Dogs have for long been humans’ best friend, but the human–dog relationship can be problematic. A mismatch between dogs and their keepers can lead to welfare problems for both; for example: breeding for a specific look can result in health and welfare problems and importing dogs from other countries …

The biomass demand for the use as both renewable energy source and raw material for the biotechnology industry is increasing. Simultaneously, the supply of biomass is requested to become more costcompetitive. Innovative solutions for cost-effective biomass production should also avoid indirect land use …

In an on-going smart city development project, we are exploring the potential of distributed conversational speech interfaces in the public context of a city. By using the well-known Wizard of Oz method in combination with a lo-fi prototype, we involve participants in co-design with the focus on potential …

Due to climate change the frequency of extreme precipitation increases. To reduce the risk of damage by flooding, municipalities will need to retrofit urban areas in a climate-resilient way. To justify this investment, they need insight in possibilities and costs of climate-resilient urban street designs. …

For decades, the policy in the Netherlands’ public sector has been to stimulate and leverage ethnic and cultural diversity in the workforce. Although there can be different motives for public organizations to take up the challenge of implementing a diversity policy, among the most common is to add value. …

Urban areas are growing faster and in many cases create a fragmented landscape, threatening biodiversity. There are numerous organisms that can adapt to urbanization, such as insects. Multiple studies show a worldwide decline in their numbers. Insects are indispensable because of their important ecosystem …

Industrial control systems are essential for the functioning of our society since they control our electricity, water, agriculture, health, communication, transportation, emergency service and financial service. In the digital age of big data and data analytics these so-called critical infrastructures …

Speech interactions are often associated with virtual assistants and smart home devices, designed primarily for private contexts. A less developed domain is speech interfaces in public contexts. In a smart city development project, we explored the potential of distributed conversational speech interfaces …

In leaving the more traditional territories of the concert performance for broader societal contexts, professional musicians increasingly devise music in closer collaboration with their audience rather than present it on a stage. Although the interest for such forms of devising co-creative musicking …

The use of molecular tools for the detection and identification of invertebrate species enables the development of more easily standardisable inventories of biological elements for water quality assessments, as it circumvents human-based bias and errors in species identifications. Current Ecological …