dr. M.A. (Margo) van den Brink

2024 - ongoing. 'Floating Future'. The goal of the Floating Future project is to understand the potential of scaling up floating structures as a climate-proof and space-creating solution. The RUG research team focuses on the social value of living and working on large-scale floating structures (and the governance arrangements required for upscaling), and consists of Postdoc researcher Elizabeth MacAfee, PhD researcher Sonja Rombach, junior researcher Erika Vaarik, dr. Britta Restemeyer, prof. dr. Ina Horlings, and dr. Margo van den Brink (Governance Workpackage leader). See this video for an introduction into the project.

2024 - ongoing. 'Kleine rivieren voor Klimaat' (Project lead Van Hall Larenstein).

2024 - ongoing. Climate advocates: Taking the lead in community action for climate adaptation in the Northern Netherlands. PhD research project by Lisa Hof together with prof. Ina Horlings, dr. Lise Jans and dr. Anne van Valkengoed (both environmental psychology group). Funding: RUG/M20 PhD Scholarship. (Funding: RUG/M20 PhD Scholarship.

2023 - ongoing: Towards climate adaptive road infrastructure networks: Learning from climate adaptation in the water sector. PhD research project by Cheyenne Raskeyn, together with prof. dr. Wim Leendertse, prof. dr. Jos Arts, and dr. Tim Busscher. Funding: Rijkswaterstaat Climate Adaptation Research Programme.

2021 - 2025. 'Spatial quality in flood risk management' (Dutch name: 'RuiKwa-LAB, 'Ruimtelijke kwaliteit in waterveiligheidsbeheer'). This project aims at investigating how spatial quality can be secured in current dike reinforcement projects from the National Flood Protection Programme to create more resilient water safety landscapes. The project is a cooperation between the RUG and Wageningen University, crowd-funded by several Dutch water boards and consultancy agencies. Together with Prof. Jos Arts and Dr. Britta Restemeyer. A key output of the research was the clickable pdf 'Tijd voor een Kwaliteitskering!'.

2020 - 2021. 'Water as Leverage Resilient Cities Asia / WAL REFLECT project – reflective research project commissioned by Henk Ovink, the Special Envoy for International Water Affairs. Together with dr. Annet Kempenaar, dr. Tim Busscher, and prof. Jos Arts (all RuG) and OECD and AWB.

2019 - 2021. NWO SURF research project ‘Spatial designers as boundary spanners in transformations to a sustainable development.' Comparative research project of Room for the River (NL), Sigma Plan (Belgium), Rebuild by Design (New York) and Water as Leverage in Semarang, Indonesia. Together with dr. Annet Kempenaar, dr. Terry van Dijk and Naim Laeni.

2016 - 2020. 'Room for the River: organizing for spatial quality'. Evaluation of how Room for the River projects have produced spatial quality - which ways of working have been developed and to what extent were these successful in producing spatial quality? Research project commissioned by Rijkswaterstaat, together with dr. Tim Busscher and dr. Stefan Verweij (both University of Groningen).