Newsletter MSc & PhD Education NL
July 2015
The sun took some time to fully radiate but as you can all notice, summer has
definitely arrived in the Netherlands! We hope that you are having fun with this
excellent weather.
July is together with August our busiest month of the year as The Journey 2015 kicks
off. We are very excited to present the 2015 edition to our new students and wish that
you have a wonderful experience at the Climate-KIC annual summer school!
In this newsletter you can find updates of upcoming events, The Journey 2015, the
Pre-Journey workshops 2015, the last SPARK! lecture, the start-up UpFront, the launch
of Valoriz, a Dilbert cartoon and a mobility case. Also don't forget to look at our
website for internship updates: http://www.climate-kic.nl/vacancies/
Enjoy the tropical heat!
The Dutch Education Team
Agenda July/August 2015:
* The Journey July: 5 July-8 August 2015
* The Journey August: 26 July-29 August 2015
The Journey 2015
Kicking of on Sunday 5 July!
As you know The Journey 2015 will start in a
few days!
The summer school of Climate-KIC will take
you on a journey across three countries and
some of Europe’s best universities and
business together with a growing group of climate innovators. You will learn fundamentals about
climate change science and start-ups in only five weeks.
We will teach you the tools to make an impact on the global effort to adapt to and stop further climate
change and become an entrepreneur. You will undergo a vast development, create business ideas
related to climate change adaptation and mitigation and leave with a whole new skill and mindset to
really make a difference.
The Journey of July that will be taking place in the Netherlands will be from 5 to 18 July in Delft.
The Journey of August that will be taking place in the Netherlands will be from 25 July to 8 August in
Utrecht.
Pre-Journey workshops 2015
Ideation sessions
In preparation for The Journey 2015 we organized two PreJourney workshops for students on 6 and 13 June 2015 in
Wageningen. The subject was the learnings of creative thinking
and idea generation.
The workshops were facilitated by Willemijn Brouwer. The morning was focused on the theoretical
background on how the brain works in combination with thinking patterns and how to disrupt this
process in order to foment creativity.
During the afternoon the basic principles of the Insights Discovery profile were explained
(introvert, extravert, task-oriented and people-oriented) and different groups were formed. The
students performed practical exercises in teams outside the university building.
Dimitra Mamali: "It was a really nice session as I expected it to be more passive. What I liked the
most is the info we received on how to form a balanced team based on personal differences of
team members and its synergies".
The purpose of these workshops was to give students practical tools on how to use personal
creativity talent.
Photos of the Pre-Journey (13 June) can be viewed here or by clicking on the following link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/131036486@N02/sets/72157652378708273
Last SPARK! lecture
The Dutch Weed Burger
On 16 June the last SPARK! lecture took place at Molen de Ster in
Utrecht. The topic of the session was the Dutch Weed Burger and
meat substitutes.
The evening started with a presentation of Laurens van Dort introducing his start-up UpFront (more
information see article below).
Film maker and sustainable food entrepreneur Mark Kulsdom shared his experiences and the film of the
The Dutch Weed Burger was showed. In the movie he and Lisette Kreischer (vegan entrepreneur) went
to New York to find out more about plant-based food by visiting several leading vegan restaurants in
the city and to launch the weed burger concept to the American public.
A remarkable quote of the movie by Bart Potenza (called the Godfather of veganism and owner of one
of the best vegan restaurants in NYC): "It is easier to change religion or political views than food
habits".
The Seitan Chefs (formed by two entrepreneurs) also explained about their entrepreneurial meat
substitute concept.
The evening ended with a sunny barbeque where everybody could taste the seaweed based burgers
with drinks.
Photos of this SPARK! lecture can be viewed here or on the following link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/131036486@N02/sets/72157652369801934
Start-up UpFront
Student Laurens van Dort
During last SPARK! lecture Laurens van Dort presented his start-up
UpFront. The Journey of last year inspired Laurens to set up his own
company based on the innovation power of multidisciplinary student
teams.
UpFront is composing the right people in a team to generate innovations for large companies. The
students are guided by creative techniques and methods in a 4-day bootcamp. For students it's a
learningful and fun experience to work in their field of expertise. It's the ideal student job and for
companies it’s a great opportunity to discover innovation.
If you want to be part of the multidisciplinary teams, send an email to info@upfront-innovators.nl. For
more information check here or click on the following link: http://www.upfront-innovators.nl/
Launch of Valoriz
As you might remember from previous newsletters, Valoriz is a
Climate-KIC initiative that is the 1st open European online platform
that enables science and business to innovate together. Valoriz helps
jump-start collaborations by providing scientists and businesses a
place to easily get in contact with potential partners throughout
Europe.
We officially launched Valoriz on 4 June at the Impact of Science event organised and supported by
ScienceWorks, VSNU, STW and Rathenau Institute. This event was an important stage for international
best practices in measuring and demonstrating the contribution of science to society.
On the 17 June we organized an internal launch to Climate-KIC community members at the Climate
Innovation Event, which focused on strengthen the Climate-KIC community and to find the match with
end-users and our partners.
Check out our Valoriz introduction video here or go to: http://www.valoriz.eu/about.html
Photos of the launch of Valoriz can be viewed below:
4 June: click here or go to https://www.flickr.com/photos/131036486@N02/sets/72157653904257728
17 June: click here or go to https://www.flickr.com/photos/131036486@N02/sets/72157654684171382
Dilbert cartoon on
efficiency
Mobility showcase
Roel van Ooij: Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague
For the mobility part of Climate-KIC Master Label I'm doing a six-month
internship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. The
Ministry promotes the interests of the Netherlands abroad and is also
active in international relations, the European Union and development
cooperation. This is coordinated from The Hague and more than 150
embassies throughout the world.
Within the Ministry I work in the climate cluster of the Inclusive Green Growth department. This
department is concerned with five global issues: climate, energy, resources, water and food security.
These global issues have strong linkages and the department strives to as much synergy as possible.
People suffering from those global issues often live in developing countries, therefore development
cooperation is a focus of the department.
Although not far from home, it was quite a step moving from a calculator at the university to the
policy-heaven called Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague, working in an office 40 hours per week. It
was like entering another world, however, I got used to the rhythm soon and upgraded my timeefficiency to be able to do more than grocery shopping and having dinner in the evenings.
My activities vary widely every day, which gives me the opportunity to see lots of different aspects of
the Ministry. One of the more regular and small activities is taking minutes of meetings, which is not
very inspiring. However, it boosts your knowledge on the subjects discussed, especially when you just
start. More long-term projects are organizing an international conference, setting up an online course
on climate change and drafting texts for the climate negotiations later this year in Paris at COP21. This
range of activities makes it very interesting to work half a year at the Ministry.
I am halfway my internship and I already learned a lot. The hierarchical structure and the working style
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs becomes clear after some time and of course I saw a glimpse of the
craftsmanship of policy making. I’m sure I will learn even more the next three months before I head
back to Wageningen.