Jonas Colen Ladeia Torrens

Spark trainer

My research is about understanding and enabling contemporary transformations towards sustainability, and I am very committed to inter and transdisciplinarity. I have focused on urban, policy and societal experimentation with sustainability, novel approaches for transformative innovation, and on the role of transdisciplinarity in supporting these processes. Increasingly, I am interested in the intersection between personal and societal transformations, considering how we can prepare students with knowledge and wisdom to navigate turbulent times as engaged change agents. The Spark course is unique. It is a creative and profound process that helped consolidate my competencies for interdisciplinary research and hone into promising new ideas. It’s a breath of fresh air!

Mona Giersberg

Spark trainer

My research is located at the crossroads of (animal) welfare, sensor-based and precision livestock farming (PLF), and ethics. I studied veterinary medicine and obtained a PhD at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (DE). Before moving to Utrecht University, I worked as an animal scientist at WUR (NL). At UU, I joined the Centre for Sustainable Animal Stewardship (CenSAS), which brings together science and society in a dialogue on animal related issues. Among other projects, I investigated the concept of animal resilience, the socio-ethical dimensions of PLF, the systematics of responsibilities for animal welfare, and the behaviour of poultry and pigs. I am very excited to be part of CUCo’s SPARK program in which interdisciplinarity is the goal (and not a means), where I get to know researchers I would probably never have sought collaboration with in the first place, and where we create something new and unusual together.

Annemarie Horn

Inter- & transdisciplinary researcher

I am an assistant professor at the Liberal Arts and Sciences department, Utrecht University, where I teach courses on interdisciplinary methods and competencies in the Liberal Arts and Sciences bachelor. In my research, I study inter- and transdisciplinary research practices. I am particularly interested in understanding how knowledge integration can be facilitated and the role that early career scholars play in inter- and transdisciplinary research consortia. I teamed up with CUCo as an accompanying researcher to engage in action research to understand collaboration and integration practices of Spark and UCo teams and how to strengthen those.