I am happy to announce that I was awarded a competitive VENI-grant for young researchers by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)! Only 154 young researchers from across all research fields received such a grant this year so I am very happy to be one of them.
My project aims to bring further advancement in the relatively unexplored field of marine disease ecology, see the short summary (for a broader audience), below.
The project will start in 2018 and I will keep you up to date of the findings on this website.
Global change and marine plant diseases
Dr. L.L. (Laura) Govers (v), RUG – GELIFES
Higher marine plants form the foundation of many coastal ecosystems. These economic and ecological valuable habitats are globally declining, with a yet unclear role of plant diseases. The project will unravel the effect of global change on newly-found Phytophthora infection of seagrasses and its consequences for coastal conservation and restoration.