Dr. Nienke van Staaveren is an animal scientist whose research focus is to improve animal health and welfare across the production chain. She completed her M.Sc. in Animal Science at Wageningen University (The Netherlands) and obtained her PhD in Veterinary Medicine from University College Dublin (Ireland) and Teagasc – the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority. Afterwards, she worked as a researcher and project manager at the University of Guelph, bridging the Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock and the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare. She worked on various research projects covering the role of the gut-microbiota-brain axis in feather pecking in laying hens, development of management strategies to reduce injurious pecking in laying hens and turkeys, and applying genomics with a focus on health and welfare to improve the breeding of turkeys and dairy cows. Since 2023, she is an adjunct professor in the Department of Animal Biosciences where she remains involved in research projects and student supervision. 

Currently, she is a researcher in Animals in Science & Society at the Department Population Health Sciences in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University (The Netherlands). Her current research is part of the Horizon Europe funded aWISH (Animal Welfare Indicators at Slaughter) project. aWISH aims to evaluate and improve the welfare of meat-producing livestock throughout Europe via automated monitoring of animal-based welfare indicators at the slaughterhouse in order to give feedback and advice on best practices to those responsible for the various stages of production.