Executive Board announces intended reorganisation of DesignLab

The Executive Board has decided on a new structure for DesignLab to ensure it continues to provide value to the University of Twente and its community in the future, and has announced its intention to reorganise DesignLab. Employees of DesignLab were the first to be informed personally during a meeting yesterday. Following these meetings, the University Council and OPUT, as the relevant (employee participation) bodies, have also been informed.

Future-proof DesignLab: focus on education

The proposed reorganisation is part of the choices the University of Twente is making through Reinventing UT and its new Institutional Plan. As part of this process, all interfaculty units have been assessed to determine how they can best continue to contribute to education and research in the years ahead. For DesignLab, this means evolving into a shared educational facility for the entire university, while its independent research activities will no longer continue within DesignLab.

Over the past years, DesignLab has made an important contribution to transdisciplinary education, research and collaboration at the University of Twente. Initiatives such as Citizen Science and Open Science have proven their value and are now firmly embedded within the faculties. As these ways of working have increasingly become part of the university as a whole, the Executive Board has chosen to reshape DesignLab so that it can continue to add value to the UT and its community in the future.

Next steps

This is an intended reorganisation. Over the coming months, a reorganisation plan and staffing plan will be developed. Different scenarios for the future focus and organisation of DesignLab will be explored. The University Council and OPUT have formal advisory and approval roles in this process.

What this means for employees

Based on the current insights, it is expected that at least three positions will become redundant as a result of the discontinuation of the research activities. This is an initial estimate; no final decisions have yet been made regarding individual positions or employees.

Employees will be regularly updated on the progress of the process in the coming months. As soon as it becomes clear what the proposed decision means for individual employees, they will be informed personally.