Wageningen UR and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam signed an agreement with the University of Nagoya, Japan for the exchange of Global Change students and researchers. Eddy Moors and Pavel Kabat, representing the Earth System Science and Climate Change Group of Wageningen UR, and Michiel van der Molen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, were present at the signing of the exchange agreement on 27th Januari 2009 in Japan.
Since 1996, the Wageningen climate change experts have been cooperating with Nagoya University at the research station Spasskaya Pad in East Siberia. This research was primarily aimed at understanding the carbon and water cycle of ecosystems on permafrost. The agreement expands and facilitates this cooperation and the field of research, by an easy exchange of students and researchers between Nagoya University, Wageningen UR and Vrije Universiteit Amterdam.
Most of the research is related to Global Change, including the issues of land atmosphere interactions, monsoon patterns and biogeochemical cycles.
Nagoya University is a top University in Japan. In 2008 3 alumni of the Nagoya University were awarded a Nobel Prize (2 in Physics and 1 in Chemistry). The sections of Nagoya University involved in the agreement are the Graduate School of Bio-agricultural Sciences, the Graduate School of Environmental Studies, and the Hydrospheric Atmospheric Research Centre.
The agreement allows the exchange of a maximum of 5 Master of Science (MSc) students per year and also offers the possibility for Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) students and researchers to spend part of their research Japan.