This is the last issue of the VLAG FLASH before the summer holidays will start. As usually attention will be paid to management information, upcoming courses, thesis defences and grants & events.

Prof. Hans Tramper of the Bio Process Engineering Group is the new confidant in Wageningen for VLAG PhD fellows on matters of education and research supervision, see PhD information.

Special attention is asked for the following courses:

•	Nutrition and Sports, (27-28 September & 1-2 October) Please register ASAP.
•	Food Fermentation (15-19 October) Please register ASAP but before September 7th.

The deadline for submitting information for the 10th VLAG FLASH is 7 August.

Enjoy your summer holidays!

The first half of 2007 saw self-assessments of VLAG and its partner NUTRIM being rounded up. During this process we looked at the successes made as well as challenges met in past years.
Moving forward requires looking forward. In the second half of 2007 we will organise a strategy meeting with the representatives of all participating research groups and institutes in order to translate the lessons we learned into action and improvement for coming years. Soon more details about the approach and timing. Ideas are welcome and can be communicated to Vesna.Prsic@wur.nl.

Next meeting of VLAG Contact Persons will take place on 15th October 2007 starting at 3 PM in the lecture room 55 in Biotechnion. We have invited Willem Wolters (Wageningen EU Desk) as a guest speaker. His presentation about European Research Council, KP7, Marie Currie Programmes, and other relevant EU developments will start at 4.15 PM.
If interested in joining please contact Vesna.Prsic@wur.nl.

Wageningen University has appointed Dr. Michel W.F. Nielen as professor in Detection of Chemical Food Contaminants starting June 1st. He joins the laboratory of Organic Chemistry for the next five years. The appointment is for 20 %, and the other part of the week Michel will continue to work at RIKILT-Institute of Food Safety as leader of the multidisciplinary veterinary drug contaminants research programme. Michel Nielen and his group will develop multi-detection methods for chemical contaminants in the food chain by integrating innovations from molecular biology, biosensors, microfluidics and advanced mass spectrometry. Focus will be on robust molecular recognition based detection approaches and their interfacing with mass spectrometric identification in microfluidic systems. Part of his research will also be carried out in co-operation with other groups, for example the work on whole cell bioassays in collaboration with the Toxicology department. Michel Nielen (1958) studied pharmacy and chemistry in Leiden and obtained his PhD in 1987 in the field of Analytical Chemistry at the Free University of Amsterdam (Profs. Brinkman and Frei). He was subsequently head of an environmental analysis group at TNO in Delft, and of the chromatography and mass spectrometry groups at Akzo Nobel Corporate Research in Arnhem. He joint RIKILT as senior scientist in 2000. Michel Nielen is located in the Organic Chemistry department of the Chemistry Building at the Dreijen and can be reached via Michel.Nielen@wur.nl or phone number +31 (0)317 482361 (Mon) or +31 (0)317 475615 (Tue-Fri).

If you are an employee of Wageningen UR you will find information related to Wageningen UR's international activities/projects, funding sources, etc. on the Wageningen International intranet website. The intranet site can be found at:
http://www.wi.wur.nl/intranet
You will have to log in with your WUR log on name and password.

Two days a week the Wageningen International Helpdesk (Willem Wolters and Peter Jongebloed) will work 'on location'. They are available for all kinds of assistance around projects financed by the EC Framework Programme, from writing the proposal to the contract negotiation and the execution of the project.
For more information: Peter Jongebloed (Peter.Jongebloed@wur.nl)
The Helpdesk plans to repeat the course on the administrative procedures within FP7 during which background information on FP7 and the different phases will be dealt with.
For more information: Jaap Richter Uitendenbogaardt (Jaap.RichterUitdenbogaardt@wur.nl)

• V. Visschers (Vivianne) 26-06-2007, 16:00 hrs, Maastricht Prof. N.K. de Vries, Prof. W.F. Passchier, Dr. R. Meertens • J.D. Ramakers (Julian) Immune modulating effects of β-glucan, fish oil and conjugated linoleic acid. 28-06-2007, 16:00 hrs, Maastricht Prof. R.P. Mensink, Dr. J. Plat • L.M. Hornstra (Luc) Germination of Bacillus cereus spores - The role of germination receptors. 03-09-2007, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. W.M. de Vos, Prof. T. Abee • K.T.B. Knoops (Kim) Dietary patterns, biological risk factors and survival in European elderly men and women. 07-09-2007, 16:00 hrs, Wageningen Prof. W.A. van Staveren, Prof. D. Kromhout, Prof. C.P.G.M. de Groot

• E.S. Klaassens (Eline) Molecular functionality of intestinal bifidobacteria: A genomics approach. 21-09-2007, Wageningen Prof. W.M. de Vos, Dr. E.E. Vaughan, Dr. F.H.J. Schuren • T. Baks (Tim) Process development for gelatinisation and enzymatic hydrolysis of starch at high concentrations. 12-10-2007, Wageningen Prof. R.M. Boom, Dr. A.E.M. Janssen • H.J. Joosten (Henk-Jan) 3DM: From data to medicine. 07-12-2007, Wageningen Prof. J.A. van den Berg, Dr. P.J. Schaap, Dr. J.J.M. Vervoort

The 2007 edition of the Intermediair Career orientation guide claims containing information about everything you need to know about career planning and job hunting. We have received 40 copies of the guide which is meant for the PhD candidates approaching their defence. If you belong to this category please come by VLAG office to pick your copy of the book.
For more information please contact Vesna.Prsic@wur.nl.

Prof. Hans Tramper of the department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences (Bio Process Engineering Group) of the Wageningen University is the counsellor for VLAG PhD fellows on matters of education and research supervision.
All personnel at the Wageningen UR have been able, for already quite a while, to appeal to counsellors for matters such as discrimination, harassment and aggressiveness at the work place or labour conflicts. The role of Prof. Tramper as confidant is having another orientation that can bring added value for all PhD fellows.
A few situations where PhD fellows can feel the need for counselling:

• They sit in-between supervisors who can not agree with each other on how the research should progress or what courses the PhD fellow should follow;
• They are discouraged by their supervisors to reserve the time during their research to attend courses or symposia;
• They feel that their work is not being sufficiently appreciated (qualitatively or quantitatively) and therefore they are unmotivated to go on;
• The supervisors are not happy with the quality of their work or with the progress already made;
• They have difficulties expressing their ideas and feelings to their supervisors, or they do not seem to be able to reach a consensus with them on how the research should proceed;
• They have problems regarding the establishment of the authorship of their scientific publications.

The confidant and PhD student will try together to find a constructive way to overcome the difficulties and if necessary he will involve other people (only with your consent) who can work with you in solving your problem. In any case, you will not be left alone to deal with your difficulties.
You can contact Prof. Tramper directly by phone or e-mail to make an appointment.

•	Nutrition & sports - 2nd edition 27 - 28 September and 1 - 2 October 2007, Wageningen This course is designed for trainers, coaches, sports dieticians, PhD students in human or animal nutrition as well as product development managers (with a minimum of a BSc education level) with an interest in improving their knowledge in the domain of nutrition and sports.
•	Production and use of food composition data in nutrition - 8th edition 1 - 13 October 2007, Wageningen
•	Food fermentation - 3rd edition 15 - 19 October 2007, Wageningen After an introduction into the biodiversity of fermentation micro-organisms and the product technologies involved, this course deals with the specific aspects of functionality related to health, flavour and ingredients, models and control of fermentation and quality, and ~omics in particular the relevance of proteomics, genomics and metabolomics in fermentation innovation and control.
•	Polysaccharides as Food Colloids and Biomaterials: Fundamentals and Applications - 1st edition 22 - 24 October 2007, Wageningen
•	VLAG PhD-week - 18th edition 5 - 8 November 2007, Wageningen This activity is a compulsory part of the VLAG education programme and it is meant for the PhD students that have recently started their PhD study.
•	Management of Microbiological Hazards in Foods - 10th edition 19 - 23 November 2007, Wageningen The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.
•	Master class Nutrigenomics - 7th edition 19 - 22 November 2007, Wageningen During the Master class we will discuss new developments in nutrigenomics research including specific aspects of human and mouse studies, molecular epidemiology, applications of microarray analysis, metabolite profiling or biomarker identification strategies.
•	Food perception and food preference - 4th edition 26 - 30 November 2007, Wageningen The course will focus on how food preferences develop and how they are maintained or changed in later life. Special attention will be devoted to perceptual and sensory determinants of preference behaviour and food intake. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.
•	Genetics and physiology of food-associated microorganisms - 3rd edition 10 - 12 December 2007, Wageningen This advanced course aims to develop expertise in the genetics and physiology of food-associated micro-organisms, in particular with respect to their reactions to variety of stresses that can be imposed deliberately on micro-organisms during food processing, by food preservation techniques and during distribution and storage. The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.

•	PhD SummerSchool on: Food Policy afor developing countries: governance, institutions and markets in global, national and local food systems - 2 - 13 July (visit MG3S)
•	Techniques for Writing and Presenting a Scientific Paper - 3 July (visit WGS)
•	PhD Competence Assessment - 5 September (visit WGS)
•	Project- and Time Management - 11 September (visit WGS)
•	Information Literacy, incl. Introduction Endnote - 11 September (visit WGS)
•	Scientific Writing - 27 September (visit Centa)
•	Career Orientation - 17 October (visit WGS)
•	Professional in Supervision - 17 October (visit WGS)
•	Personal Efficacy - 18 October (visit WGS)
•	Career Perspectives - 23 October (visit WGS)
•	The Art of Writing - autumn (visit CENTA)