Integrated river basin management (IRBM) calls for participatory practices involving stakeholders along transnational river landscapes. Understanding the complex and diverse views regarding participation is a prerequisite for meaningful involvement of civil actors, especially in a transnational context. In a case study along the Lower Rhine river, we assessed and compared cognitive perceptions towards IRBM of citizen initiatives and nature organizations from Germany and the Netherlands and their previous experiences with participation processes.We found large differences between the four actor groups in motivations to participate as well as in levels of trust towards institutions. This study also showed different views on participation between the two countries with regard to the problem definition, nature images and the perceived relationships between government organisations on the one hand and citizen initiatives and nature organisations on the other hand.The findings suggest that views vary between citizen initiatives and nature organizations within a country and that cultural notions add to the complexity of transnational participation. In transnational participation processes, the varying views between actor groups should be taken into account, as well as the complexities among countries even within actor groups.
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European Union’s vulnerability to climate change stretches far beyond its borders because many of its economic sectors, such as meat and dairy, use raw materials sourced from far afield. Cross-border climate vulnerability is a relatively new subject in scientific literature, while of high societal and economic relevance. We quantify these climate vulnerabilities with a focus on drought risk and assessed them for 2030, 2050, 2085 and for RCP 2.6 and 6.0 climate scenarios. Here we find that more than 44% of the EU agricultural imports will become highly vulnerable to drought in future because of climate change. The drought severity in production locations of the agricultural imports in 2050 will increase by 35% compared to current levels of drought severity. This is particularly valid for imports that originate from Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, India and Turkey. At the same time, imports from Russia, Nigeria, Peru, Ecuador, Uganda and Kenya will be less vulnerable in future. We also report that the climate vulnerabilities of meat and dairy, chocolate (cocoa), coffee, palm oil-based food and cosmetic sectors mainly lie outside the EU borders rather than inside.
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Rond 2022 koopt een vijfde van de wereldbevolking producten online over de grens. Consumenten krijgen steeds meer vertrouwen in buitenlandse aanbieders en Nederlandse webshops breiden uit naar grote buitenlandse e-commerce markten zoals in Duitsland.Samen met het Center for Market Insights, het onderzoekscentrum van Hogeschool van Amsterdam, onder leiding van Sjoukje Goldman en Alexander Lamprecht hebben Annabel Bak en Kristy Bruijn onderzoek gedaan naar de volgende onderzoeksvraag: Wat zijn de succes- en faalfactoren van Nederlandse webwinkeliers op de Duitse e-commerce markt?
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What new strategies, knowledge, skills and business models will businesses need; and what new policies and initiatives need to be developed to make the region ready for a successful future. Hanze will focus on innovation in energy transition and specially in small and medium businesses and their needs for the future.[Project in development]The project aims to maintain a competitive regional economy and to strengthen innovation support capacity by ensuring access to a strong and adaptable workforce with the necessary skills to support future growth. This will be done by increasing regional knowledge on future skills needs amongst SMEs and bridging existing skills gaps. Innovation support mechanisms and educational practices will be tested allowing for adjustments and the development of a robust future-proofed flexible system. The project will give authorities new tools within skills development, which are specially connected to the region's smart specialisation strategy. This will contribute to an increased innovation capacity in North Sea Region by aligning these two strategic elements in a regional perspective.Hanze will focus on strengthening new developments in energy transition by exploring growth potential of cross-border and cross-sectoral aspects. Expertise in value chain and systems innovations including cluster systems development and digital/other technologies will be leveraged to support exploration of growth potential and needs of the energy industry. HZ will co-create and evaluate new strategies, knowledge, skills and business models with clusters and businesses in energy transition sector.
The project aims to maintain a competitive regional economy and to strengthen innovation support capacity by ensuring access to a strong and adaptable workforce with the necessary skills to support future growth. This will be done by increasing regional knowledge on future skills needs amongst SMEs and bridging existing skills gaps. Innovation support mechanisms and educational practices will be tested allowing for adjustments and the development of a robust future-proofed flexible system. The project will give authorities new tools within skills development, which are specially connected to the region's smart specialisation strategy. This will contribute to an increased innovation capacity in North Sea Region by aligning these two strategic elements in a regional perspective.Hanze will focus on strengthening new developments in energy transition by exploring growth potential of cross-border and cross-sectoral aspects. Expertise in value chain and systems innovations including cluster systems development and digital/other technologies will be leveraged to support exploration of growth potential and needs of the energy industry. HZ will co-create and evaluate new strategies, knowledge, skills and business models with clusters and businesses in energy transition sector.
Value increase by design through the development of an international network in Visual DesignThe VIVID project aimed to create a cross-border virtual network in the Visual Design sector, a sector that creatively translates communication into multimedia applications. This sector is constantly evolving and offers great economic potential for the 2 Seas area, using new media and technology to develop visual communication tools which are more efficient, more understandable and can also be applied internationally. That said, there are two main barriers preventing this sector from expanding in the 2 Seas area: its fragmentation and a brain drain. Of highly educated professionals towards the capitals (Amsterdam, London, Paris, Brussels). The VIVID partnership wants to cluster organisations and to strengthen the sector by: - Promoting cooperation and knowledge-exchange with the participating universities and higher education institutions for new applications in the visual design sector. - Stimulating creative entrepreneurship and supporting start-up businesses, especially young professionals. - Showcasing and profiling visual design to a wider audience, as well as the uses and applications of visual design in trade and industry.Partners: AVANS University of Applied Sciences (NL), House of Visual Culture (NL), Strategic Project Organisation Kempen (BE), Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles (FR), Pictanovo (FR), Southampton Solent University (UK), Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge (UK) and the City of Breda (NL).
