Province and university strengthen their joint commitment to transitions in Utrecht

As of 1 February 2024, the Province of Utrecht and the Utrecht University School of Governance (USG) have agreed to a three-year agreement for research into sustainability and health innovations in the province of Utrecht. The research is action-oriented: the researchers, together with stakeholders from the region, will be looking for opportunities for innovations to accelerate the transitions.

The first research within this collaboration concerns citizen science initiatives in the province. These are initiatives by residents who take measurements of their living environment themselves with, for example, a sensor on their bicycle to measure air quality or with a sensor in their garden to measure soil moisture. The research is transdisciplinary: scientists from Innovation Sciences and Public Administration and Organisation Science are involved, in addition to various stakeholders from the region (residents' groups, civil society organisations, a knowledge institution, organisations on campus, municipalities and the province). The intention is to carry out follow-up research into other innovations and other themes.

USG Academic Fellow: Harm van den Heiligenberg

The collaboration will be given a personal touch through a USG Academic Fellow. This role will be fulfilled by Harm van den Heiligenberg, employee at the province of Utrecht who obtained his PhD at Utrecht University a year ago (on the spatial environment that can accelerate transitions).

Both parties are enthusiastic about the agreement. Albert Meijer, Professor of Public Innovation at USG says: We think it is very important to make an active contribution to accelerating transitions in the province of Utrecht. Through the Fellowship, the boundary between science and policy can be further bridged.

More information

For more information, please go to this website.