LEUVEN SUSTAINABLE EARTH CENTER IN SEARCH FOR SYNTHESIS OF TWO WORLD VIEWS

With the creation of the Leuven Sustainable Earth centre K.U.Leuven marks a milestone in the research to unravel the complex interrelationships between the Earth system, technological development and societal processes.

For those among you who had the chance to attend lectures of Prof. Bruyninckx from the Institute for International and European Policy, the foundation of the LSUE sounds like a logical consequence of his class. Let’s recall the essential message: The global environmental trends that we are witnessing are the population, consumption, carbon dioxide and extinction spikes. Yes, Mother Earth desperately needs sustainable management to survive.

LSUE is situated at the interplay of ten research themes: biodiversity and ecosystem services, climate, energy, sustainable food and biomass production, interaction society and environment, geo-systems and sustainability in using natural resources, scientific methods for sustainable earth studies, soil and land, sustainable technologies and – last but not least – water.
The centre brings together researchers from the different faculties and departments of K.U.Leuven. This integrated approach is the added value - to exchange knowledge and develop technology about interrelated themes in order to find holistic solutions. The fact that these topics have been in the media and discussed extensively does not mean that the knowledge about these phenomena is readily available. Rather the contrary, scientifically these questions are by far not answered with predictability and certainty.

The scientific challenges that need to be addressed are such: To what extent are processes and fluxes within the Earth System affected by human activities and on what spatial and temporal scale are such changes taking place? What are the fundamental processes that regulate the geo- and ecosystems?

CO-FINANCING WANTED
The LSUE research centre was internally launched end of April 2009, but the public launch is still to take place at the Geo-institute in Heverlee on 19 June. Prof. Dr. Gerard Govers, the coordinator of the programme, will give the opening speech, which will be followed by a number of workshop sessions. This event is open to students, however, you have to hurry as registration closes end of May and is possible only as long as places are available.
The centre will take part in calls for project proposals together with partner universities to attract funds from the European Commission, the Flemish government and others. Several departments have already undertaken projects in Southern countries, for example, in Kenya and Uganda, and future cooperation with institutes from developing countries is envisaged.

GENDER & SUSTAINABILITY
Looking at the LSUE website, I came across only one female researcher in the entire steering board and theme leaders group. Prof. Dr. Nicole van Lipzig works at the Geo-institute’s section for Physical and Regional Geography and covers the climate issue. That made me think that the future concerns all of us and we – men and women - should get involved in the search for sustainable solutions for our planet. Girls and young women should be more encouraged to take up research careers in such important topics that shape our future, but that’s a whole different story… For social science students like me, for whom it is too late to change careers, there is only the option to get involved in the debate at societal and political level while keeping our individual ecological footprints as small as possible. Good luck to you, Ms. Lipzig!