The recent corona crisis shows that many aspects of large complex social challenges are interrelated. Social problems can never be captured in mono disciplines, they are never either technological or social in nature. They are always both. They require an integrated approach. They call for new forms of knowledge and knowledge development that, according to Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), is only possible if scientific areas converge and knowledge institutions partner up.
Partnerships
Collaboration between Academic centers in the South West region (Zuid-Holland) of the Netherlands is therefore obvious. In recent years, researchers and lecturers have already been able to find each other in the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Alliance (LDE) and the Medical Delta partnership. We will now intensify and scale up these collaborations in a joint research and education strategy, divided in these three themes:
We also collaborate on these two programs:
The institutions cooperate bilaterally or tripartitely, depending on whether this strengthens content or accelerates speed.
Collaboration with Rotterdam and the business community
By explicitly involving the city, region and the business community in building these knowledge bridges, we create the innovation networks that the region and the Netherlands as a whole need so badly. Only in this way universities can actually fulfill the role they have been given by society. Only in this way their social impact is meaningful.
Convergence is therefore not only an academic matter. In a broader sense, it contributes to regional social innovation. That is the social impact on which we as a university are building with our new strategy.
Visit the Convergence Alliance website for more information.
