The Knowledge Alliance for Communities of Practice for Healthy Lifestyle (COP4HL) aimed at developing and sustaining communities of practice (COP) in order to stimulate innovation and socio-economic development in the area of Healthy Ageing. Promoting Healthy Ageing, and specifically an Active & Healthy Lifestyle, is one of the biggest societal and economical challenges the EU is facing. A paradigm shift from health care and cure to prevention is essential since the traditional ways have proven to be insufficient to solve this complex problem. An impact-driven multi-sector approach is necessary to develop innovative products and services to change this for the better. The KA was composed of higher education institutes and businesses, supported by public authorities and non-for-profits, who are accepting the need of co-creating knowledge to stimulate innovation for an Active & Healthy Lifestyle. A local needs and assets mapping procedure, that assessed the national and local status quo in the area of Healthy Ageing/Healthy Lifestyles, served as starting point of the development of five communities or practice the communities of Groningen (the Netherlands), Odense (Denmark), Malaga (Spain), Kaunas (Lithuania) and Cascais (Portugal) plus an additional COP in Alcobaca (Portugal). These COP were focused on a common goal that was collectively decided in the local COP.
For the needs analysis, an assessment of the national (and local) status quo in the area of Healthy Ageing, specifically towards Active and Healthy Lifestyles. This status quo will serve as important starting point for the exploration of a potential shared goal of the local community of practice. This needs analysis report includes generic sections towards definitions and methodologies, and an introduction towards the topics assessed. Secondly, national/ local chapters will outline the situation in the communities of Groningen (the Netherlands), Odense (Denmark), Malaga (Spain), Kaunas (Lithuania) and Cascais (Portugal). Within each local COP chapter the partners taking part of the COP are described and the shared goals illustrated. These shared goals are: COP Groningen: “stimulating a Healthy environment (physical & social) with focus on physical activity”. COP Odense: “further develop and educate professionals who work on stimulating physical activity in community dwelling older adult”’. COP Malaga: “developing, implementing and evaluating outdoor fitness” COP Kaunas: “to provide opportunities for primary school children and Kaunas district community members older than 50 more opportunities for exercising and physical activity” COP Cascais: “develop, organize for and together with the stakeholders and end users (youngsters from 12-24 years old) activities focused on healthy lifestyle (e.g., healthy cooking workshops, parent-child physical activities etc.) embedded in approach GERAÇÃO S+ “.
Educational programs teaching entrepreneurial behaviour and knowledge are crucial to a vital and healthy economy. The concept of building a Communities of Practice (CoP) could be very promising. CoP’s are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavour (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, 2002). They consist of a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. Normally CoP’s are rather homogeneous. Saxion institute Small Business & Retail Management (SB&RM) started a CoP with entrepreneurs September 2007. Typical in the this community, are the differences between the partners. The Community consists of students, entrepreneurs and members of an institution for higher education. They have different characteristics and they don’t share the same knowledge. Thus, building long-lasting relations can be complicated. Solid relations for longer periods are nevertheless inevitable in using CoP as a mean in an educational concept that takes approximately 4 years. After one year an evaluation took place on the main aspects of a lasting partnership. The central problem SB&RM in Deventer faces is to design the CoP in a way possible members will join and stay for a longer period and in a way it ensures entrepreneurial learning. This means important design characteristics have to be identified, and the CoP in Deventer has to be evaluated to assess whether it meets those design characteristics in an effective and efficient way. The main target of the evaluation is to determine which key factors are important to make sure continuity in partnership is assured and entrepreneurial learning is best supported. To solve the problem, an investigation on how a CoP works, what group dynamics take place, and how this can be measured has to be conducted. Furthermoreusing the CoP as a tool for entrepreneurship means key aspects of entrepreneurial learning have to be identified. After that the CoP in Deventer has to be examined on both aspects. According to literature CoP’s define themselves along three dimensions: domain (indicating what is it about), community (defining how it functions), and practice (indicating what capabilities it has produced) (Wenger, 1998). This leads to meaningful, shared and coordinated activities (Akkerman et al, 2007): Key aspects of a successful CoP lie in both hard and soft sides of creating a partnership. It means on one hand a CoP has to deal with defining their own overall vision, formulating long term goals and targets on the short term. They have to formulate how to achieve those targets and create meaningful activities (reification). On the other hand a CoP has to deal with relations, trust, norms and values (participation). Reification and participation as design characteristic can provide indicators on which the CoP in Deventer can be evaluated. A lasting partnership means joining the CoP and staying. Weick provides us with a suitable model that enables us to do research and evaluate whether the CoP in Deventer is successful or not, Weick’s model of means convergence. To effectively ensure entrepreneurial learning the process in the CoP has to provide or enable actionoriented forms through Project-based activity, accompanied by reflection, with high emotional exposure (or cognitive affection) preferably caused by discontinuities to be suitable as a tool in entrepreneurial learning. Furthermore it should be accompanied by the right preconditions to work effectively and efficiently. The evaluation of the present CoP in Deventer is done by interviewing all participants at the end of the first year of the partnership. In a structured interview, based on literature studies, all participants were separately questioned
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In de klimaattop COP28 in Dubai is een akkoord gesloten over de afbouw van fossiele brandstoffen en grondstoffen. Dit benadrukt de noodzaak voor het overstappen naar duurzamere materialen en grondstoffen. Om dit te versnellen en kaders te stellen aan wat kan en mag is de EU-Green Deal opgesteld. Hierin komen allerlei zaken aan bod, waaronder de duurzaamheid van materialen. Eén van de belangrijke pijlers binnen de Green Deal is biodegradatie. Materialen van de toekomst moeten biodegradatie vertonen om ophoping in het milieu te voorkomen. De industrie heeft een leidende functie binnen deze overstap naar duurzame materialen, zo ook de verfindustrie. Eigenschappen van verf worden veelal door drie factoren bepaald: bindmiddel, pigment en vulstoffen. In dit BioBinder project bundelen Wydo NBD en Koninklijke van Wijhe Verf de krachten met het lectoraat Biorefinery van de Hanzehogeschool Groningen om een biodegradeerbaar alternatief te zoeken voor bindmiddelen die in verf gebruikt worden. Deze bindmiddelen zijn nu veelal gebaseerd op grondstoffen gewonnen vanuit aardolie, zoals styreen en vinylacetaat. Het innovatieve idee in dit project is het gebruik van polyhydroxyalkanoaten (PHA’s) als bindmiddel in verf en coatings. PHA’s zijn biogebaseerd èn biodegradeerbare polyesters die door micro-organismen geproduceerd worden als bron van reserve-energie. Er zijn zo’n 150 verschillende bouwstenen bekend waaruit deze biopolymeren opgebouwd kunnen worden, waaronder bouwstenen die onverzadigde groepen in de zij-keten bevatten. Binnen BioBinder wordt onderzocht of PHA’s middels fermentatietechnologie geproduceerd kunnen worden met voldoende gehalte aan deze functionele bouwstenen. En of deze ingebouwde functionaliteit vervolgens (chemische) modificatie en derivatisering mogelijk maakt, zoals (oxidatieve) vernetting. Zo’n netwerk van gekoppelde polymeerketens na vernetting is van belang voor het vormen van een stevige en duurzame verflaag. De opgedane kennis van dit project kan leiden tot een strategie om PHA-gebaseerde binders te ontwikkelen en te produceren die de gewenste verfbinder-eigenschappen bezitten voor biogebaseerde biodegradeerbare verven.
De Gerrit Rietveld Academie wil met de Impulssubsidie een uitbreiding en versterking van haar onderzoek-infrastructuur doorvoeren door het aanstellen van: 1: een coördinerend-onderzoeker die een organisatieplan en een programma voor een onderzoekscluster 'materialen' gaat ontwikkelen (280 uur, schaal 11) 2: een coördinerend-onderzoeker die een organisatieplan en een programma voor een onderzoek-ontwikkelcel 'ecologie en duurzaamheid' gaat ontwikkelen (200 uur, schaal 10) 3: Twee voortrekkers die de opdracht krijgen om de wisselwerking tussen onderzoek en onderwijs te versterken, zij stimuleren de ontwikkeling en implementatie van nieuwe vormen van derde cyclus onderzoek binnen de academie en ontwikkelen een doorlopende leerlijn daarnaartoe (240 uur elk, schaal 11)
