Research on biodiversity by Leiden University of Applied Sciences nominated for the RAAK Award

The research is a collaboration between the Leiden Centre for Applied Bioscience at Leiden University of Applied Sciences, the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) at Leiden University, and Naturalis Biodiversity Center. The research was conducted at two locations: The Living Lab of Leiden University, where polder ditches are recreated, and the Polder Lab of the citizens’ initiative Land van Ons, which consists of actual agricultural land.

Biodiversity

“One of the greatest societal challenges of our time is how to keep the Dutch peat meadow landscape livable, sustainable, and biodiverse in the face of the nitrogen crisis,” says lecturer Arjen Speksnijder, who leads the project together with lecturer Peter Lindenburg.

Pesticides can be found almost everywhere, in cleaning products, animal feed, straw, and more. These different types of pesticides end up in the soil and eventually in the water. That is why the researchers are examining how fertilization and nitrogen affect soil and aquatic life.

Public Award

“Being nominated alone is already a reason to be happy,” says Lindenburg. “It shows that there is recognition for the way we conduct our research, that all the measuring and detecting is appreciated, even when there are not yet ready-made results.”

Omics in the Polder is competing for both the jury award and the public award of the RAAK Award. The winner of the jury award receives €25,000, and the public award winner receives €5,000. Voting for the public award is available online.