Thesis Research Project

The aim of IE is to educate student to become critical researchers or practitioners who are able to meaningfully contribute to developing solutions for persistent sustainability problems, such as related to environmental pollution, resource depletion, and climate change. Industrial Ecology is a scientific field that takes a systemic approach to sustainability problems, integrating a technical, environmental and social perspective. Industrial Ecology studies society’s metabolism, i.e. the material and energy basis of society, from a socio-technical systems perspective in order to identify, design and critically evaluate solutions for sustainability problems and their implementation.

The following criteria would be considered to indicate a ‘typical’ IE thesis:

• The work focuses on a sustainability problem and/or solution

• The work shows a critical attitude towards sustainability, and shows awareness of the technical, environmental and social perspective on sustainability

• The work exhibits a systems perspective

• The work is interdisciplinary; it synthesizes methods, theories or concepts relevant to the field of IE

• IE methods and techniques for problem analysis and/or design are used systematically.

This course is part of the joint degree MSc Industrial Ecology, offered by Leiden University and Delft University of Technology. More information about the course is published in the online study guide of Leiden University