Speech by dr. Robert Baars at the official inauguration as Professor in Climate Smart Dairy Value Chains at Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, 24th September 2021, Dairy Campus, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.
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Promotional video about the professorship Management of Forested Landscapes at Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.
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At the end of January 2015 I was given a research assignment formulated and sponsored by two professors of professorships (hereafter lectoraten) associated with the Academy for Social Studies (SASS), and the manager of Professionals and Bedrijven (hereafter P&B). At a later stage, the research was expanded by the sponsorship of the educational managers of the bachelor and master studies of SPH and MWD. It is a complex assignment with several research perspectives and aims. The main goal was to find out how to make better use of the products of the lectoraten for educational purposes. This umbrella goal included many subordinate aims. One aim concerned identifying the products and prioritizing them according to the educational demands of clients in the field and of teachers of the SASS educational programmes. Another aim was to demonstrate which skills the teachers who develop educational materials need to have and to identify steps necessary to adapt the products. Yet another aim consisted of finding better ways for knowledge to circulate between the lectoraten and the teaching staff of SASS. Finally advising the staff of P & B on marketing and communications in relation to the products of the lectoraten was aimed at. Overview of the reportAs stated, there are multiple assignment-givers (hereafter sponsors). In the first section the general societal context which triggered the assignment has been sketched but contextual aspects related to each of the sponsors have also been identified (in Appendix 1). The individual contexts of sponsors were important because, although they agreed on the broad aims of the assignment, they naturally have specific expectations of the results based on their particular situations. After the background sketch, seven sub-tasks given by the sponsors have been turned into subordinate - research and consultation questions. The second section describes the methods used and measures taken to obtain findings. This includes an identification of the inventory structure, actors involved both intramurally and extramurally (the stakeholders). Next, a Delphi method for developing a profile of learner needs and a list of topics of products is described.In the third section, findings are set out in relation to the 7 sub-research and consultation questions. Some discussion and concluding remarks are given for most of the seven questions. The findings are written in English but most of the quotations from respondents have not been translated so they appear in Dutch. Section four summarises these findings in a compact manner since there were conclusions throughout the findings. Section five offers recommendations in Dutch. Attention is given to the different emphases of the sponsors in the details of recommendations. Please note that many end notes and appendices are offered for further reading since some of the approaches mentioned in the text may be unfamiliar to some readers. A word about terms Both Dutch and English employ a variety of terms to identify the provision (aanbod) of learning for adults in working environments and to identify the learning activities or programmes. This can be confusing but is, unfortunately, unavoidable. In Dutch, the terms ‘deskundigheidsbevordering, nascholing, bijscholing’ and ‘trainingsaanbod’ or occasionally ‘professionalisering’ are all used to indicate what in English is called ‘professional development’ (often abbreviated to PD) or ‘staff development’ or, recently, ‘professionalisation’ The typical Dutch use of the term ‘training’ for almost all stypes of learning activities has a somewhat more restricted meaning in English. Educational activities are often referred to as ‘learning trajectories’; ‘ learning opportunities’ or ‘interventions’ as well as, less commonly, ‘training sessions’ or ‘workshops’. All of the English terms are employed throughout this report. The most commonly used are ‘professionalisation’ or ‘PD’ for the provision and ‘interventions’ to indicate specific educational programmes or activities.
Aeres University of Applied Sciences has placed internationalisation as a key driver in its overall strategy. By prioritising the internationalisation of education and educational consultancy the university has created solid opportunities for students, lecturers, and partners at regional, national, and international levels. Currently, more strategic development on internationalisation in applied research at Aeres is needed. There is an opportunity to utilise highly proficient researchers, state-of-the-art facilities, and an impressive national research portfolio, and for this, there is a need to develop international research agenda, a key priority for AeresResearch4EU. To address this need, Aeres University of Applied Sciences aims to strengthen its internationalisation efforts with its research activities, opening the door to many opportunities, and most importantly, creating an international research agenda spanning the university's three locations. The main objectives of AeresResearch4EU are to analyse the existing research strategy and professorships and develop them towards a global research agenda for the European Union. By focusing on international research projects, Aeres can further enhance its reputation as a leading institution for applied research in agriculture, food, environment, and green technologies. AeresResearch4EU aims to create new partnerships and collaborations with researchers and institutions across Europe, allowing Aeres to contribute to developing innovative and sustainable solutions to global challenges. With its strong commitment to internationalisation and its focus on applied research, Aeres University of Applied Sciences is poised to become an essential player in the European research landscape.
In recent years, ArtEZ has worked on a broadly supported strategic research agenda on the themes New Ecologies of Matter (ecological challenges), Social Equity (social-societal issues), (Un)Learning Practices (educational innovations) and (Non)CybernEtic Fabric (technological developments). Building on these strategic themes, the ArtEZ Research Collective as developed an international research strategy to become a valuable partner in the relevant Horizon Europe (HEU) areas of Environment, Industry and Social science and humanities. With its specific knowledge position and approach from arts and creativity, ArtEZ is convinced that it can play a distinctive role in European consortia to tackle various challenges in these areas, in particular from the perspective and research topics of the professorships Fashion and Tactical Design. To achieve its ambitions and goals in its targeted research topics, ArtEZ is convinced that a combination of international connections and local applications is key for successful impact. Building upon existing relations and extending the international research position requires extra efforts, e.g., by developing a strong international framework of state-of-the-art research results, impacts and ambitions. Therefore ArtEZ needs to (further) build on both its international network and its supportive infrastructure. With this proposal ArtEZ is presenting its goals and efforts to work on its international recognition as a valuable research partner, and to broaden its international network in cutting-edge research and other stakeholders. With regards to its supporting infrastructure, ArtEZ has the ambition to expand the impact of the Subsidy Desk to become a professional partner to the professorships. This approach requires a further professionalization and extension of both the Subsidy Desk organization and its services, and developing and complementing skills, expertise and competences to comply to the European requirements.
Client: Taskforce for Applied Research (SIA), part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), with funding from the ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW)Funder: RAAK (Regional Attention and Action for Knowledge circulation)This research is co-funded by the Taskforce for Applied Research (SIA), part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), under the RAAK scheme.Project SASTDes aimed to resolve key issues in the sustainability assessment process of tourism destinations, with the objective to reduce the costs of assessments both in time and money, and to use the results of assessments for destination branding and marketing. The project’s core research question was: ‘How can sustainability assessments effectively and efficiently contribute to the sustainable development of tourism destinations and tourism products?’ All 7 work packages of this project were ultimately geared towards the construction of the SASTDes tool, an application enabling all elements of a destination sustainability assessment, with which DMOs can integrate sustainability into their strategic and operational management. All the project’s accomplishments are described in the Project Overview report that can be downloaded on this page. See under Research Output for individual reports.The consortium was led by BUas’ Centre for Sustainability, Tourism and Transport (CSTT). Knowledge partners were BUas’ associate professorships Sustainable Business Models (SBM) and Leisure and Tourism Experiences, Wageningen Environmental Research (WENR), part of Wageningen University & Research (WUR), and the associate professorship Data Science & ICT of Avans University of Applied Sciences. The municipalities of Breda, Goeree-Overflakkee and Schouwen-Duiveland, as well as Visit Zuid-Limburg, joined as destination partners. Tourism industry partners and NGO’s were Green Destinations, Follow, TUI Benelux, SeaGoingGreen, Fair Sayari, ECEAT, Treinreiswinkel, and bookdifferent.com.
