Wageningen University & Research

Our mission: ‘To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life’.

The world is changing. The population is growing fast and prosperity is increasing in many regions. Around the world, land use for food production is reaching its limits. The climate is visibly changing while fossil fuels are becoming ever scarcer. Meanwhile, people are attaching more importance to healthy, safe and sufficient food.

It is this changing world that is the real specialisation of Wageningen University & Research (since 1918); the domain of healthy food and living environment. This domain can be broken down into the following three core areas:

1. Food, Feed & Biobased Production: The sustainable production and processing of food, feed and biobased products, international food chains and networks, food safety and the health aspects of food.
2. Natural Resources & Living Environment: Natural habitats, landscape, land use, the management of water, sea and natural resources and biodiversity.
3. Society & Well-being: The study of human behaviour in relation to food and living environment, lifestyle and perceptions, and focus on institutions, governance, the market and chains, and societal innovations.

Together with our partners we aim to continue to lead the way, bundling financial flows and using our knowledge to design applicable solutions for the major challenges our world is facing. This is the ultimate ambition of Wageningen University & Research.

The Wageningen approach: the joint strengths of the university and specialised research institutes and the connections between our scientific, technological and social disciplines. We are well aware that our partners – governments, companies, NGO’s and research institutes at home and abroad – need to achieve genuine social breakthroughs. This is why we also cooperate on a large scale in public-private partnerships, as well as in confidential contract research. At the same time, we educate many thousands of students from over a hundred countries to be professionals in the domain of ‘healthy food and living environment’ every year.

This combination of research, education and value creation has made us internationally successful and explains our strong global position as a supplier of application-oriented and field-based research. It is with good reason that we have a very high success rate in attracting EU funds for research and score so highly in international rankings and citation indexes.

• WUR ranking in QS World University Rankings 2021 – Agriculture and Forestry: no. 1 (6 years running)
• WUR ranking in National Taiwan University Ranking, World Universities 2020 – Agriculture: no. 1 (9 years running)
• WUR ranking in QS World University Rankings 2021 – Environmental Sciences: no. 5
• WUR ranking in Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021: no. 62
• WUR ranking in Keuzegids in full time university education 2021: no. 1 (16 years running)
• WUR ranking in Academic Ranking of World Universities 2020 – Agricultural Sciences: no. 1 (4 years running)
• WUR ranking in Academic Ranking of World Universities 2020 – Food Science & Technology: no. 2
• WUR ranking in National Taiwan Ranking 2020 – Environment & Ecology: no. 2
• WUR ranking in National Taiwan Ranking 2020 – Plant Sciences & Animal Sciences: no. 2
• WUR ranking in UI GreenMetric 2020 – most sustainable university: no. 1 (4 years running)

Wageningen University & Research MOOCs

With our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Wageningen University & Research is committed to improving the digital learning experience for all students by creating engaging, interactive MOOCs within our knowledge domain of ‘healthy food and living environment’. Our courses found below can be audited for free. Or learners can choose to receive a verified certificate for a small fee.

So, are you looking to enhance your career through Continuing Education? Or are you curious to discover new professional interests by engaging in Lifelong Learning. Gain new insights and in-demand skills for your personal development as you learn about society’s most pressing challenges. For example, learn how to feed more than 9 billion people while also protecting the environment. Or about the impact of your everyday choices on greenhouse gas emissions (ghg).

Select a course and join WageningenX in our mission to ‘explore the potential of nature and improve the quality of life’.