Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1880. Its ambition is to contribute to a better world through outstanding education and ground-breaking research. VUA strives to be a university where personal development and commitment to society play a leading role. A university where people from different disciplines and backgrounds collaborate to achieve innovations and to generate new knowledge. The teaching and research encompass the entire spectrum of academic endeavor – from the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences through to the life sciences and the medical sciences. VUA is home to more than 31,000 students and employs over 5,000 individuals. Established in 1971, the Institute for Environmental Sciences (IVM) is a leading environmental research institute that is internationally recognised for its high-quality research output in a range of environmental disciplines, as well as for its interdisciplinary work. The mission of the institute is to contribute to sustainable development and care for the environment through scientific research and teaching. IVM aims to do excellent problem-oriented research that is useful to a wide range of stakeholders in the Netherlands and internationally. A unique strength of our research is to understand sustainability problems in their social and economic context. IVM’s research community works within four departments: Environmental Economics; Environmental Geography, Environmental Policy Analysis; and Water and Climate Risk. Since 2001 IVM has been part of the Faculty of Science at the VUA.
