WMC
WMC - Wageningen Microbiome Center
Wageningen Microbiome Center (WMC) is a collaboration between Wageningen University & Research, UNLOCK and Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW). WMC aims to promote microbiome-related research activities by facilitating and fostering interactions across science groups, sharing expertise and infrastructures.
In short:
- Stimulates interdisciplinary microbiome research
- Shares expertise and infrastructure
- Connects science with industry
- Focuses on broad ecosystems
- Contributes to societal challenges
The importance of microbes
Microbiomes are all around us, in all ecosystems, such as soils, plants, animals and humans.
All these micro-organisms are important for ecosystem functions and host health and are considered a research priority for moving towards circular systems.
The potential of microbiomes is recognised to play an important role for many societal challenges, such as:
- feeding a growing human population and dietary shifts
- halting biodiversity loss
- combatting climate change
Why in Wageningen?
Many microbiome-related centers are emerging and established worldwide. These centers are almost exclusively medically oriented and The Netherlands is no exception. But in Wageningen, we have a unique opportunity because WUR, NIOO-KNAW and UNLOCK cumulatively cover environmental and human ecosystems research. This puts us in a key position to propagate our niche approach.
Partners
NIOO-KNAW
The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) is a research institute that performs leading ecological research.
UNLOCK
UNLOCK is an open infrastructure for microbiology research, maintained by scientist from TU Delft and WUR.
