Transdisciplinary EU science institute needs funds urgently

Abstract

Improving Rubisco's carbondioxide-fixing capability by genetic engineering is unlikely to enhance crop productivity significantly on its own (R. J. Ellis Nature 463, 164-165; 2010). Crop yield does not depend on a single enzymatic reaction: it is the result of a population-scale process that is the outcome of a series of source and sink regulated developmental and growth processes (R. K. M. Hay and J. R. Porter The Physiology of Crop Yield Wiley-Blackwell, 2006). The success of modern, highyielding crop varieties is mainly down to their larger leaves, which intercept more light and provide more shade against competitive weeds. The management and agronomy of crops are typically more important as drivers of yield than genetics. They also make crop production more sustainable. Crop physiologists have appreciated for a long time that to increase growth, increases in photosynthetic rate are accompanied by higher respiration costs because more growth substrates and more proteins have to be constructed. The idea that respiration and 876

HESS Opinions "Integration of groundwater and surface water research: an interdisciplinary problem?"

“…Among the obstacles to interdisciplinary research that are usually mentioned first is the traditional disciplinary organization of educational systems and research institutes. Related to this is the observation that interdisciplinary research limits career advancement and funding possibilities (Froedeman et al, 2010;Vasbinder et al, 2010). This might be difficult to believe in view of the overwhelming consensus on the importance of interdisciplinarity.…”

Global change impacts on the Upper Danube Catchment (Central Europe): a study of participatory modeling

“…It has been argued in literature on interdisciplinarity that activities outside their own disciplines drastically limit the career options of young scientists without tenure (Froedeman et al 2010;Roy et al 2013;Vasbinder et al 2010). Publications in high impact journals of the author's own discipline are still seen as the most important sign of scientific excellence (Fischer et al 2011).…”

From climate research to climate compatible development: experiences and progress in the Netherlands

“…The RACMO climate model was revised (van Meijgaard et al 2012) and refined with new knowledge about the boundary layer (Baas et al 2008), aerosols (Weijers et al 2011;Ten Brink et al 2009), soil hydrology parameters (Jong et al 2008), cloud formation (Bouniol et al 2010;Schutgens and Roebeling 2009) and evaluated with European remote sensing data (Wipfler et al 2011). This was done in a multidisciplinary approach in which insights from physics, soil science and hydrology (Brauer et al 2009), derived from monitoring projects (Russchenberg et al 2011), were combined with meteorology.…”

“…Members of the Dutch climate research community proved that they were able to develop two large research programme proposals, which were funded within a competitive context: Climate changes Spatial Planning (CcSP) and its successor Knowledge for Climate (KfC) (Kabat et al 2005b;Van Nieuwaal et al 2009). These programmes ran from 2004 to 2012 and from 2008 to 2014, respectively.…”