Expertise

The Netherlands Institute of Ecology employs over 250 people at its three locations and headquarters, making it the largest research institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

With an annual budget of approximately €15 million, its core task is to conduct basic ecological research that meets the highest international standards. As well as augmenting ecological knowledge, the results of such research have many applications: for example, in environmental research, environmental restoration, nature management, nature policy and in the creation of a sustainable society.

Evaluation: verdicts of “very good” to “excellent”
The research done at NIOO-KNAW is of exceptional calibre, as evidenced, among other things, by the Peer review issued in 2006 by the evaluating committee of six international scientists. These peers rated the Netherlands Institute of Ecology as 'very good' to 'excellent'. The committee praised not only the institute as a whole, but also the individual centres and research groups.

Two research groups – Animal Population Biology (now Animal Ecology) and Multitrophic Interactions (now Terrestrial Ecology) – received the highest accolade of “excellent”. The Animal Population Biology group is renowned for its research on the impacts of climate change on the food chains of birds (great tits and pied flycatchers), caterpillars and trees. The other group, Multitrophic Interactions, focuses more on the interactions between plants, herbivorous antagonists and their predators above and under the ground. Rated as “close to excellent” were the Aquatic Food Web research on food relationships in freshwater and the Terrestrial Microbial Ecology (now Microbial Ecology) research on the interactions between soil micro organisms. NIOO-CEME's coastal and marine research was judged to be “very good to excellent”. These plaudits confirm that the institute’s research is considered among the best in the world.

The committee also expressed admiration for the infrastructure in NIOO-KNAW’s three research centres. These have facilities for analytical chemistry, remote sensing, field trials, greenhouse trials and climate chamber research, and for genomics and other molecular techniques. So, the scientists studying micro organisms, for example, make full use of molecular biology techniques to investigate the diversity and functioning of communities of minuscule microbes.

NIOO-KNAW Vici winners are:

	2004 Prof dr W.H. (Wim) van der Putten (m) 12-06-1958. NIOO department Multitrophic Interactions (now Terrestrial Ecology), for his research proposal: Climate change causes plant invasions In response to a warmer climate, plant species are extending their range northwards. Plants that migrate without their natural enemies are invasive. The research entails scientists examining how aboveground and subterranean natural antagonists determine how many plants are present at a particular site, and measuring the advantages and disadvantages for metabolic activity.
	2006 Prof dr M.E. (Marcel) Visser (m) 07-07-1960. NIOO department Animal Population Biology (now Animal Ecology), for his research proposal: Adapting to a warmer world As a result of climate change, many animals are no longer adapted to their changed/changing environment. If they are to avoid dying out, they too must adapt. But how rapidly do species like the great tit adapt: can they keep pace with their changing world?
	2007 Prof dr G.A. (George) Kowalchuk (m) 10-06-1966. NIOO department Terrestrial Microbial Ecology (now Microbial Ecology), for his research proposal: Microbial ecology in the soil, from cell to planet Despite being tiny, individual microorganisms are essential for life on planet Earth. This research aims to be the first to establish links between microbial diversity and function at the micro scale of space and time with that at world scale and geological time spans.