During the past two decades the implementation and adoption of information technology has rapidly increased. As a consequence the way businesses operate has changed dramatically. For example, the amount of data has grown exponentially. Companies are looking for ways to use this data to add value to their business. This has implications for the manner in which (financial) governance needs to be organized. The main purpose of this study is to obtain insight in the changing role of controllers in order to add value to the business by means of data analytics. To answer the research question a literature study was performed to establish a theoretical foundation concerning data analytics and its potential use. Second, nineteen interviews were conducted with controllers, data scientists and academics in the financial domain. Thirdly, a focus group with experts was organized in which additional data were gathered. Based on the literature study and the participants responses it is clear that the challenge of the data explosion consist of converting data into information, knowledge and meaningful insights to support decision-making processes. Performing data analyses enables the controller to support rational decision making to complement the intuitive decision making by (senior) management. In this way, the controller has the opportunity to be in the lead of the information provision within an organization. However, controllers need to have more advanced data science and statistic competences to be able to provide management with effective analysis. Specifically, we found that an important skill regarding statistics is the visualization and communication of statistical analysis. This is needed for controllers in order to grow in their role as business partner..
This report investigates prior experiences and impacts of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) with the aim of informing preparation plans for Leeuwarden and Fryslân to organize the event in 2018. The longterm benefits that the ECoC tend to be both tangible through improvements in facilities, and intangible as self-confidence and pride increase as the result of celebrating the destination, its culture and history.
The Dutch floriculture is globally leading, and its products, knowledge and skills are important export products. New challenges in the European research agenda include sustainable use of raw materials such as fertilizer, water and energy, and limiting the use of pesticides. Greenhouse growers however have little control over crop growth conditions in the greenhouse at individual plant level. The purpose of this project, ‘HiPerGreen’, is to provide greenhouse owners with new methods to monitor the crop growth conditions in their greenhouse at plant level, compare the measured growth conditions and the measured growth with expected conditions and expected growth, to point out areas with deviations, recommend counter-measures and ultimately to increase their crop yield. The main research question is: How can we gather, process and present greenhouse crop growth parameters over large scale greenhouses in an economical way and ultimately improve crop yield? To provide an answer to this question, a team of university researchers and companies will cooperate in this applied research project to cover several different fields of expertise The application target is floriculture: the production of ornamental pot plants and cut flowers. Participating companies are engaged in the cultivation of pot plans, flowers and suppliers of greenhouse technology. Most of the parties fall in the SME (MKB) category, in line with the RAAK MKB objectives.Finally, the Demokwekerij and Hortipoint (the publisher of the international newsletter on floriculture) are closely involved. The project will develop new knowledge for a smart and rugged data infrastructure for growth monitoring and growth modeling in the greenhouse. In total the project will involve approximately 12 (teacher) researchers from the universities and about 60 students, who will work in the form of internships and undergraduate studies of interesting questions directly from the participating companies.
De retailsector verandert diepgaand en structureel. Door ontwikkelingen in technologie, sociaal-culturele en demografische trends en ook door veranderingen binnen het domein van retail zelf, staan veel ondernemingen en andere stakeholders, zoals gemeenten, de vastgoedsector en toeleveranciers van het winkelbedrijf voor belangrijke uitdagingen. Dit veld vormt een belangrijk onderzoeksthema van praktijkgericht onderzoek van lectoraten binnen het Hoger Beroepsonderwijs. Dat is nu nog versnipperd, maar kan en kracht en relevantie winnen bij samenwerking. Het lectorenplatform Retail Innovation beoogt door middel van bundeling en gecoördineerde en deels gezamenlijke uitvoering van nieuw praktijkgericht retail onderzoek door de lectoren in het HBO een betere gestructureerde bijdrage leveren aan de noodzakelijke innovatie in de retailsector in Nederland, in het bijzonder op basis van de nationale retail(onderzoeks)agenda. Vanuit die bundeling de verbinding leggen met de retailsector, samen met geassocieerde partners zoals TKI CLICKNL, belangstellende universiteiten en relevante organisaties en vertegenwoordigers van de retailsector om de doorwerking van bevindingen en resultaten verder te versterken.
The Hereon team has expressed interest in the use of the PO platform for the virtualization of the (hydro)dynamic behavior of offshore wind farms, in particular regarding turbidity around wind turbines. BUas has developed the Procedural Ocean (PO) platform. The platform uses procedural content generation (AI) for data-driven 3D virtualization of complex marine and maritime environments, with elements such as geo-environment (bathymery, etc.), geo-physics (weather conditions, waves), wind farms, aquaculture, shipping, ecology, and more. The virtual and immersive environment in the game engine Unreal supports advanced (game-like) user interaction for policy-oriented learning (marine spatial planning), ocean management, and decision making. We therefore propose a joint pilot Research and Development (R&D) project to explore, demonstrate and validate how a gridded dataset provided by Hereon can show the dynmics around wind farm monopiles. Furthermore, we can explore interactivity with the engineering and design of the turbine and the multiplication of the turbine design to compose a wind farm. Client: Hereon (The Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon is a non-profit making research institute )
