On Monday 28 March 2022, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science will visit ROC van Twente, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, and the University of Twente. The Minister will be talking to students, teachers, companies, and researchers about co-operation in our region, about research and innovation and about lifelong development.
Co-operation within the region is focused on strengthening the economy in Twente across the board and on how research and innovation may contribute to sustainable economic growth. From the Twenteboard perspective, the Minister will receive an update on the activities within this co-operation of the government, educational institutions, and entrepreneurs in the region. In Twente, regional forces are combined and parties work together intensively in various ways to make a difference and to retain talent for this region.
Besides educating students, ROC, Saxion and UT play an important role in bringing knowledge to the market and to society. Attention will be drawn to developments in the field of research and innovation that focus on safety, healthcare and technology, climate, and energy.
When it comes to lifelong development, the discussion will focus on what is needed to provide graduates and employees with a permanent, up-to-date education offer in a time when new technologies continuously demand new skills and when the rate of innovation requires agile and flexible education.
ROC: energy transition and healthcare & technology
At ROC, technology students, employees and companies will show the Minister how they work together and what the importance of that co-operation is for this region. Among other things, the Minister will get a glimpse of a co-operation project on energy transition in which ROC collaborates with the industry and municipalities in the region.
Regarding lifelong learning and development, ROC will be showing their co-operation with Regio Twente in educating people that have difficulties finding employment to become software developers. In addition, the minister will be introduced to the developments in the Healthcare and Technology programme and offered the possibility to take a look at the TZA truck, in which various technological solutions in the healthcare sector are demonstrated.
Saxion: transfer from MBO to HBO and student session
At Saxion, Robbert Dijkgraaf will talk to students of senior secondary vocational education (MBO) who have passed on to higher professional education (HBO) and the 100-day programme that aimed at giving them a successful start at HBO. He will then be shown a number of enlightening examples of practice-based research: how fundamental knowledge is applied and transferred back to society. The Wearable Breathing Trainer project, in which UT (TechMed Center) and ROC van Twente are collaborating, shows how this is done with medical textiles. In the Circular Textile Lab, where the Twente textile industry has been revitalised in an innovative way, he will speak with (student) researchers about the Regiodeal Circulair Textiel Twente.
Finally, at Saxion, the Minister will have a 'Speak out session' with students from Saxion and the UT, about student welfare and study success, the regional labour market, and other topics that students can address themselves.
UT: security and digitisation and High Tech for a Sustainable Future
At a time when the level of threat to security has increased enormously due to geopolitical conflicts, the Minister will discuss the latest technological developments in the field of cyber security during his visit to the University of Twente. He will talk to the initiators of the Centre for Security and Digitalisation, where knowledge is developed and shared with various partners in order to train professionals who are available to make the Netherlands more digitally secure. He will also be introduced to the public-private partnership ‘Twente University Centre for Cybersecurity Research (TUCCR), in which UT and a number of industrial and knowledge partners work together to create talent, innovation and knowledge development in the cybersecurity domain. TUCCR focuses on strengthening security and digital independence of our society through research into security challenges in practice.
Finally, the 4TU programme High Tech for a Sustainable Future is scheduled, along with Resilience Engineering and its affiliated programme DeSIRE. Scientists share their experiences working in a multi-disciplinary miniature sector plan, that focuses on ‘team science’. Multi-disciplinarity is of increasing importance in science, as well as in Resilience Engineering, where solutions for complex socio-technical environmental systems are designed. The multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional programme ‘Designing Systems for Informed Resilience Engineering’ (DeSIRE) is important showcase that connects universities, industry and the government, and focuses among others on applications in urban environments, water, agri-food sector, transport networks, energy, and cyber.
