SUMMARY 2020 The year 2020 made us reinvent ourselves across the board. The start of implementing our new Shaping2030 strategy coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. On top of the challenges brought on by handling the pandemic, it made us pursue new collaborations, innovations and ambitions. Thanks to the total commitment of our staff, we maintained our excellent education and achieved outstanding results in our research fields. This is underpinned by the good review expressed in the ITK (Instellingstoets Kwaliteitszorg). Shaping2030 drives our preparations for the society to come, meanwhile cherishing the core values we adopted at the foundation in 1961; a civic University making societal impact. Our ambition is to contribute to the development of a fair, sustainable and digital society. Our journey is supported by Shaping Expert Groups, which connect, share knowledge, experience, and best practices on several key themes. The so called SCENARIOs project, assessing the impact of COVID-19, taught us that our strategy is pandemic proof, will keep us on track and provided recommendations for prioritization.
SHAPING SOCIETY Shaping society combines disciplines to empower society and thus create true impact. One of the most impactful means is SHAPING offering high-quality academic SOCIETY education. In 2020 we continued providing small-scale education at a high level, training our students to become out of the box-thinking change leaders who understand the interaction between science, technology and society. Our new master vision aims to grow in master students to strengthen our position as a research university. This, combined with the inception of an ambitious Life Long Learning plan, reinforces the synergy between education and research, contributing to more robust master programmes on one hand and delivering high qualified academic technical talent the labour market is asking for on the other hand. The start-up of the ECIU-University enforces the implementation of concepts like Life Long Learning,
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Challenge Based Learning and micro-credentials. Together with 12 partner universities, the UT is developing a new European university entity, a way to experiment and ultimately implement new innovative research and educational concepts. With our research, we contribute to several Sustainable Development Goals. Our publications on SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 10 (reducing inequality) and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) were in the top 10% of most-cited publications worldwide. Our Citizen Science Hub reduces the gap between science and society. Collaboration between researchers and citizens unlocks the scientific process and improves the application of knowledge and technology in society. Students took on an opportunity with the launch of Green Hub, a student-driven knowledge hub in sustainability for the UT and the region.
SHAPING CONNECTIONS Shaping connections is about networks. As a campus university, we are a valuable link between science and society in the region, SHAPING in the Netherlands and the world. CONNECTIONS One of the most cherished networks is the alumni community: over 54.000 alumni in 173 countries, which connects us to the most innovative companies, government, and knowledge institutions. Five out of our seven student teams found a new shared home on Kennispark, which strengthens the UT and Kennispark merger. Together with the municipality of Enschede, we made big steps to come to an urban design plan to transform the Kennispark area into an innovation district, to stimulate open innovation and public-private opportunities and attract talent. Another way to connect is open science, a concept we embrace. This is reflected in an increase of 190 published datasets in 2019 to 279 in 2020. To boost the notoriety of the regional technology ecosystem with technical academic talents, we started the project Regiodeal Leonardo. This project is linked to the joint Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering with the VU Amsterdam to get students from the rim-city ‘Randstad’ acquainted with the exciting job opportunities in the Twente region. This year, the collaboration within the VSNU, Association of Universities in the Netherlands, mainly
