Dit proefschrift gaat over de veerkracht van regionale arbeidsmarkten en de bijdrage die een triple helix partnership daaraan kan leveren. Het rapporteert over een onderzoek waarin de Health Hub Roden als triple helix partnership centraal staat. Vanuit de opvatting dat dit uiteindelijk bijdraagt aan een sterkere concurrentiepositie van de economie wordt in zowel internationaal, nationaal als regionaal beleid de noodzaak benadrukt om de samenwerking tussen onderwijs, overheid en bedrijfsleven te versterken. Ook in de wetenschappelijke literatuur wordt veel geschreven over triple helix samenwerking. Een belangrijk deel van de triple helix literatuur beargumenteert vanuit de theorie hoe deze partnerships zouden (moeten) werken, maar de vraag hoe dergelijke partnerships in de praktijk werken, bleef tot nu toe onderbelicht in empirisch onderzoek.De aanleiding voor dit onderzoek is gelegen in de unieke kans die zich voordeed om Health Hub Roden, een triple helix partnership in de provincie Drenthe, en de betrokken partners longitudinaal en diepgaand te onderzoeken en zo in de ‘black box’ van een triple helix partnership te kijken om te achterhalen in hoeverre, en via welke mechanismen, een dergelijk partnership bijdraagt aan de economische veerkracht van de regio (in termen van werkgelegenheid en arbeidsparticipatie). Om inzicht te verkrijgen in de manier waarop die bijdrage precies geleverd zou kunnen worden, is op basis van literatuuronderzoek en empirisch onderzoek een globaal ordeningsmodel van mogelijke causale mechanismen ontwikkeld waarmee op microniveau in kaart gebracht kan worden in hoeverre er een bijdrage vanuit het triple helix partnership was. Het begrip causale mechanismen en het traceren daarvan staat centraal in de onderzoeksmethode process-tracing, die binnen dit onderzoek is gebruikt.Na het ontwikkelen van het globale ordeningsmodel is in kaart gebracht in hoeverre er in dit onderzoek bij dit concrete partnership voor de achtereenvolgende schakels waaruit de causale mechanismen zijn opgebouwd ook daadwerkelijk empirisch bewijs gevonden is. Op basis van het empirisch onderzoek kan gesteld worden dat er indicaties gevonden zijn voor een relatie tussen activiteiten vanuit het triple helix partnership en de ontwikkeling van werkgelegenheid en arbeidsparticipatie. Werkervaringsplaatsen voor mensen met een afstand tot de arbeidsmarkt hadden een positief effect op de arbeidsparticipatie. Daarnaast resulteerde het netwerk in meer omzet in bestaande markten, met vervolgens een effect op de werkgelegenheid. Samenwerking in projecten droeg bij aan productinnovatie, met (mogelijk op termijn) een werkgelegenheidseffect in bedrijven tot gevolg. Ook werden in het empirisch materiaal aanwijzingen gevonden voor een relatie tussen samenwerking in projecten en de kwantitatieve personeelsvoorziening in bedrijven doordat bedrijven op deze manier hun (innovatie)capaciteit tijdelijk (en gratis) konden uitbreiden of makkelijker nieuw personeel konden werven. Ook werd via samenwerking in projecten gewerkt aan de competenties van personeel. In het ontwikkelde ordeningsmodel werden tot slot mogelijke effecten op procesinnovaties (en vervolgens werkgelegenheid) en ondernemerschap beschreven, maar in deze case werden geen of nauwelijks effect vastgesteld. Met dit onderzoek is inzicht gegeven in mogelijke handelingsopties in triple helix samenwerking en de wijze waarop daarmee een bijdrage geleverd wordt aan werkgelegenheid en arbeidsparticipatie. De belangrijkste adviezen voor het vormgeven van toekomstige samenwerkingen hebben betrekking op de noodzaak van het bepalen van een gezamenlijke lange termijnagenda voor de triple helix samenwerking, het vragen van daadwerkelijk commitment van de betrokken partners, het verbeteren van het inzicht in de collectieve scholingsbehoefte en het stimuleren van informeel leren. Een eerste aanbevelingen voor vervolgonderzoek betreft het toetsen van de beschreven causale mechanismen in vervolgonderzoek. Daarnaast zou een onderzoeksagenda opgesteld kunnen worden waarin relevante onderwerpen het bevorderen van de vraagarticulatie,het bevorderen van samenwerking tussen bedrijven, de rol van docenten en onderzoekers in deze samenwerking, de kwaliteit (en toegevoegde waarde) van dergelijke projecten in vergelijking met de meer traditionele vormen van samenwerking tussen onderwijs en bedrijfsleven en tot slot het stimuleren van open innovatieprojecten.
One of the aims of the TALENTS-project is to create (interdisciplinary) learning communities in which engineering professionals, students, teachers, and researchers can learn together and collaborate as equal partners, within the context of authentic challenges, starting from their individual learning goals. To what extent are partners willing to participate in this partnership and under which conditions do they consider it to have added value? We conducted individual interviews with engineering students (N=11), teachers (N=12) and professionals (N=10) about what they require to participate in the learning community, employing epistemic, spatial, instrumental, temporal, and social elements of learning environments. We also inquired which resources participants were willing to invest. Data were summarized on group level in a within-group matrix, following these elements. Next, we employed a cross-group analysis, focusing on commonalities and differences. The most striking results were found in the epistemic, social, and instrumental elements. Respondents have similar needs when it comes to improving dialogue to formulate a challenge. However, professionals prefer to have more influence on formulating this challenge and its output, whereas teachers wish to focus on students’ development. Students wish to co-create with partners and they place importance on matching students with a challenge that aligns with their educational background and personal interest. To create an environment based on equality, students need traditional roles of teachers, clients, and students to be less apparent. Ultimately, almost all respondents are willing to co-operate as equal partners in the learning community because they can see it leads to added value.
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Aim: There is often a gap between the ideal of involving older persons iteratively throughout the design process of digital technology, and actual practice. Until now, the lens of ageism has not been applied to address this gap. The goals of this study were: to voice the perspectives and experiences of older persons who participated in co-designing regarding the design process; their perceived role in co-designing and intergenerational interaction with the designers; and apparent manifestations of ageism that potentially influence the design of digital technology. Methods: Twenty-one older persons participated in three focus groups. Five themes were identified using thematic analysis which combined a critical ageism ‘lens’ deductive approach and an inductive approach. Results: Ageism was experienced by participants in their daily lives and interactions with the designers during the design process. Negative images of ageing were pointed out as a potential influencing factor on design decisions. Nevertheless, positive experiences of inclusive design pointed out the importance of “partnership” in the design process. Participants defined the “ultimate partnership” in co-designing as processes in which they were involved from the beginning, iteratively, in a participatory approach. Such processes were perceived as leading to successful design outcomes, which they would like to use, and reduced intergenerational tension. Conclusions: This study highlights the potential role of ageism as a detrimental factor in how digital technologies are designed. Viewing older persons as partners in co-designing and aspiring to more inclusive design processes may promote designing technologies that are needed, wanted and used.
Digital transformation has been recognized for its potential to contribute to sustainability goals. It requires companies to develop their Data Analytic Capability (DAC), defined as their ability to collect, manage and analyze data effectively. Despite the governmental efforts to promote digitalization, there seems to be a knowledge gap on how to proceed, with 37% of Dutch SMEs reporting a lack of knowledge, and 33% reporting a lack of support in developing DAC. Participants in the interviews that we organized preparing this proposal indicated a need for guidance on how to develop DAC within their organization given their unique context (e.g. age and experience of the workforce, presence of legacy systems, high daily workload, lack of knowledge of digitalization). While a lot of attention has been given to the technological aspects of DAC, the people, process, and organizational culture aspects are as important, requiring a comprehensive approach and thus a bundling of knowledge from different expertise. Therefore, the objective of this KIEM proposal is to identify organizational enablers and inhibitors of DAC through a series of interviews and case studies, and use these to formulate a preliminary roadmap to DAC. From a structure perspective, the objective of the KIEM proposal will be to explore and solidify the partnership between Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas), Avans University of Applied Sciences (Avans), Logistics Community Brabant (LCB), van Berkel Logistics BV, Smink Group BV, and iValueImprovement BV. This partnership will be used to develop the preliminary roadmap and pre-test it using action methodology. The action research protocol and preliminary roadmap thereby developed in this KIEM project will form the basis for a subsequent RAAK proposal.
ALE organised an event with Parktheater Eindhoven and LSA-citizens (the Dutch umbrella organisation for active citizens). Five ALE students from the minor Imagineering and business/social innovation took responsibility for concept and actual organisation. On Jan 18th, they were supported by six other group members of the minor as volunteers. An IMEM-team of 5 students gathered materials for a video that can support the follow-up actions of the organisers. The students planned to deliver their final product on February 9th. The theatre will critically assess the result and compare it to the products often realised by students from different schools or even professional ones, like Veldkamp productions. Time will tell whether future opportunities will come up for IMEM. The collaboration of ALE and IMEM students is possible and adding value to the project.More than 180 visitors showed interest in the efforts of 30 national and local citizen initiatives presenting themselves on the market square in the theatre and the diverse speakers during the plenary session. The students created a great atmosphere using the qualities of the physical space and the hospitality of the theatre. Chair of the day, Roland Kleve, kicked off and invited a diverse group of people to the stage: Giel Pastoor, director of the theatre, used the opportunity to share his thoughts on the shifting role of theatre in our dynamic society. Petra Ligtenberg, senior project manager SDG NL https://www.sdgnederland.nl/sdgs/ gave insights to the objectives and progress of the Netherlands. Elly Rijnierse, city maker and entrepreneur from Den Haag, presented her intriguing efforts in her own neighbourhood in the city to create at once both practical and social impacts on SDG 11 (sustainable city; subgoal 3.2). Then the alderman Marcel Oosterveer informed the visitors about Eindhoven’s efforts on SDGs. The plenary ended with very personal interviews of representatives of two impressive citizen initiatives (Parkinson to beat; Stichting Ik Wil). In the two workshop rounds, ALE took responsibility for two workshops. Firstly the workshop: Beyond SDG cherrypicking: using the Economy for the common good’, in cooperation with citizen initiative Ware winst Brabant en Parktheater (including Social innovation-intern Jasper Box), secondly a panel dialogue on local partnerships (SDG 17) for the sustainable city (SDG 11) addressing inclusion (SDG 10) and the livability (SDG 3) with 11 representatives from local/provincial government, companies, third sector and, of course: citizen initiatives.
Background:Many business intelligence surveys demonstrate that Digital Realities (Virtual reality and Augmented Reality) are becoming a huge market trend in many sectors, and North America is taking the lead in this emerging domain. Tourism is no exception and the sector in Europe must innovate to get ahead of the curve of this technological revolution, but this innovation needs public support.Project partnership:In order to provide labs, startups and SMEs willing to take this unique opportunity with the most appropriate support policies, 9 partner organizations from 8 countries (FR, IT, HU, UK, NO, ES, PL, NL) decided to work together: regional and local authorities, development agencies, private non-profit association and universities.Objective of the project:Thanks to their complementary experiences and know-how, they intend to improve policies of the partner regions (structural funds and regional policies), in order to foster a tourist channeled innovation in the Digital Realities sector.Approach:All partners will work together on policy analysis tasks before exchanging their best initiatives and transferring them from one country to another. This strong cooperation will allow them to build the best conditions to foster innovation thanks to more effective structural funds policies and regional policies.Main activities & outputs:8 policy instruments are addressed, among which 7 relate to structural funds programmes. Basis for exchange of experience: Reciprocal improvement analysis and 8 study trips with peer-review of each partner’s practices. Video reportages for an effective dissemination towards other territories in Europe.Main expected results:At least 16 good practices identified. 8 targeted policy instruments improved. At least 27 staff members will transfer new capacities in their intervention fields. At least 8 involved stakeholders with increased skills and knowledge from exchange of experience. Expected 17 appearances in press and media, including at European level.
