Newsletter MSc & PhD Education NL
May 2014
Welcome to our first monthly newsletter of the Dutch Climate-KIC Education Pillar! From
now on there will be two main platforms to inform you about all our nice and inspiring
activities:
* we will update you weekly on the HUB, so make sure you have your account
activated and your email alerts turned ON!
* each month we will update you with a newsletter like this and the agenda for the
upcoming month, so make sure you read the newsletters carefully so you don't miss any
item!
Enjoy!
The Dutch Education Team
How to get on the HUB and join
our local MSc or PhD group
As from now on we will communicate with you via
the HUB.
You can get the latest news regarding your Master of PhD Label Programme, engage
with your peers and Education Managers, find practical information about procedures,
look for career opportunities, events and much more.
For Master Students please click here or go to the following link:
http://www.communityhub.climate-kic.org/groups/education-pillar/dutch-master-labelstudents/
For PhDs please click here or go to the following link:
http://www.communityhub.climate-kic.org/groups/education-pillar/dutch-phd-label/
Stay tuned at the community HUB!
Please contact Nies Springer or Esperanza Rueda Perez in case you can’t log into the
HUB.
Upcoming: pre-Journey workshop
All students who will join theJourney this summer are invited to the pre-Journey
workshop: Creativity is the cause, innovation is the consequence.
In this pre-Journey workshop you will learn the theoretical basics of creative thinking
and creative problem solving (CPS) as a way to innovate. According to the learning-bydoing principle you will practice with the creative, diverging part of CPS and focusing,
conversing part of CPS.
The purpose of this workshop is to get idea generation flowing and to provide you with
creative thinking skills. You can apply both ideas and skills in your Journeys. The
workshop is also a day to get to know each other, learn who will be in your Journey and
exchange knowledge and experiences.
The presentation and the results of the workshop will be shared on the HUB. You are
encouraged to add to each others’ ideas to improve them. The goal is to use these
improved ideas as inspiration for your business ideas you will develop within your
Journeys. The workshop will be facilitated by Willemijn Brouwer.
Details:
Saturday 17th May or Saturday 14th June
WUR Campus, ATLAS building
Droevendaalsesteeg 4
Meeting room: Atlas 1
Program:
10:15 – 16:30
Lunch, coffee and tea are provided.
Upcoming: SPARK!
SPARK! Lecture: Jigar Shah
Creating Climate Wealth
3 June 2014
In the next edition of the Climate-KIC SPARK! Series, Jigar
will discuss his book and how he believes that climate change and business model
innovation can be turned into a $10 trillion dollar wealth-creating opportunity.
Jigar Shah is clean energy entrepreneur who is passionate about creating marketdriven solutions and eliminating barriers to address climate change. As well as being
the founder of SunEdison, a company at the early forefront of Solar PV pricing models,
Jigar is the former CEO of Richard Branson’s Carbon War Rooms, and is now the
author of ‘Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy’.
The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session, with questions being invited by each
CLC as follows: France, Germany, Netherlands and UK. This SPARK! Will take place in
the UK, but students can follow the event at Climate-KIC Netherlands. Frans Nauta
(Entrepreneurship Lead Climate-KIC The Netherlands) will give an introduction on the
acceleration programme at 5pm. The SPARK! session will start at 6 pm. Don’t miss it!
Details:
Tuesday 3rd June 2014, 5 pm CET
University of Utrecht
Green room
Program:
17:00 welcome and intro Frans Nauta
17:45 break
18:00 SPARK!
20:00 drinks and networking at the roof terrace
Join the Climate-KIC Student Board!
Do you know a colleague student (3rd year BSC) who is looking to spend a year
on gathering experience on leadership and management in an international
setting on Climate Innovation? They can apply as a member of our Climate-KIC
Student Board 2014/2015!
The board will consist of three fulltime members, one of each of the three Dutch partner
Universities of Utrecht (UU), Delft (TU) and Wageningen (WUR). The aim of the board
is to promote entrepreneurship and innovation towards climate change among students.
The board and its members will become an integral part of Climate-KIC’s international
community. Being part of this Europe wide network of frontrunners in climate-change
gives the board a unique position within the three local Dutch universities.
To apply for a board position, please send an email to tim@climate-kic.nl with a resume
and a motivation letter before 23rd May 2014.
For more information, please click here or go to the following link: http://www.climatekic.nl/student-board/join-the-student-board/
board/join-the-student-board/
Student showcase: Priska Prasetya
(Vietnam)
I joined Climate-KIC’s education programme in 2013. I
am currently doing my Master on Urban Environmental
Management at Wageningen University with Climate-KIC
EIT MSc Label. For my mobility I went to Mekong Delta
in Vietnam to conduct my thesis research on ‘Reusing wastewater from Pangasius
sector for irrigation of paddy fields as a measure of climate adaptation in Can Tho city,
Mekong Delta’.
I have a huge interest in Vietnam because the country is feeding the world with its large
exports (rice), yet it is one of the world's most impacted by climate change. The Can
Tho city (the biggest city in Mekong Delta) is facing problems encountered by the
Mekong Delta as a whole: decreasing usable water availability (due to climate change,
sever water pollution and upstream dam development). At the same time there is an
increasing demand of water due to urban and peri-urban activities. I see this as an
opportunity for more sustainable water management and climate change adaptation at
the urban and river basin scale.
During my research, every week was different. At the start I spent most of my time
interviewing experts both in Ho Chi Minh and Can Tho. Then I began to conduct field
visits for catfish farms and rice fields, accompanied by a translator who assisted me with
interviewing the farmers. Since I also got access to the database of Can Tho University,
I also spent time looking at related past studies. I got a lot of sources from the experts,
so I also spent some time to see if these sources were valuable for my research.
Visiting the location through Climate-KIC’s mobility programme brings added value to
my research. I get a true feeling of what it feels like living in the Mekong Delta. Before I
went to Vietnam, I read from journals that Vietnam is an agriculture-based country that
is really dependent on water resource. When I went there, I could actually see that the
people really live with water. I was there during a flood period and I saw how people
have their own way to deal with this problem in their houses. I got to talk to the local
experts and they told me about what is actually happening. For example, they informed
me that besides climate change, the Mekong Delta is also threatened by dam
developments in the upstream. This development can limit the fresh water for the cities
in downstream of the Mekong Delta including Can Tho city. If I did not visit that place, I
wouldn’t be aware of this issue.
My advice for future mobility students is to have solid contacts with the people you want
to visit, do your research in advance and know what you want out of it; otherwise the
research will just go nowhere. My mobility project has given me the opportunity to see
the commercial aspects of my research and inspired me to apply for the Greenhouse
programme 2014.
(Photo: Priska Prasetya is second left)
Meet the Dutch team
Martine van Veelen is Education Lead of Climate-KIC the Netherlands. Her personal
objective is to deliver a new generation of change agents and innovative entrepreneurs.
At Climate-KIC her focus is to design and implement new educational programs on
innovation and entrepreneurship and to educate and support students and
professionals.
Contact Martine for: Education programme
Nies Springer is Education Manager of Climate-KIC at the Dutch Centre. In this role she
coordinates all education activities within the Netherlands such as theJourney, SPARK!,
lectures and all the administration of the PhD and Master Programmes.
Contact Nies for: Education activities
Willemijn Brouwer is Educator in creative thinking at Climate-KIC. She focuses on
offering activities and thoughts that contribute to the creative abilities of people, groups
and organizations. She strives to let people find their own creativity and talent to boost
innovation, by making use of creative elements like humour and games.
Contact Willemijn for: Creative thinking
Esperanza Rueda Perez is Communications Manager at Climate-KIC. She is
responsible for branding activities, as well as for the HUB, newsletter and other
communication initiatives. She strives to develop a communication approach which will
lead to authentic growth, both at a strategic and operational level.
Contact Esperanza for: Communication
Patrick van der Duin is Education Coordinator at Climate-KIC and an assistant
professor at Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Technology, Policy and
Management. His fields of interests are innovation, management, innovation systems,
futures research and the link between futures research and innovation management.
Contact Patrick for: Education (TU Delft)
Matthijs Prinzen is Education Coordinator at Climate-KIC and he received his master in
Journalism Studies from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. His specialty is web journalism
and new media. He works for the Faculty of Geosciences at the University of Utrecht.
Contact Matthijs for: Education (UU)
Marjo Lexmond is Education Coordinator at Climate-KIC and a Biologist specialized in
microbiological and biochemical aspects of anaerobic conversion processes. She is
study advisor for the BSc and the MSc programme Environmental Sciences and for the
Msc Urban Environmental Management of Wageningen University.
Contact Marjo for: Education (WUR)
Thea van Hummel is Administrator at Climate-KIC. She is mainly responsible for the
support of the financial administration. Thea also deals with the subsidies of the Mobility
and Greenhouse programmes, expenses and budgets.
Contact Thea for: Finance
The Climate-KIC Student Board The Netherlands is an organization which promotes
and supports all the education related activities from Climate-KIC. From each city there
is one representative.
Peter van Leeuwen represents the Student Board in Wageningen, Tim Stellingwerk in
Utrecht and Oxana van Kempen in Delft.
Contact the student board for: Student activities