Geert Timmermans works as an urban ecologist for the Green and Healthy City team of the City of Amsterdam and is responsible for policies on ecology and biodiversity in Amsterdam. Timmermans: 'In these times of both climate and biodiversity crises, it is crucial that science and the public sector join forces to develop the city and the energy transition in such a way that biodiversity is promoted at the same time.'

Nature-inclusive city  

For such a nature-inclusive design, it is important that different disciplines of spatial planning, such as urban planning, infrastructure, (landscape) architecture, green and water managers, ecologists and scientists work together to be able to integrate the various nature-inclusive and biodiversity bjectives into the plans.   

IBED is happy with the appointment: 'The appointment of Geert Timmermans as Honorary Fellow at IBED offers great opportunities for even more cooperation with the City of Amsterdam in the fields of urban ecology, water and circularity. The municipality has a lot of practical expertise, and the city offers enormous opportunities as a living laboratory. We already see examples of this in research into light pollution (BioClock), water reuse (AquaConnect) and biodiversity monitoring (Arise). Large infrastructure projects, such as the renovation of the quay walls in Amsterdam's world-famous canals also offer many opportunities for a nature-inclusive city. We therefore hope that with this collaboration we can inspire not only the municipality, but also similar urban areas in intensively used deltas,' says IBED scientific director Prof. Annemarie van Wezel.  

As an Honorary Fellow, Geert Timmermans will fulfil this bridging role and help shape Amsterdam's livig labs, thus creating a link between the scientific research on promoting biodiversity carried out at the UvA Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) and the environmental plans an spatial planning developed by the City of Amsterdam.  

Honorary Fellow  

Geert Timmermans is the first Honorary Fellow of the UvA Faculty of Science. The special title Honorary Fellow was created to recognise individuals who excel in their field at a practice-related level, in order to maintain close ties with civil society and jointly carry out research projects with a practice-related component or long-term objective.