The Leiden-Delft-Erasmus (LDE) Climate & Biodiversity program successfully launched its first Seed Fund at a kick-off workshop with four awarded projects in the beautiful TU Delft Hortus Botanicus, on June 5th 2025.
The Seed Fund aims to catalyze practice-oriented research and education for challenges on the nexus of climate change and biodiversity loss, by facilitating cross-university collaboration with societal partners, focused on existing and new living labs. The kick-off workshop goals were to foster connections among project consortia, build mutual understanding of each project and enhance their long-term impact. The interactive and impact-driven workshop brought together four project consortia, including researchers, PhD students and societal partners, to kick off their awarded Seed Projects.
The afternoon started with coffee at the terrace of the botanical gardens and a short welcome by James Byng, the director of the TU Delft Hortus Botanicus. The LDE program Climate & Biodiversity was introduced by program coordinator Suzanne van den Bosch, followed by an energizer and short pitches to introduce the four Seed Projects.
Corinne van Voorden from the TU Delft Innovation & Impact Centre facilitated an impact workshop in which participants brainstormed in two rounds about increasing the societal impact of their Seed Projects.
In the first workshop round, participants envisioned the full growth of their Seed Projects 10 to 20 years into the future. Using creative visualizations they explored how their project could impact biodiversity loss and climate change. The project consortia also considered the broader societal impact, both positive and unintended, and mapped out future collaborations crucial for success. They also reflected on who would be the end-users and how the results of their projects could be applied in the future.
In the second workshop round, participants shifted focus to the short- and medium-term actions needed to realize their long-term vision. Building on their earlier visualizations, the project consortia identified necessary steps between now and the future, including potential follow-up projects and collaborations with existing projects or initiatives. They also identified essential stakeholders and what these actors would need to make impact. Each group concluded with their next immediate action, for example including partners from industry, involving projects at different urban scales or involving the community.
The workshop was concluded with plenary pitches, in which the participants presented their results “from the heart”. The key take aways of this workshop were summarized by Corinne van Voorden, who highlighted the importance of engaging stakeholders and end-users timely, sharing research ideas in an early stage, creating awareness on the importance of your project, building on results of existing projects and preparing an impact pitch.
The kick-off workshop closed with informal networking over drinks in the pavilion of the TU Delft Hortus Botanicus. The LDE program Climate & Biodiversity thanks all the participants for their creative and inspiring input to the kick-off workshop and looks forward to supporting the growth of the Seed Projects!
A new call for this Seed Fund, staring in January 2026, will be announced in the next newsletter of the LDE program Climate & Biodiversity. If you want to stay updated, you can register for this newsletter by sending an email to program coordinator Suzanne van den Bosch: s.j.m.van.den.bosch@cml.leidenuniv.nl