UT researcher Boelo Schuur works closely with industry on green solutions for separation processes. "Almost everything we see around us today is still made from oil. We need to change that. We will need to derive our raw materials directly from nature, without having to wait millions of years for them to become fossils. That’s an essential part of making our economy more sustainable."

At the NanoLab of the University of Twente’s MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, Mark Huijben and other scientists and students look for technological breakthroughs by studying and designing new materials at nanoscale.

‘The key question in the development of social robots,’ says Vanessa Evers, ‘is this: can a robot respond sensibly and helpfully in situations in which people find themselves, such as overcoming addiction, learning new skills, recognizing and analysing behaviour, or engaging in interaction.’

Governments and companies are investing hundreds of billions of euros in devising and implementing measures to protect us from the effects of climate change – or better yet, to curb or reverse climate change. Climate scientist Maarten van Aalst’s job is to figure out how and where we should invest all that money.