Quo Vadis Serious Gaming
Serious Gaming will change the way we learn and educate. These games can be used to teach practical surgery skills in medical environments. In security applications like fire trainings we learn how to act in case of a disaster. Games are also used for promotional skills.
The Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden has been successful in educating students to play a role in this new area. It is important though, that the students will get employed. For this reason The Game Academy has been funded for a limited time with the support of European, national and local funds.
While the Game Academy has been successful in building a network and facilitating the contact between early adopters of serious games and students, there was no breakthrough to a broader development. The society is not yet fully aware of the potential of this communication channel.
EUKEP has been supporting in the early 2014 timeframe to building a bridge to the organisations that can benefit from these games. A group of founding fathers has been found that will help form a new serious gaming organisation. The focus of the new organisation will be on development of serious games specifications. The actual building of the applications will be done by existing game development companies.
Impact Event Sinnediken
The Afsluitdijk (English: Enclosure Dam, Frisian: Ofslútdyk) is a major causeway in the Netherlands, constructed between 1927 and 1933 and running from Den Oever on Wieringen in North Holland province, to the village of Zurich in Friesland province, over a length of 32 kilometres and a width of 90 m, at an initial height of 7.25 m above sea-level. It is a fundamental part of the larger Zuiderzee Works, damming off the Zuiderzee, a salt water inlet of the North Sea and turning it into the fresh water lake of the IJsselmeer.
This beautiful landmark has a potential to incorporate renewable energy functions. The Province of Friesland (Frisian: Fryslân) has a policy to promote the use of renewable energy. Reconstruction works are expected on the Afsluitdijk and for this reason The Province has asked EUKEP to organise an Impact Event at 10 December 2010 with all stake holders in order to asses whether a PV Solar plant on the Afsluitdijk or other dikes is feasible from a technology, commercial and policy perspective.
From a technical perspective no limitations have been found. The participants to the event stated that a pilot would be proposed nevertheless since there is no experience yet with PV plants in this environment. Production costs per Kwh will initially be higher compared to carbon based alternatives. Creative business models have developed however to overcome this disadvantage. These models should be integrated in the pilot as well. Follow up of the Impact Event will be organised by Energy Valley.
Download Summary and conclusions Impact Event Sinnediken
In the follow up of the Impact Event the Dutch government has been convinced to invest 20 million Euro in renewable energy at this location: press coverage.
More detailed information can be found in the Ambitie agenda: Download Ambtieagenda_Afsluitdijk[1].
Impact Event Concentrated Photo Voltaic Solar Power and Thin Film
The Province of Brabant in the Netherlands has the vision that renewable energy has an economical potential for the strong developed manufacturing industry in the region. In cooperation with the Brabantse Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij (BOM) EUKEP made a study (Download Study) of the players and the potential of Concentrated Photo Voltaic Solar Power and Thin Film. In March 2009 a group of 125 managers and businessman have be invited for an Impact Event (networking event). The result of the Impact Event are joint actions to improve solar solutions and innnovations in buildings and estates.
Impact Event Concentrating Solar Power
Although Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is recognized as potential source for renewable energy, large scale implementations (over 50 MW) are limited. EUMENA deployments can only be effective in the southern part of the region due to the dependence on high sun radiation. The lack of cross border business models is one of the main inhibitors for success. Goals of the event where getting an overview of the Dutch stakeholders in the industry, finding organisations who where willing to participate in a cross border initiative and investigation of an international business model. The event has been held from 19-21 November 2007 in Groningen, Netherlands as part of the Energy Delta Convention. The Impact Event is organised in cooperation with SenterNovem, a Dutch agency from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, who promotes sustainable growth and innovation.
The hands on set up allowed no more than 30 participants. The event focused on Europeans who were willing to take ownership for actions. Participants had a background in one of the areas of the CSP value-chain: science, energy distribution, energy production, systems manufacturing/integration, regulatory bodies, and investment. The event was not a regular conference but qualified as a working event.
A summary of the meeting can be found in Download Csp_impact_event_report. After the event several actions took place. EUKEP joined Estela, the CSP industry association in order to continue working on the goals. Follow up contacts with the European Community, the European Parliament and the Finance sector contributed to a mutual understanding of the road to success.
National Knowledge Economy Conference
At 25 October 2004 the Knowledge Economy Platform, the predecessor of EUKEP, organised the National Knowledge Economy Conference at the Technical University Eindhoven in the Netherlands. More than 300 visitors attended the event. The initiative has been adopted by the formal government body the Innovation Platform later as a yearly event.
Conference report & evaluation: Download Verslag_conferentie
Level of playing field analysis Creative Industries
The Dutch ministries of Education, Culture & Sciences collaborated with the ministry of Economic affairs in the area of culture and economics (cultuur en economie). The Knowledge Economy Platform argued in 2005 that in order to create effective policies a thorough analysis of the players was needed. The Ministry of Education, Culture & Sciences agreed. The Knowledge Economy Platform introduced Grotenhuis Advies to coach a group of students who performed the analysis which was the basis for program development. These programs have been continued in various new cycles in the years after and are still alive.
Report: Download Ons Creatieve Vermogen - brief Cultuur en Economie
Collaboration Models Creative Industries
As a result of the analysis mentioned above Philips and TNO gained interest in the potential contribution of the creative industries in their business success. One of the disadvantages disclosed by the research was however that the sector is not very well organized. Philips and TNO asked Grotenhuis Advies to help them in 2006 finding a model to interface with the sector. The result was the Design Incubator Eindhoven.
Debate Creative Industries
In a debate organised by the Knowledge Economy Platform the minister of Economic Affairs, Brinkhorst, discussed with 90 representatives of the Creative Industries sector in
Amsterdam at 22 January 2006. As a result in a follow up discussion with the major of Amsterdam, Cohen, there has been decided that the city of Amsterdam will propagate its ties and commitments to the creative industries sector by an annual international Cross Media Week, which changed name later to PICNIC.
In the media: Event Quote