Ward Rauws joins The Young Academy

In 2024, The Young Academy will welcome ten new members. One of these members is Ward Rauws, spatial planner at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences, of the University of Groningen.

Social significance of spatial planning

Climate change, the energy transition, and an ageing population – these are all challenges that call for radical changes to our cities. Ward Rauws investigates how spatial planners can guide these changes despite having only limited influence. He also analyses how planners can make smarter use of the ingenuity of residents and users and the know-how they have gained from experience. This creates a new perspective on the social significance of spatial planning: planning interventions and policies serve not only to solve problems that we know and understand, but also to prepare cities for the unknown and unexpected.

Rauws is pleased with his appointment: "I am very honored to join The Young Academy. I look forward to representing geography and planning and committed to better policy in the field of sustainability, team science and transdisciplinary research. I also want to contribute to the exchange between universities; how do things work at the University of Groningen and how do they arrange things elsewhere? Individual scientists and scientific institutes can learn a lot from each other."

Installment

The ten researchers will officially be installed as members of The Young Academy on Tuesday 26 March 2024. During their five-year membership, they will champion projects focusing on science policy, interdisciplinarity, internationalisation, and the relationship between science and society. All the new members have proved themselves academically, and obtained their PhD less than a decade ago.

The Young Academy

The Young Academy is a dynamic and innovative group of top young scientists and scholars with outspoken views about science and scholarship and the related policy. The Young Academy organises inspiring activities for various target groups focusing on interdisciplinarity, science policy, and the interface between science and society.

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