News
This autumn, we will once again celebrate science during a science festival at the Forum Groningen on Friday 25 September 2026. This year, we call it Eureka! We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers who would like to help bring science closer to the public.
For many Dutch school pupils, climate change is an abstract concept. They know it exists and are concerned about it, but they hardly feel its effects in their daily lives. The dykes keep the water out; life goes on. It is precisely this distance that makes it difficult to empathise with people who are confronted with the consequences of climate change on a daily basis.
The US government recently decided to remove monitoring equipment that has been collecting data on the oceans since 2009. However, that decision was reversed by Congress on 17 June. ‘It would have been a real disaster for climate research,’ says University of Groningen professor Richard Bintanja.
The sixth edition of the New Energy Forum took place last week at the sun-drenched Entrance site in Groningen. As a co-organiser, the Wubbo Ockels School contributed to the programme with a Climate Disinformation Bingo and a session on climate adaptation. New this year was the well-attended scientific conference at Energy Academy Europe, organised one day prior to the festival.
The ceremony for the annual sub-Saharan Africa Thesis Award took place Friday afternoon at House of Connections. In the PhD category, the prize was awarded to Emília Come Zebra for her research on hybrid renewable energy systems in Mozambique. ‘These energy systems enable development in education, healthcare, and social progress.’
With the European Union's acceleration towards a climate-neutral future, the so-called 'twin transition' is expected to act as a catalyst. Within this context, the twin transition (energy and digital) is fostered to balance three competing goals: energy security, sustainability, and energy equity, forming the so-called energy trilemma.
The kick-off of the Northern Learning Community on Participation took place on 8 April 2026. The learning community will be called ‘&SamenSpel’ and is a multi-year, regional partnership focused on improving citizen participation in major societal challenges, such as the energy transition.
The Dutch power grid is grinding to a halt. Not because of a lack of electricity, in fact there is sometimes too much electricity, but because of an increasing lack of coordination between demand, infrastructure, and regulations. This is affecting the house building sector, ongoing sustainability, and economic growth. However, energy law experts Lea Diestelmeier and Jamie Behrendt do not think that the answer is simply to lay more cables. We also need smarter ways of using the existing capacity, new legislation and regulations, and changes in the way households and businesses consume electricity.
The twin transition depends on regulations and, therefore, the right of states to regulate, as well as the willingness of investors to commit capital to it, leading to tension between the right to regulate and protection of investment.
Global researchers, policymakers, civil society, and innovators are invited to gather in Groningen to shape sustainable futures beyond 2030.
Refining lithium not only results in the loss of large amounts of material, but also uses vast quantities of fresh water. Groningen deep-tech start-up IonIQs has developed a solution that could fundamentally change lithium extraction.
The Wubbo Ockels School for Energy & Climate is looking for a new scientific director who will further strengthen and expand the School’s position in the coming years, focusing on the themes of energy transition and sustainability.
Climate change is claiming an increasing number of victims in Europe. This is evident from the latest Lancet Countdown Europe, in which 64 researchers from 42 different countries map out the consequences of climate change for European public health. The results of this third edition are published today in the journal Lancet Public Health.
With the large-scale Just Art project, educational and research institutions in the Netherlands and abroad will, over the coming years, join forces with artists to combat climate injustice.