Wageningen UR
Wageningen UR (Wageningen University and Research Centre) in The Netherlands is a university and food and agriculture research centre. Controversy has emerged over its research partnerships with the agrochemical and GM industry.
Wageningen UR is the headquarters of the research organisation, Plant Research International, which works within the Plant Sciences Group of Wageningen UR, together with Applied Plant Research (PPO) and Plant Sciences of Wageningen University.[1]
Research organisation RIKILT is also based at Wageningen UR.[2]
Activities and affiliations
According to an investigation by the Dutch television documentary programme, Zembla (the broadcast was titled "The Murder of the Honeybee"), Wageningen UR's ties with chemical giants such as Bayer and BASF have prevented it from being objective in its evaluation of the role of pesticides in bee mortality. Zembla listed all the projects Wageningen UR has carried out with third parties such as BASF and Bayer. Wageningen UR replied that these ties do not influence its research outcomes.[3]
With Delft University of Technology, Wageningen UR founded Groene Genetica (Green Genetics), a collaborative consortium led by industrial partners. According to a report in Dutch commissioned by Zembla and authored by researchers with the economic and environmental research organisation Profundo, "The industrial partners determine the research within the objective of the foundation. The industrial partners include Nunhems Netherlands (100% subsidiary of Bayer) and Syngenta Seeds (100% subsidiary of Syngenta). With a total budget of Euro 50 million for five years, the industrial partners together contribute approximately Euro 14 million to this research foundation, with around Euro 11 million coming from academic partners. This means that the Dutch government will pay the remaining Euro 25 million."[4]
Funding
People
- Aalt Dijkhuizen - President and Executive Board Chairman since March 2002. Former Managing Director at Nutreco (1998-2002), an animal feed company.[5]
Contact
- Address:
- Wageningen UR
- Wageningen
- Netherlands
- Phone:
- +31 317 48 0100
- Email:
- info@wur.nl
- Website:
- http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/
- [http//twitter.com/WageningenInt Twitter]
Resources
Notes
- ↑ Plant Resarch International (2011) Organisation chart, acc 19 Jul 2012
- ↑ Wageningen UR,Research Institutes, RIKILT, accessed 12 January 2013
- ↑ Kleis R (2011) Wageningen: Zembla drags our name through mud. Resource: For Wageningen UR students and employees. Acc 19 Jul 2012
- ↑ van Gelder JW and Kouwenhoven D (2011) Financiële banden van Wageningen UR met het bedrijfsleven: Een onderzoeksrapport voor Zembla. Amsterdam: Profundo, 2 March. Acc 20 Jul 2012. Quote translated from Dutch into English.
- ↑ LinkedIn (2012) Aalt Dijkhuizen. Acc 20 Jul 2012
