Innovation is crucial for higher education to ensure high-quality curricula that address the changing needs of students, labor markets, and society as a whole. Substantial amounts of resources and enthusiasm are devoted to innovations, but often they do not yield the desired changes. This may be due to unworkable goals, too much complexity, and a lack of resources to institutionalize the innovation. In many cases, innovations end up being less sustainable than expected or hoped for. In the long term, the disappointing revenues of innovations hamper the ability of higher education to remain future proof. Against the background of this need to increase the success of educational innovations, our colleague Klaartje van Genugten has explored the literature on innovations to reveal mechanisms that contribute to the sustainability of innovations. Her findings are synthesized in this report. They are particularly meaningful for directors of education programs, curriculum committees, educational consultants, and policy makers, who are generally in charge of defining the scope and set up of innovations. Her report offers a comprehensive view and provides food for thought on how we can strive for future-proof and sustainable innovations. I therefore recommend reading this report.
There has probably never been such an intense debate about the layout of the countryside as the one that is currently raging. There are serious concerns about the landscape, which is being rapidly transformed by urbanization and everything associated with this process, and not only in the Netherlands but also far beyond its borders. Everyone has something to say in this society-wide debate, from local to national governments, from environmental factions to the road-user's lobby, and from those who are professionally involved to concerned private parties. In many cases it is a battle between idealized images and economic models, between agricultural reality and urban park landscapes, between ecological concerns and mobility. This issue of OASE explores the potential significance of architectonic design for transformation processes on the regional scale. Besides considering the instruments that are available to the designer to fulfil this task, the authors also consider how the design can exercise a 'positive' influence on such processes. The various contributions shed light on the potential significance of territory in contemporary design practice and offer critical reflection on the topical discourse that has evolved over recent years.
This report has been established within the Flexiheat project. Flexiheat has focused on increasing flexibility in district heating systems. The intelligent district heating network is a dynamic network: an open network where different waste heat and renewable energy sources are connected, that has multiple producers and groups of consumers and facilitates the connection between different energy infrastructures (gas, heat and electricity). Eventually this will lead to an optimal deployment of the available heat sources and an increased cost-efficiency of district heating. Flexiheat aims to develop new concepts for these intelligent, flexible district heating networks. One of the strategies is to allow third party access to the network. A smart control system is developed to manage the heat flows across the network. This system makes use of dynamic pricing. In this exploration the concept of third party access in relation to the Flexiheat project will be discussed. The development of new business and price models based on the Flexiheat approach has led to an analysis of possible alternative price models for consumers.
The focus of this project is on improving the resilience of hospitality Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by enabling them to take advantage of digitalization tools and data analytics in particular. Hospitality SMEs play an important role in their local community but are vulnerable to shifts in demand. Due to a lack of resources (time, finance, and sometimes knowledge), they do not have sufficient access to data analytics tools that are typically available to larger organizations. The purpose of this project is therefore to develop a prototype infrastructure or ecosystem showcasing how Dutch hospitality SMEs can develop their data analytic capability in such a way that they increase their resilience to shifts in demand. The one year exploration period will be used to assess the feasibility of such an infrastructure and will address technological aspects (e.g. kind of technological platform), process aspects (e.g. prerequisites for collaboration such as confidentiality and safety of data), knowledge aspects (e.g. what knowledge of data analytics do SMEs need and through what medium), and organizational aspects (what kind of cooperation form is necessary and how should it be financed).
This pre-study anticipates to a SIA call focussing on circular and bio-based economy in Brazil. It is linked to the Living Lab Brazil managed by Avans University of Applied Sciences. Although the dairy value chain will benefit from both circular and bio-based principles, this pre-study will be limited to circular systems. There is a vast potential for investment by the Dutch and Brazilian private sector in the dairy value chain in Minas Gerais (MG), Brazil. There is also ample room to improve production efficiency towards a more circular system. Notwithstanding the business opportunities in the Brazilian dairy sector, there are challenges in attracting and consolidating partnerships along the circular-based value chain. A better understanding of the demands, challenges and opportunities of the interested Dutch companies is highly relevant to develop sustainable circular-based dairy value chains. Therefore, the goal of our project proposal is the exploration of a potential Dutch business network that is interested to invest in the Brazilian circular dairy value chain, and an exploration of the potential business opportunities for the Dutch and Brazilian dairy sector. The consortium in our proposal is conformed as follows: (a) Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences (VHL). VHL is the leading knowledge institute. Vilentum University of Applied Sciences and the Federal University of Viçosa will participate through VHL. (b) Alta Genetics BV; (c) Groasis BV. To achieve our goal we focus on the following questions: What is the potential and what are the bottlenecks for the Dutch private sector (SME’s) to increase business opportunities in the dairy sector of MG? What are the business opportunities to develop and innovate circular-based dairy value chains through the Dutch and Brazilian private sector with dairy breeding and agro-silvopastoral farming as pilots? The outputs of this study will be: A list of potential Dutch private investors, both interested but hesitating and/or already successful. Basically we would like to identify “partners” and to build up a business network where we could match-make the Dutch companies with the Brazilian companies or clients; A pre-proposal including intentions for further collaboration; Three detailed reports with marketing and investment opportunities and/or research strategy in relation to circular-based economy in: general dairy chain, dairy breeding and agro-silvopastoral farming. The latter two topics must be considered as pilots for the entire dairy value chain.
Om de ambities te behalen zoals geformuleerd in de Sustainable Development Goals, is transdisciplinaire samenwerking nodig tussen overheden, bedrijfsleven, burgers en wetenschap. Dit vraagt om multi-stakeholderbenaderingen waarin leren van en met elkaar centraal staat. Dit onderzoeksvoorstel is een vertaalslag van bovenstaande ambitie zoals geformuleerd in samenwerking met hoger onderwijs partners in Bandung, Indonesië. Het Living Lab Upper Citarum biedt een context om onderzoek te doen binnen een bestaand Living Lab gekenmerkt door de multi-stakeholder setting en de complexiteit van duurzaam beheer van natuurlijke hulpbronnen. Het onderzoek beoogt inzicht te verkrijgen in essentiële ‘21st century skills’ voor deelnemers met faciliterende rollen in een Living Lab. De onderzoeksstrategie wil een bijdrage leveren aan de duurzaamheidsagenda van Living Labs met het ontwerpen, het ervaren, reflecteren en documenteren van praktische interventies in de lokale context. De keuze voor werken op locatie is een eerste benadering in het creëren van een realistische leerervaring voor Living Lab facilitators met diverse achtergronden en valt daarmee te beschrijven als ‘learning by doing’. De algemene onderzoekvraag is als volgt geformuleerd: Which contemporary skills and capabilities are present and which need to be developed to establish a widely shared mind set for trans- or interdisciplinary strategies so that communities and institutions in a Living Lab configuration increase their performance? De onderzoeksstrategie krijgt vorm in een ‘21st century skills exploration’ die een experimentele leerruimte biedt aan medewerkers van diverse instituten en (overheids-)organisaties die actief zijn in het Living Lab om kennis te maken met de creatieve methodes voor publieke participatie. Dit vindt vooral plaats in interactie met lokale gemeenschappen met nadruk op creatieve methodes zoals een poetry route, participatory mapping en film. Na presentatie op locatie worden de resultaten gepresenteerd tijdens een mini-symposium in Bandung.
