Sometimes it is good to step back and take a broad perspective on accomplishments. The UN Sustainable development goals are a useful framework in this context. Classifying our research within these goals allows us to assess the impact of this research. We see our work mostly within four sustainable goals: zero hunger, climate action, life on land and industry, innovation and infrastructure.
Zero Hunger [2]
A large fraction of our work focuses on establishing sustainable farming practices among smallholder farmers to ensure their food security and economic stability. Work together with CGIAR and Bioversity International has led to online courses and (applied and academic) research around the management of plant pathogens in banana crops, with a focus on soil health restoration by diversifying cropping systems through survey based assessments and field trials. Long-standing collaborations with IFPRI surrounding smallholder farmer insurance further supports the zero hunger sustainability goals. Teaching workshops on remote sensing within the context of the European Commission (DG SANTE) Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF) academy also supports food security efforts within the EU.
Climate action [13]
Phenology, or the study of seasonally occurring patterns, underpins much of our academic research. In recent years tropical phenology has taken center stage due to citizen science data recovery projects, and the derived analysis. Further supporting this research are data recovery efforts, workshops and software surrounding historical eco-climatological data for the central Congo Basin, and their impact on for example climate reanalysis (through Copernicus Climage Change Services).
Life on land [15]
Although notions of biodiversity are always implied through studying forest ecosystems we diversified our expertise to movement ecology of swifts. Through state-of-the-art bio-logging we try to describe the (migration) behaviour of swifts, within the context of questions surrounding climate change and biodiversity. This research, due to the insectivore nature of swifts, ties it deeply to topics such as the insect species collapse.
Industry, innovation and infrastructure [9]
Through our open software and hardware we contribute to sustainable and transparent open science practices. Our R packages are used by thousands of users, in research, government and industry. We also established the software protocols for large ecosystem networks, in particular the PhenoCam networks across the United States and Europe (through the ICOS initiative). Often these more practical aspects of research are easily forgotten, as they often support other sustainable goals. However, infrastructure remains the bedrock on which to build all other work, within and outside BlueGreen Labs.
Listing these achievements shows the breath of our work and expertise. It also shows how themes are connected, via the hardware and software to measure phenology, to basic research on establishing patterns in climate actions, to an applied component in working with international NGOs, such as IFPRI, to aim for zero hunger.
