively to generate more knowledge. That would have been much more difficult without a team dedicated to this task.”
‘Everyone recognises the added value of collaboration, but it isn’t always second nature to them’
Jene van der Heide
You all focused on encouraging collaboration. Did researchers see the benefit of this from the start?
Van der Heide: “Everyone recognises the added value of collaboration, but it isn’t always second nature to them. Researchers are responsible for various projects within their own research institute and often don’t have time to look for opportunities for collaboration, especially not with other institutes. That’s why we tried to go beyond collaboration to set up co-creation processes.”
Yilmaz-Jongboom: “A lot of researchers who work on the same topics hadn’t even met before. They weren’t aware of what their colleagues were doing in the other institutes. So the fact that teams working on the same issues now know one another is an incredible improvement in itself. As programme leaders, we devoted a lot of energy to this from the start. That was why we could make progress quickly. This approach was completely new, so it took people a while to get used to it.”
How did you go about bringing the researchers together?
Visser: “We realised at once that certain topics would need to be tackled as joint efforts. So we started connecting projects and people. As the programmes progressed, we saw more and more opportunities for collaboration on projects or shared goals. Then we brought project managers together, and from that point on the cooperation develops naturally as the researchers find one another in their enthusiasm for the topic.”
Jones-Walters: “We all have community days where we bring the project managers and teams together, get them talking about their projects and try to encourage innovation.”
Photo: Wageningen Marine Research
What did those discussions lead to?
Jones-Walters: “Our research on biodiversity is now focused more on food systems. This was partly because Ivo Demmers was driving a broader approach to food systems within his own programme. That isn’t something that came out of the blue. The time was ripe to start thinking about how to make food systems more nature positive, and that became the focus of an investment programme.”
So you made all kinds of connections with the content. What specific projects emerged from this?
Yilmaz-Jongboom: “We’ve got lots of examples. One example is the Healthy & Safe Food Systems and Circular & Climate-Neutral programmes joining forces to study the microbiome. We had various projects where we linked up knowledge about microbial communities in the intestines of humans and animals, in the soil and in crops. That know-how is important because there is overlap. We were the first to initiate something like this in this combined research field. Now more initiatives have followed and a large community of researchers are collaborating on the topic.”
Demmers: “In all the KB programmes, we are working on transitions for a sustainable and healthy future. That is at the heart of the KB programmes and WUR’s strategic plan as presented in 2019. It is also important to know how to make such transitions fair for everybody. That is the key question in the Just Transitions project, in which WUR researchers draw on the expertise of people working on Sustainable Development Goals worldwide. The idea is that you don’t just look at the transition itself but also at how you can get people on board who might not be keen at first. We started this project two years ago, mid-way through the programme.”
‘The only way to get people to change is to let them experience the benefits of cooperation first-hand’
Ivo Demmers
WUR has five strategic research themes where it wants to have a greater impact. These themes deal with circularity and climate adaptation, food security, healthy and safe food and a nature-inclusive society. WUR works on these broad issues in the Knowledge Base projects while also exploring the possibilities of data science and artificial intelligence. Read more about WUR’s Knowledge Base research
How did you get other stakeholders involved in the KB programmes so you could find answers together?
Demmers: “We don’t just aim for collaboration between disciplines within our own organisation but also with organisations in the field. That means we talk to farmers, researchers at other universities and NGOs. They are important stakeholders in the ongoing transitions. It’s not only about us: it’s also about other people. For example, the Just Transitions concept has already been picked up by stakeholders outside WUR.”
Jones-Walters: “Sometimes a kind of magic can happen when you take an interdisciplinary approach and work with other stakeholders.”
Photo: OANEvents
‘People don’t come together of their own accord; you have to make it happen’
Lawrence Jones-Walters
Can you give an example of this ‘magic’ when working together?
Jones-Walters: “Yes, I have a nice story that starts with a data scientist from Wageningen Food & Biobased Research. He came up with an artificial intelligence algorithm for assessing the ripeness of tomatoes. He had a little robot with lenses that can move through a greenhouse. The computer had been trained to identify the ripeness of a tomato and whether it is damaged or has a fungal disease. Then the robot picks the ripe tomatoes and throws away the ones that aren’t fit for human consumption.
The researcher took his technology to Wageningen Marine Research. In turn, the marine researchers showed him a drone that can float above the seabed. This drone takes photographs and videos of organisms on the seabed. The WFBR data scientist took his algorithm and applied it to the organisms on the seabed. Very soon the software was almost as good as a human operator in identifying these organisms, with a score of 80 per cent.
That was already a good example of sharing knowledge, but this story hasn’t ended yet. Other researchers were also interested in the algorithm. Another marine scientist asked, ‘Can we use this to determine whether cockles are alive or dead?’ I agreed to extend the project and it soon became clear the algorithm was able to do this too. That got the oyster industry interested. Someone from a spin-off company said, ‘We sort out oysters on our boats and we have to throw away a lot because we're not sure if they're alive or dead. Do you think artificial intelligence could help us with this?’ Again, the answer was yes. This is the story so far, but there might be more to come.”
Photo: Wageningen Univeristy & Research
How did you manage to get these collaborations to grow? What is your secret?
Demmers: “I think the only way to get people to change is to let them experience the benefits of cooperation first-hand. We are not their team leaders so we couldn’t push them too much, but we were able to build an environment that encourages cooperation.”
Jones-Walters: “Exactly. People don’t come together of their own accord; you have to make it happen. That’s why we arranged meetings to share knowledge. We also demonstrate leadership in the sense of bringing people together and helping them make progress.”
Visser: “Especially after the first year, they started to see the added value of collaborating more. Some researchers said to me that they now worked more with their colleagues at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research than with their own co-workers in the environmental sciences. It helps we are now so used to online communication tools because that makes it a lot easier to contact someone in a different team.”
Van der Heide: “If I look at the programme I’m in charge of, I see a lot more contact between researchers than in the past. Now, if they have a specific question or idea they say, ‘Is there someone I know in another KB programme? I’ll call them for a brainstorming session’. Or ‘Why don’t I go to a meeting or workshop organised by another KB researcher?’ We have definitely created an environment that encourages researchers to seek each other out.”
Demmers: “That’s right. We lit the spark and saw a different mindset emerge, one geared to collaboration.”
‘A lot of researchers who work on the same topics hadn’t even met before’
Gulden Yilmaz-Jongboom
What has your approach yielded in terms of follow-up research?
Visser: “Last year, we were given the assignment to think about how to follow up on our programmes. We started with creative brainstorming sessions in which we assembled all the project managers working on a broadly defined topic. They had to come up with ideas for further alignment of the projects, both within programmes and between programmes. Discussing the content and our shared vision let us make sure we didn’t end up duplicating funding as that would be wasteful. And when people come up with complementary ideas, we encourage the project managers to work together and share their knowledge.”
Demmers: “That collaborative mindset will remain. All that is needed is to fan the flames from time to time.”
Share this article