R-LINK krijgt naast haar promovendi en onderzoeksassistenten ook regelmatig versterking in de vorm van stagiair(e)s en post docs. Onze nieuwste aanwinsten Iulian, Sara en Feiqian stellen zich voor.
Iulian Barba Lata has recently started as a post-doc and will conduct his research on the Smart inclusive cities track, connected to the Land Use Planning group at Wageningen & Research, the AMS institute and R-LINK. “I have a background in planning and design, and just completed my PhD in Cultural Geography. The dissertation provides a conceptual and empirical exploration of experimental interventions across land-water interfaces in both urban and rural settings from the Netherlands and Russia. The results challenge a series of normative assumptions on ways of thinking about innovation. Within my current post-doc research, I expand on these ideas in relation to ongoing discussions around Smart Urbanism and Urban Living Labs, to better understand what are factors that could stimulate effective environments for socially and spatially inclusive innovation processes.
Sara Smaal is momenteel bezig met een Research Master Spatial Sciences aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Binnen deze master was ook gelegenheid om mee te werken aan een van de onderzoeken van de RUG. R-LINK sprong er meteen uit: “Ik denk dat lokale samenwerkingen tussen burgers, marktpartijen en overheid steeds noodzakelijker gaan worden om creatieve, innovatieve en breed gedragen stedelijke ontwikkelingen te bewerkstelligen.” De komende tijd zal Sara zich, onder begeleiding van Wendy Tan, bezighouden met het opstellen en testen van een survey die zal gaan over de de motivatie, self-efficacy en capaciteiten van CLIUD stakeholders (subproject 4). Op deze manier wil ze kijken naar welk type mensen betrokken raakt bij dit soort initiatieven en welke rol individuen spelen in het ontwikkelingsproces van CLIUDs.
Feiqian Wu is a Chinese student who is currently doing her master program at Wageningen University. She ’s very enthusiastic about land use planning, especially about the way in which a Smart City gets developed in an institutational perspective and with a given background. “It is intriguing to see how the governance structure and involvement of the masses will influence the urban development process.” By joining R-LINK, Feiqian gets the chance to combine her research interests with the real practice in a more social oriented style. In the meantime, she also has a role at Platform31 which can be beneficial for the social networking. With regard to her role in R-LINK, she is seeking to channel in the smart solutions from Smart City into strategic planning problems, in terms of solving challenges in the incrementing urban development context.