Impact Day 2025

• Arrival & registration
  13:00 – 13:30
   
• Welcome (Belle van Zuylenzaal)
  13:30 – 14:00
   
• Parallel sessions (various rooms)
  14:00 – 15:30
   
• Coffee & tea break (Westerdijkkamer)
  15:30 – 15:45
   
• Plenary activity: Educating Change Agents for Societal Impact (Belle van Zuylenzaal)
  15:45 – 17:00
   
• Drinks & networking (Westerdijkkamer)
  17:00 – 18:00 

Universities are increasingly expected to help address grand societal challenges - ranging from climate change and biodiversity loss to social inequality and public health. One way to contribute is by educating change agents: individuals who drive sustainable and meaningful change within the systems they operate in. 

This session brings together scholars to explore different perspectives on change agent education and the role of higher education in fostering societal impact. 

Frank van Rijnsoever and Matthijs Punt are both Assistant Professor within the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development of the Faculty of Geosciences; Christianne Smit is Associate Professor and researcher within the Political History research group of the Faculty of Humanities at Utrecht University.

Although general opinion often portrays the younger generations as being politically passive and without own initiatives, everyday reality appears to be different: current-day youngsters are connecting (both online and offline) to everything happening in the world today. During this session we will discuss ways to enhance the visibility of young people's views on society by means of 'protest songs'. 

Many youngsters write their lyrics and poems down on paper, but how could we improve the connection of these words with school subjects such as Music, Language, and History? And by doing so, would we risk to institutionalise their views and wishes by bringing those into the classroom? 

This session will be coordinated by representatives of the Buma Music Academy (organiser of the Protest Song Context) and Laurens Ham, Assistant Professor in Modern Dutch Literature at Utrecht University and an expert on Dutch musical culture.

Speakers: Ytje Hiemstra (MantelzorgNL), Robert Vonk (Raad voor Volksgezondheid & Samenleving), Chris Vlam (Dep. of History, UU), Lonneke van den Berg (NIDI), Katia Begall and Lianne Aarntzen (Radboud University & UU), and Kirsten van Spronsen (Nederland zorgt voor elkaar).

Demographic changes - such as population aging, declining birth rates, and the rise of single-person households - are increasing pressure on how care is organised in modern societies. Changes in demand and supply related to care raise fundamental questions about the ‘division of labour’ and responsibility among the government, families, and local communities for meeting care needs. 

An increasingly common solution is the bottom-up organisation of care in the form of care collectives. This session will bring together experts from different disciplines and societal partners to discuss and reflect on key questions about how to strengthen connectedness, collaboration, and solidarity among family members, the government, and bottom-up organisations in providing care.

The reception of asylum seekers, refugees, and the displaced has reached an important turning point. Dutch legislation (the 'Spreidingswet') allows municipalities to take more (or even full) responsibility of this reception. In addition to this, it has been widely perceived that this reception needs to be improved at the same time, making reception a win-win situation for shelter residents, local residents, employers and society as a whole. 

To embody this, two networks have been established over the past year. One network is established by a group of municipalities (and two provinces) that would like to organise the reception by themselves, the other by a group of societal organisations, in cooperation with some municipalities and the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), which have developed 'buiding blocks' for an improved reception. At the same time, the COA is exploring the options for Duurzame Gemeentelijke Opvang (DGO; Sustainable Municipal Shelter), and the Dutch Ministry of Asylum and Migration is exploring the option of Volledige Gemeentelijke Exploitatie (VGE; Full Municipal Exploitation).

In this meeting, we bring together these networks and explorations. We will explore how cooperation can be made more efficient and more effective, in order to improve reception as soon as possible. We will not only talk about governance (organisation and responsibility concerning the shelter), but also about the quality (pilots in which the mentioned 'building blocks' are already being implemented and tested).

All those interested are welcome. Among the participants are several societal partners, such as municipalities working on DGO and/or VGE, societal organisations working on 'building blocks' for improved reception, the COA, the Ministry of Asylum and Migration, the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG), and provinces.