Most food & agribusiness stakeholders (entrepreneurs in particular) agree that it is not only difficult to innovate new products and technology, but also to realize its true market potential. A lack of market and/or supply partnerships, i.e. a robust and committed value chain, is often cited as the reason for the failure to achieve this potential. The key objective of this research is to understand the necessary elements needed for building a committed value chain and to suggest an approach to realize them. Our research shows that partnerships which combine the four key elements of aligned objectives and incentives and shared responsibilities and information are most likely to realize a committed value chain. The research further provide guidelines to developing these elements and achieving committed chains in practice. Finally, we demonstrate the relevance of the suggested approach using two real-life business cases; the first one is a business success story with a committed value chain, while the other is a story of a failure due to the lack of a committed chain
Dutch society faces major future challenges putting populations’ health and wellbeing at risk. An ageing population, increase of chronic diseases, multimorbidity and loneliness lead to more complex healthcare demands and needs and costs are increasing rapidly. Urban areas like Amsterdam have to meet specific challenges of a growing and super divers population often with a migration background. The bachelor programs and the relating research groups of social work and occupational therapy at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences innovate their curricula and practice-oriented research by multidisciplinary and cross-domain approaches. Their Centres of Expertise foster interprofessional research and educational innovation on the topics of healthy ageing, participation, daily occupations, positive health, proximity, community connectedness and urban innovation in a social context. By focusing on senior citizens’ lives and by organizing care in peoples own living environment. Together with their networks, this project aims to develop an innovative health promotion program and contribute to the government missions to promote a healthy and inclusive society. Collaboration with stakeholders in practice based on their urgent needs has priority in the context of increasing responsibilities of local governments and communities. Moreover, the government has recently defined social base as being the combination of citizen initiatives, volunteer organizations , caregivers support, professional organizations and support of vulnerable groups. Kraktie Foundations is a community based ethno-cultural organization in south east Amsterdam that seeks to research and expand their informal services to connect with and build with professional care organizations. Their aim coincides with this project proposal: promoting health and wellbeing of senior citizens by combining intervention, participatory research and educational perspectives from social work, occupational therapy and hidden voluntary social work. With a boundary crossing innovation of participatory health research, education and Kraktie’s work in the community we co-create, change and innovate towards sustainable interventions with impact.
The energy transition is a highly complex technical and societal challenge, coping with e.g. existing ownership situations, intrusive retrofit measures, slow decision-making processes and uneven value distribution. Large scale retrofitting activities insulating multiple buildings at once is urgently needed to reach the climate targets but the decision-making of retrofitting in buildings with shared ownership is challenging. Each owner is accountable for his own energy bill (and footprint), giving a limited action scope. This has led to a fragmented response to the energy retrofitting challenge with negligible levels of building energy efficiency improvements conducted by multiple actors. Aggregating the energy design process on a building level would allow more systemic decisions to happen and offer the access to alternative types of funding for owners. “Collect Your Retrofits” intends to design a generic and collective retrofit approach in the challenging context of monumental areas. As there are no standardised approaches to conduct historical building energy retrofits, solutions are tailor-made, making the process expensive and unattractive for owners. The project will develop this approach under real conditions of two communities: a self-organised “woongroep” and a “VvE” in the historic centre of Amsterdam. Retrofit designs will be identified based on energy performance, carbon emissions, comfort and costs so that a prioritisation strategy can be drawn. Instead of each owner investing into their own energy retrofitting, the neighbourhood will invest into the most impactful measures and ensure that the generated economic value is retained locally in order to make further sustainable investments and thus accelerating the transition of the area to a CO2-neutral environment.
The transition to a circular economy requires innovative digital solutions to extend the lifespan of electrical and electronic appliances (EEA) and reduce the volume of waste generated by this product stream. Digital Product Passports (DPPs) make product and usage information accessible to supply chain partners and serve as a crucial tool for optimising circular strategies. DPP data on performed maintenance, upgrades, (sensor) data on EEA usage, diagnostics and repairs support supply chain actors throughout the product lifecycle in carrying out their circular responsibilities. This project focuses on the application of DPPs in the "Middle-of-Life" phase of EEA products, specifically dishwashers and coffee machines. The central research question is: How can the EEA supply chain design and actively manage a DPP in a way that creates value for all stakeholders in the Middle-of-Life phase and contributes to product life extension and circularity? The applied methodology is based on Design Science Research (DSR) and Co-design, in which manufacturers, repair services, collection partners and DPP solution providers collaborate on a practice-oriented implementation. In co-design sessions, the requirements and functionalities of DPPs are defined based on identified circular roles and related information needs. These are then translated into a DPP "Proof of Concept", which is tested by partners across the electronics value chain. The intended outcome is an implemented and validated DPP concept that unlocks product data, optimises circular processes, and strengthens collaboration within the supply chain. This project contributes to strategic policy agendas on digitalisation and circularity and offers a blueprint for the broader application of DPPs in the EEA sector. The project partners – ATAG Benelux, E-Care, Beekman B.V., Holland Circulair, Eviden, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, and HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht – combine their expertise to develop a future-proof, scalable and practice-based DPP solution.
