LEI Wageningen UR Information

Wageningen Economic Research is a leading social-economic research institute in international terms and an independent, strategic partner for government and companies. We contribute to the transition to sustainable, healthy and inclusive food systems with knowledge and research. These transitions are only possible if we change social, economic and environmental drivers, including the design of governance, institutions, policies and the behaviour of people. That is what socioeconomics is all about. Our mission is to foster socioeconomic transitions in the agri-food domain – by designing effective incentives and policies. We search for new socioeconomic insights and concepts that are distributive and regenerative by design. We can only reach concrete, practicable solutions to global challenges by finding the right incentives to stimulate governments, industry and citizens to make more sustainable and healthy choices. Our vision is that economics, complemented by insights from natural, environmental and behavioural sciences, e.g. socioeconomics, is the discipline that enables society to transition to a safe and just operating space. We identify three major societal challenges in our domain: to minimise environmental impact, to achieve food security & living income and to advance health, wellbeing and inclusiveness.