What is this publication about?In this publication on ‘New urban economies’, we search for answers and insights to a key question: how can cities foster economic development and develop ‘new urban economies’. And, importantly, how can they do that:◗ in concertation with different urban stakeholders, ◗ responding adequately to key challenges and developments beyond their control, ◗ building on the cities’ own identity, industries and competences, ◗ in a sustainable way, ◗ and without compromising weaker groups.
Elke dag worden wij geconfronteerd met de internationalisering van ons bestaan en met het doorbreken van grenzen. Dramatische gebeurtenissen zoals terreuraanslagen in New York, Moskou, Istanbul of Madrid, maar ook zaken als de georganiseerde misdaad, de uitbraak van ziekten in de veestapel, de immigratie, het internet- en e-mailverkeer, het wegverkeer of vliegverkeer - het zijn allemaal verschijnselen, die zich weinig lijken aan te trekken van landsgrenzen. Toch verwachten wij, als zich problemen voordoen, dat onze overheid - of liever gezegd onze overheden - met een effectief antwoord komen. Om zo'n antwoord te kunnen waarmaken, moeten overheden hun plaats, en dus hun grenzen, kennen. Vandaar het onderwerp van deze intreerede.
298 woorden: In the upcoming years the whole concept of mobility will radically change. Decentralization of energy generation, urbanization, digitalization of processes, electrification of vehicles and shared mobility are only some trends which have a strong influence on future mobility. Furthermore, due to the shift towards renewable energy production, the public and the private sector are required to develop new infrastructures, new policies as well as new business models. There are countless opportunities for innovative business models emerging. Companies in this field – such as charging solution provider, project management or consulting companies that are part of this project, Heliox and Over Morgen respectively – are challenged with countless possibilities and increasing complexity. How to overcome this problem? Academic research proposes a promising approach, namely the use of business model patterns for business model innovation. In short, these business model patterns are descriptions of proven practical solutions to common business model challenges. An example for a general pattern would be the business model pattern “Consumables”. It describes how to lock in a customer into an ecosystem by using a subsidized basic product and complement it with overpriced consumables. This pattern works really well and has been used by many companies (e.g. Senseo, HP, or Gillette). To support the business model innovation process of Heliox and Over Morgen as well as companies in the electric mobility space in general, we propose to systematically consolidate and develop business model patterns for the electric mobility sector and to create a database. Electric mobility patterns could not only foster creativity in the business model innovation process but also enhance collaboration in teams. By having a classified list of business model pattern for electric mobility, practitioners are equipped which a heuristic tool to create, extend and revise business models for the future.
This project addresses the fundamental societal problem that encryption as a technique is available since decades, but has never been widely adopted, mostly because it is too difficult or cumbersome to use for the public at large. PGP illustrates this point well: it is difficult to set-up and use, mainly because of challenges in cryptographic key management. At the same time, the need for encryption has only been growing over the years, and has become an urgent problem with stringent requirements – for instance for electronic communication between doctors and patients – in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and with systematic mass surveillance activities of internationally operating intelligence agencies. The interdisciplinary project "Encryption for all" addresses this fundamental problem via a combination of cryptographic design and user experience design. On the cryptographic side it develops identity-based and attribute-based encryption on top of the attribute-based infrastructure provided by the existing IRMA-identity platform. Identity-based encryption (IBE) is a scientifically well-established technique, which addresses the key management problem in an elegant manner, but IBE has found limited application so far. In this project it will be developed to a practically usable level, exploiting the existing IRMA platform for identification and retrieval of private keys. Attribute-based encryption (ABE) has not reached the same level of maturity yet as IBE, and will be a topic of further research in this project, since it opens up attractive new applications: like a teacher encrypting for her students only, or a company encrypting for all employees with a certain role in the company. On the user experience design side, efforts will be focused on making these encryption techniques really usable (i.e., easy to use, effective, efficient, error resistant) for everyone (e.g., also for people with disabilities or limited digital skills). To do so, an iterative, human-centred and inclusive design approach will be adopted. On a fundamental level, scientific questions will be addressed, such as how to promote the use of security and privacy-enhancing technologies through design, and whether and how usability and accessibility affect the acceptance and use of encryption tools. Here, theories of nudging and boosting and the unified theory of technology acceptance and use (known as UTAUT) will serve as a theoretical basis. On a more applied level, standards like ISO 9241-11 on usability and ISO 9241-220 on the human-centred design process will serve as a guideline. Amongst others, interface designs will be developed and focus groups, participatory design sessions, expert reviews and usability evaluations with potential users of various ages and backgrounds will be conducted, in a user experience and observation laboratory available at HAN University of Applied Sciences. In addition to meeting usability goals, ensuring that the developed encryption techniques also meet national and international accessibility standards will be a particular point of focus. With respect to usability and accessibility, the project will build on the (limited) usability design experiences with the mobile IRMA application.
The textile industry contributes over 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 20% of the world's wastewater, exceeding emissions from international flights and shipping combined. In the European Union, textile purchases in 2020 resulted in about 270 kg of CO₂ emissions per person, yet only 1% of used clothes are recycled into new garments.To address these challenges, the Textile Hub Groningen (THG) aims to assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and stakeholders in forming circular textile value chains, hence reducing waste. Designing circular value chains is complex due to conflicting interests, lack of shared understanding, knowledge gaps regarding circular design principles and emerging technologies, and inadequate tools for collaborative business model development. The potential key stakeholders in the circular textile value chain find it hard to use existing tools and methods for designing these value chains as they are often abstract, not designed to be used in a collaborative setting that fosters collective sense making, immersive learning and experimentation. Consequently, the idea of circular textile value chain remains abstract and hard to realize.Serious games have been used in the past to learn about, simulate and experiment with complex adaptive systems. In this project we aim to answer the following research:How can serious games be leveraged to design circular textile value chains in the region?The expected outcomes of this project are: • Serious game: Facilitates the design of circular textile value chains• Academic Publication: Publish findings to contribute to scholarly discourse.• Future Funding Preparation: Mobilize partners and prepare proposals for follow-up funding to expand the approach to other domains.By leveraging game-based collaborative circular value chain and business model design experiences, this project aims to overcome barriers in designing viable circular value chains in the textile industry.
