Partner 01: Wageningen University

Partner description

Wageningen University, part of Wageningen University & Research (WUR), is the only university in the Netherlands that specifically focuses on the theme ‘healthy food and living environment’. WU works closely together with governments and the business community. Wageningen University's researchers are active around the globe, and the university hosts over 12,000 students from over 100 countries and employs around 2,500 staff.

WU’s mission is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. Both WU's research and education are highly acclaimed. In 2018 students ranked Wageningen University as the best university in the Reference Guide for Higher Education in the Netherlands for the fourteenth year in a row. Involved in the project are WUs Department of Environmental Sciences, chair group Soil Physics & Land Management (SLM) and chair group Resource Ecology (REG), and WUs Department of Plant Sciences, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and Department of Animal Sciences, Host-Microbe Interactomics group.

Website: http://www.wur.nl

Role in the project

WU will be the coordinator and main responsible for the project. WU will be involved in all 9 work packages (WP): WP1& WP2 (as the responsible of the Dutch Case Study Site, CSS9-
Groningen), WP3 (task 3.2 - on the improvement of FOCUS exposure models, and task 3.4 on the Validation of exposure estimates), WP4 (task 4.1 & task 4.4 - on the assessment of the effects of PPPs’ mixtures on terrestrial non-target organisms and their functions, and on animal health, respectively), WP5 (tasks 5.1-5.3 - on the toolbox development and health impact assessment), WP6 (task 6.3 - ex-ante assessment), and WP7 (task 7.2 & 7.3 - on transition paths towards more sustainable plant production), WP8 (task 8.1 & 8.4 - on the creation of the project website and of the data management plan, respectively) and WP9 (all tasks- project coordination and management).

Involved personnel

	Prof. dr Violette Geissen - Overall project coordinator She is a personal professor in Soil Physics and Land Management group with >20 years of experience in soil sciences and agronomy. She has published around 100 articles in international scientific journals. Other relevant experiences include the coordination of large international projects, such as EU-projects CariWatNet and CASCADE.
	Prof. dr. Ritsema - Deputy project coordinator He is chair holder of the Soil Physics and Land Management group with >30 years of experience in fundamental and applied research in the area of land, soil and hydrology interactions, and in coordinating large (inter)national multidisciplinary research projects (last decades successfully coordinated 14 EU-funded projects) and programs.
	Dr. da Graca Silva is a researcher in the Soil Physics and Land Management group with expertise in soil chemistry, ecotoxicology and risk assessment. She has been working in distribution of pesticide residues in European soils.
	Dr. Harkes is Researcher at the Soil Physics and Land Management group with expertise in the area of soil microbiology and micro-ecology in natural- and agricultural soils. Special interest in sustainable soil management practices and the effect on soil life. Ample experience in developing tools to extract soil micro-organismal DNA and RNA.
	Dr. Lwanga is Senior Researcher, with more than 15 years of experience on soil ecology, focusing on soil health assessment in natural and managed areas.
	Dr. Wells is Full Professor and Chair of Host-Microbe Interactomics (HMI). He is an inventor on 19 patent applications. He has ample experience in managing complex, multi-partner R&D projects and has participated in 4 European projects.
	Prof. van Langevelde Associate Professor and interim chair of the Resource Ecology group with expertise on animal ecology, plant-animal interaction and mathematical modelling.
	Dirk Goossens organises the collection (and partial analysis) of pesticide-contaminated particles and quantifies their emission, airborne transportation, and deposition.
	Dr. Boekhorst is a bioinformatician at the Host-Microbe Interactomics group, focussing on the interaction between microbes, microbiomes and their (human) hosts.
	Dr. Martins Bento is a researcher with expertise in the occurrence and fate of pesticides in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. She has done work on pesticides behavior in soil and their transport risk assessment to off-target environments, and on the occurrence, potential sources and ecological risk assessment of pesticides in coastal waters.
	Dr. Gai
	Dr. Meng is a researcher at the Soil Physics and Land Management Group with the expertise in soil nutrient dynamics, plastics pollution and ecotoxicology risk assessment. He has been working in test the ecotoxicology effects of mixture pesticides on earthworms.
	Dr. Jegede is a researcher at the Soil Physics and Land Management group with expertise in soil ecology, ecotoxicology, and ecological risk assessment. He has worked significantly with different soil invertebrates as bioindicators for all kinds of toxicants (e.g. metals, pesticides, and other organic pollutants).