We would like to draw your attention to the deadline for application for the Young Algaeneers Symposium, 14-16 June 2012, on February 1st, 2012!

The 12th edition of the Summer Course Glycosciences will be held in Groningen from 3-7 June 2012. The website is now online and registration has been opened. We advise you to register as soon as possible as the last edition was overbooked! Don't worry about your poster abstract; it can be submitted later.

There are also still places available for Applied biocatalysis, to be held in Groningen from 26-28 March, for Biorefinery for Biomolecules, to be held in Wageningen from 16-17 April.

Don't forget our policy: first to come, first to serve!

The deadline for submitting information for the 45th VLAG FLASH is Friday 2 March 2012.

The pre-proposals are due before 1 February 2012, 12:00 hrs.
For call text and project forms please visit the VLAG website (visit VLAG)

The next meeting of the VLAG Contact Persons will take place on Tuesday, 7th February 2012, starting at 15:30 hrs.
We have invited Dr. Jan Willem Borst, scientist at Biochemistry group, to present an overview of available microscopic measurement methods including examples of possible applications of these methods in research. Special attention will be given to the newly acquired multi-mode confocal microscope.
Location: Lecture room 55 (Biotechnion)
For more information please contact Vesna.Prsic@wur.nl.

•	Applied biocatalysis - 1st edition 26 - 28 March 2012, Groningen
•	Biorefinery for Biomolecules - 1st edition 16 - 17 April 2012, Wageningen
•	Rheology and structure of food - 1st edition, partly based on Food Hydrocolloids: Fundamentals and Applications 21 - 25 May 2012, Wageningen The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.
•	Summer Course Glycosciences - 12th edition 3 - 7 June 2012, Groningen
•	Young Algaeneers Symposium - 1st edition 14 - 16 June 2012, Wageningen
•	Applications of Magnetic Resonance in Food Science 26 - 29 June 2012, Wageningen
•	Soft Matter Approaches to Structured Foods: FD158 2 - 4 July 2012, Wageningen
•	Nordic Graduate School Course on Metabolomics - 1st edition 20 - 24 August 2012, Kuopio, Finland
•	Exposure Assessment in Nutrition Research - 2nd edition 27 - 30 August 2012, Wageningen The link above gives information on the previous edition of this course.
•	NuGO week 2012: Genes and lifestyle in the changing environment - 9th edition 29 - 31 August 2012, Helsinki, Finland

VLAG Events scheduled from 1 September 2012 onwards can be found at the VLAG website. (visit VLAG)

On November 24th, 2011 Mark Hanssen (UM-Human Biology) received one of the 13 Unilever Research Awards for his research done in the USA under supervision of Brett Goodpaster and Patrick Schrauwen. The title of his master thesis is: Energy metabolism defects in severe obesity: Can these be corrected by gastric bypass surgery and physical activity? (visit Unilever)

In order to enhance the chances of success in obtaining prestigious individual Innovational Research Incentive grants from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), also known as Veni, Vidi, Vici grants, both Wageningen UR and Maastricht University facilitates support process for the applicants.

WUR deadline for 2012:
Vici:	Deadline for submitting a Vici proposal is Tuesday 6 March 2012. The candidates will present their proposals to supervisory committee on Tuesday 13 March, 2012. Proposals should be send to Dr. ir. Henrieke de Ruiter (Henrieke.deRuiter@wur.nl).
Maastricht University, FHML-deadline for 2012:
Vici:	Deadline for submitting a VICI proposal is Tuesday 28 February 2012 (visit NUTRIM). Proposals should be send to: mevr. I. Timmermans (I.Timmermans@crisp.unimaas.nl)

The NWO deadline for VICI applications is 29 March 2012, while the deadline for the detailed proposals is 28 August 2012

For your agenda! The next edition of PCDI Postdoc Retreat, a three-day intensive skills training and career development conference, will take place on 28 - 30 March 2012.
28 - 30 March 2012 (visit PCDI)

In several locations PCDI is organizing mini-conferences to bring together both Principal Investigators (PIs) and young scientists of an institute to have an active dialogue about the importance of personal and career development. They put their heads together to see how to get the best out of early career researchers.
Interested to get involved or to participate a PCDI mini-conference at your institute? Please contact PCDI.
March 2012 (visit PCDI)

On Tuesday 7 February there will be an introductory lunch for all Wageningen based PhD students who started recently. The lunch is from 12.30-13.30h. in the Blauwe Zaal (Biotechnion).
Please send an e-mail to Yvonne Smolders (Yvonne.Smolders@wur.nl) if you would like to join this lunch.

For an overview of all WGS courses (for PhD students, Postdocs and staff members), see the WGS website. (visit WGS)

For an overview of the forthcoming thesis defenses from VLAG and Nutrim see the VLAG website. (visit VLAG)

PhD students and researchers of Wageningen University are encouraged to start teaching at secondary schools in the Netherlands. At the end of January a new group of PhD students will start to learn how to teach. read more in Dutch

The academy is open to graduate students and post-docs from national and international universities. This one-week FHEA intensive is designed for scientists and engineers working on research relevant to foods, health and nutrition who want to explore the potential market opportunities surrounding their world-changing research ideas. The intensive is taught by industry executives and university faculty and provides researchers with the tools to evaluate their research for industry application and commercial opportunities.
6 - 9 February 2011, UC Davis, USA (visit UC Davis)

The Maastricht Molecular Epidemiology Expertise group (M2E2) offers a five days international course to grasp the essentials of molecular epidemiology. The course brings together the different fields of expertise involved in molecular epidemiological research in a comprehensive and integrated manner. Participants will be confronted with issues such as study design, challenges of incorporating omics data in population studies, statistical analysis of complex data, and interpretation of findings in the context of public health. Focus lies especially on methodological issues, with a variety of disease settings as illustration.
23 - 27 April 2012, Maastricht, The Netherlands (visit M2E2)

This meeting aims to create a broad platform to discuss issues in next generation sequencing data analysis as well as in integration of -omics data sets in the post-genomic era.
The mini-conference exists of short courses on next generation sequencing analysis and pathway interaction analysis on 30 May and a series of high level seminars by invited keynote speakers and selected contributions on 31 May and 1 June 1. The emphasis is on creating an interdisciplinary forum, where interaction between participants and invited speakers is stimulated.
30 May - 1 June 2012, Liège, Belgium (visit CSCDA2012)

This international summer school is set up for PhD, postdocs and MSc students with a Life Sciences background to support their career orientation in industry and to teach them the principles of biobusiness. The intensive five-day programme will feature inspiring speakers, guest subject specialists and professional trainers.
22 - 29 June 2012, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam (visit BioBusiness Summer School)