Higher education has the potential to act as ecosystem catalysts, connecting with the places our institutions which they are a part of, for learning-based changes with wicked (sustainability) challenges. This, however, calls for reorienting and rethinking of the higher educational narratives and subsequent practices towards more ecological and relational ones. In this study, a pilot aimed to connect a course at The Hague University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands) to an industrial park next to the university which is undergoing transition towards a sustainable living space. The pilot, which ran from September 2020 to February 2021, included 17 students from 9 nationalities and 12 different bachelor programmes, and was designed according to the concepts of an ‘ecology of learning’. In this semester long course, called Mission Impact, students reflected every five-weeks, to capture their learning experiences using a combination of arts-based and narrative reflection methods. Two questions guided the analysis: (1) what are the key design characteristics of an ecological approach to higher education that connects to sustainability transformations (in times of COVID-19) and (2) what does this type of education asks from to learners. The reflective artefacts were analysed using Narratives of T-Mapping and juxtaposed with autoethnographic insights maintained by the first author for triangulation. Preliminary results of this pilot include the structure in chaos, space for transformation, openness for emerging futures & action confidence as components of such an ecological education that connects to and co-creates sustainability transformations.
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As the economy becomes more globalized, a growing number of events are exerting an influence on activity and innovation globally in different fields. Therefore, we argue that "eventful cities" can act as important catalysts for eventfulness in other places as well. This article analyzes the case of the Sónar electronic music festival, an event that originated in Barcelona, Spain, but which now runs different editions in many cities worldwide. This empirical study of the innovation capacity of a cultural event examines how a locally based music festival has transformed itself by using the global "space of flows" to influence the local "space of places." The Sónar Festival has turned itself into a relational hub in a global cultural network, using stylistic innovations to link geographically dispersed nodes in order to create new products, open up new markets, and strengthen its own position as a global source of eventfulness.
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Gemeenten zoeken naar nieuwe manieren om samen met burgers te komen tot oplossingen voor maatschappelijke vraagstukken. In het Europese project CoSIE experimenteren we met verschillende manieren om deze co-creatie vorm te geven. We kijken bijvoorbeeld naar het verbeteren van de leefbaarheid in een wijk en het vinden van werk voor mensen met een afstand tot de arbeidsmarkt.Doel Het project CoSIE onderzoekt hoe dienstverlening kan verbeteren als gemeenten die samen met burgers en andere betrokkenen ontwerpt. Deze manier van werken heet co-creatie. De verschillende manieren van cocreatie worden onderzocht. We richten ons op burgers die moeilijk te bereiken of kwetsbaar zijn. Bijvoorbeeld mensen met een afstand tot de arbeidsmarkt, en kinderen met overgewicht. Daarnaast onderzoeken we welke meerwaarde digitale hulpmiddelen en open data kunnen hebben in het proces van co-creatie. Ook kijken we hoe het laten vertellen en vastleggen van individuele verhalen hieraan kan bijdragen. Lees meer op de projectwebsite Resultaten Het project zal leiden tot inspirerende voorbeelden van co-creatie voor de aanpak van maatschappelijke vraagstukken. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan overgewicht bij kinderen of centraal wonen door ouderen. Een greep uit de tussenresultaten en publicaties tot nu toe: Whitepaper 'de menselijke maat terug bij de overheid' (Sociaal Bestek, december '20) Pilotposters met een korte beschrijving van de pilots in de 10 landen Co-creation of Public Service Innovation - Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Tech – CoSIE White Paper Rapid Evidence Appraisal of the Current State of Co-creation in Ten European Countries. Relevance, Understanding and Motivation – The Key Catalysts of Co-creation Towards a Roadmap for Co-creation – Practical Ideas and Useful Tools Presentatie 3 oktober 2019 tijdens een KSI-lunchmeeting Looptijd 01 december 2017 - 01 april 2021 Aanpak Het project bestaat uit verschillende pilots in de gemeenten Nieuwegein en Houten. Andere EU-landen zijn al eerder begonnen met hun pilots. Van die ervaringen kunnen wij in ons Nederlandse onderzoek leren. Pilot gemeente Nieuwegein Bewoners denken in de pilot in Nieuwegein mee over hoe hun buurt socialer en veiliger kan. In gesprekken met hen kwam het afvalprobleem vaak naar voren. Daarom bedenken we samen oplossingen waar bewoners zich betrokken bij voelen. Zo organiseren we discussiebijeenkomsten met bewoners en gebruiken we creatieve visuele vormen om hun verhalen te vertellen. In dit interview vertelt Nynke Joustra, projectleider bij de gemeente Nieuwegein, meer over de pilot en de bredere aanpak 'Nypels' waarbinnen deze pilot wordt uitgevoerd: No time to waste: co-creatie tegen afval. Pilot gemeente Houten De gemeente Houten wil de begeleiding van kwetsbare groepen bij het vinden van werk verbeteren. Samen met werkzoekenden, ondernemers, ngo's en andere gemeentelijke diensten werkt Houten in co-creatie aan een betere dienstverlening. In het najaar van 2019 probeert de gemeente verschillende oplossingen uit.
In the course of the “energie transitie” hydrogen is likely to become a very important energy carrier. The production of hydrogen (and oxygen) by water electrolysis using electricity from sun or wind is the only sustainable option. Water electrolysis is a well-developed technique, however the production costs of hydrogen by electrolysis are still more expensive than the conventional (not sustainable) production by steam reforming. One challenge towards the large scale application of water electrolysis is the fabrication of stable and cheap (noble metal free) electrodes. In this project we propose to develop fabrication methods for working electrodes and membrane electrode stack (MEAs) that can be used to implement new (noble metal free) electrocatalysts in water electrolysers.
The growing energy demand and environmental impact of traditional sources highlight the need for sustainable solutions. Hydrogen produced through water electrolysis, is a flexible and clean energy carrier capable of addressing large-electricity storage needs of the renewable but intermittent energy sources. Among various technologies, Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis (PEMWE) stands out for its efficiency and rapid response, making it ideal for grid stabilization. In its core, PEMWEs are composed of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA), which consist of a proton-conducting membrane sandwiched between two catalyst-coated electrodes, forming a single PEMWE cell unit. Despite the high efficiency and low emissions, a principal drawback of PEMWE is the capital cost due to high loading of precious metal catalysts and protective coatings. Traditional MEA catalyst coating methods are complex, inefficient, and costly to scale. To circumvent these challenges, VSParticle developed a technology for nanoparticle film production using spark ablation, which generates nanoparticles through high-voltage discharges between electrodes followed by an impaction printing module. However, the absence of liquids poses challenges, such as integrating polymeric solutions (e.g., Nafion®) for uniform, thicker catalyst coatings. Electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) stands out as a promising technique thanks to its strong electric fields used to generate micro- and nanometric droplets with a narrow size distribution. Co-axial EHDA, a variation of this technique, utilizes two concentric needles to spray different fluids simultaneously.The ESPRESSO-NANO project combines co-axial EHDA with spark ablation to improve catalyst uniformity and performance at the nanometer scale by integrating electrosprayed ionomer nanoparticles with dry metal nanoparticles, ensuring better distribution of the catalyst within the nanoporous layer. This novel approach streamlines numerous steps in traditional synthesis and electrocatalyst film production which will address material waste and energy consumption, while simultaneously improve the electrochemical efficiency of PEMWEs, offering a sustainable solution to the global energy crisis.
