Associate Professor Ulrike Dusek, and other UG research-consortia, have been awarded with substantial NWO grants

Various UG research consortia have been awarded substantial grants by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The  Open Competition Domain Science–XL grants  (ENW–XL, previously called the ENW–GROOT grants), worth a few million euros, have been awarded to various research proposals within the exact and natural sciences. The proposals include research on ‘cold’ molecules, which could teach us more about the Big Bang, and research into the emergence and abatement of urinary tract infections.

The ENW–XL grants are specifically intended for research consortia, which must involve a scientific collaboration between at least two persons. The research proposals must be curiosity- driven, unrestrained, and of a fundamental nature.

Ulrike Dusek  (ESRIG, Faculty of Science and Engineering, is a main applicant with her subject; 'The role of clouds in nitrogen chemistry'

Due to high nitrogen emissions from traffic and agriculture, nitrogen deposition has become a serious problem in the Netherlands. In the CAINA project researchers will investigate how clouds convert nitrogen emissions to harmful particulate matter. At the same time, clouds themselves are changed by nitrogen pollutants and this can have cooling effects on the global climate. The researchers will use the advanced instrumentation of the Dutch Ruisdael Observatory and detailed cloud models to investigate both the effect of cloud on nitrogen pollutants and in turn their effect on clouds.

read the article