From Geo to Global: Space for global development

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53STE DIES NATALIS VRIJDAG 28 NOVEMBER 2014

FROM GEO TO GLOBAL: SPACE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT PROF.DR.IR. A. (TOM) VELDKAMP


53STE DIES NATALIS | FROM GEO TO GLOBAL: SPACE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

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FROM GEO TO GLOBAL: SPACE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests and dear colleagues, It is an honour to be invited to give the UT DIES address this year. This year’s DIES theme is internationalization. To me, internationalization is a means of increasing the global impact of our research and education. It implies working together on grand challenges across national borders, leading to global impact and global recognition of the UT as a whole. As an earth scientist, my research domain is Earth (Geo) and by default crosses many national borders. Does this make me an expert on internationalization? To be honest, not at all! But my research domain has forced me on many occasions to operate and interact in many different contexts, both physical and socio-cultural, allowing me to accumulate experience in operating internationally. Since I joined the UT in 2010 as dean of the faculty ITC, my international experience has broadened even further thanks to the global playing field of the faculty ITC. What I would like to do in this lecture is to share with you some of my insights and ITC’s experiences. Hopefully this will contribute to making us – the UT community − better equipped to face the challenge of internationalization in a rapidly globalizing world. Our Earth has a surface area of about 510 million km2, has a circumference of about 40,000 km and is about 4.5 billion years old. These dimensions demonstrate the scales of observation and analysis ITC adds to the UT research spectrum. Nowadays the UT deals with scales stretching from Nano to Mega, a range in the order of the 15th power. There is still a lot we do not know about system Earth, and the effects of human action are still under debate. I will first use some examples to demonstrate that our Earth is not a static object, but a highly dynamic, continuously modifying system. Let’s take a look at its the surface. Our planet is covered by large tectonic plates; some plates are relatively dense and thin (oceanic plates) and others are relatively light and thick (continental plates). These plates move over a fluid rock layer and are all continuously in motion. These movements are often characterized by a gradual build-up of pressure followed by a sudden release − an event that we experience as an earthquake. Nowadays the rate of these movements can be directly measured using satellite Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, demonstrating rates of around 5 cm/year. For reference

purposes this is one and a half times faster than the average rate at which our fingernails grow (3.7 cm/year). Before we had satellites, these rates were reconstructed using the radiometric dating of the ocean floor, which is composed of volcanic rocks. This research demonstrated similar plate movement rates during the last 180 Ma. These ocean floor maps also illustrate that the ocean crust is continuously rejuvenated. Given Earth’s age, this cyclic renewing must have happened at least 23 times. New ocean crusts are formed at the so-called mid-ocean ridges, where these plates are moving away from each other, allowing the fluid rock material to emerge and causing volcanism such as typically observed at the surface in Iceland and Hawaii. The majority of this volcanism is on the ocean floor and is therefore invisible to us. The older ocean floor is pushed below continents, where it subducts and melds back into the fluid rock layer below the plates. At these zones where ocean and continental plates collide, mountain ranges and large stratovolcanoes develop, the Andes being a typical example. The most dramatic example of mountain building is when two continental plates collide. A clear example is the Himalayas at the Indian-Asian Plate boundary. This collision has now been ongoing for several million years − a huge slow-motion car crash. All high mountainous areas are such collision zones and are actively uplifting at rates ranging from 5 up to > 15 mm/ year. Indirectly associated with mountain building are regions known as basins, which subside at rates of several mm/century. The northwestern part of our country is part of the North Sea basin, which has been subsiding over a prolonged period. During the last decades the question facing earth sciences has been to what extent do human actions affect system Earth. We all know about the global climate change discussion triggered by the IPCC reports. Nationally the discussion about earthquakes in Groningen is a similar issue. These relatively minor earthquakes are related to surface subsidence


53STE DIES NATALIS | FROM GEO TO GLOBAL: SPACE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

attributable to gas extraction, and are therefore maninduced earthquakes. This unforeseen human touch has only been recently admitted by the authorities. When one looks at an earthquake map of the Netherlands and surrounding regions, one can observe more of such quakes. Current and former coal mining activities in Germany are causing more and bigger man-induced quakes. These quakes don’t usually make it into the news because in the Ruhr area there is a generous financial compensation scheme in place. As an earth scientist, I have always been fascinated by landscapes and intrigued by the way they have evolved over time. Although Earth is billions of years old, most landscapes have been shaped by the interacting forces of tectonics and climate during the last few million years. Only recently has humanity left a growing imprint on landscapes − mainly during the last 5000 years. There are still many landscapes where the human imprint isn’t that obvious or is still absent. Such natural landscapes are the high mountainous ranges and active volcanic centres. In these environments the natural earth forces are too dominant and extreme to allow safe permanent human occupation. When people start living in such areas, they will be frequently exposed to natural processes such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides and flooding. Suddenly, because humans are affected, natural events and processes are considered natural disasters, and those humans start to modify their environment to reduce their vulnerability. This is why all landscapes on Earth where humans have been living for many generations have been modified and co-shaped by human activity. Typically this human impact − our touch if you will − is regionally and culturally specific. When I show you some landscape pictures from around the world, most of you will immediately recognize some landscapes as typically Asian (Bali paddies), Dutch (Wilnis), or African (Kitui, Kenya). Why is this? It is related partly to the unique continent-specific ecosystems but mainly to the different human cultures that have co-shaped them. Typical processes that modify landscapes include deforestation, fire regimes, agricultural practices, landscaping, reclamation and irrigation. These landscape-changing processes are not only culture-specific but also locationspecific, which is why we can easily recognize these landscapes by their human touch. Humanity has the tendency to continuously develop and change itself in an adaptive manner. A good example is the development of language. New words, phrases and expressions emerge and disappear every year. Just think of selfies, whatsapp and tweets, recent examples that have been chosen because they relate to new technological developments. At the same time language is used to describe and deal with local and regional environments. The Dutch language has 101 words to

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describe water phenomena, while the Inuit (better known as Eskimos) have at least 25 words to describe snow (although there are unsubstantiated claims of up to 400 words). This context-dependent evolution of language was also expressed in the development of all kinds of regional dialects in the past. Nowadays, because of the increasing connectivity of modern society, a new global web/SMS/APP language is developing, based mainly on English but using fewer words and more symbols and pictures for communication purposes than ordinary languages − in many ways the e-version of pidgin. This local/regional specificity of humans is also expressed in the landscapes where they live. Cultural landscapes are typically a regional product of what is called the co-evolution of humans and landscapes. This is not only the physical environment but also the cultural identity that people acquire from their environment. Dutch people, for example, are proud of the fact that the Netherlands was made by humans. Not only does 20% of the country consist of man-made polders, but 30% also consists of reclaimed peat marshes; so about half the country is certainly man-made. The other half has been strongly modified by human activity, up to a level where almost no undisturbed soils are left in the Netherlands. Human-landscape ties are strongest in regions where people have co-existed for many centuries and millennia. These ties are not only emotional but often also very practical, even to the point of ensuring survival. However, because of ongoing globalization these relationships are under stress and are changing. In the Ethiopian highlands, for example, agriculture has already existed for more than 7000 years. In many fields stone sickle fragments dating back to the stone age can be found. The local agricultural systems have been able to sustain the local population for all these millennia − a feat not to be underestimated. The local farming system, a rotation system of wheat, teff, peas and beans, offers low but sustainable yields. Yield in this case is more than simply grain yield; all straw produced and weeds collected are used as fodder for livestock (mainly oxen and sheep) on the farm. In the densely populated highlands of Ethiopia there are almost no grazing areas left. During an average year, yields are high enough to feed both humans and cattle. During years of insufficient rain or other adverse weather conditions, such as frost and hail, the system does not produce enough grains and pulses to feed all the humans, although sufficient feed is left to enable the cattle to survive. During such poor years, eating or selling cattle is the fall-back option for the local population. This has apparently worked to some extent for a prolonged period. With the introduction of modern medical care, the population has started to grow, leading to much higher food demands than before. Given the already high population density, expansion of agricultural land is impossible. During years with complete or partial crop failure, this leads to acute


53STE DIES NATALIS | FROM GEO TO GLOBAL: SPACE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

famine, because there is a huge demand for food. The typical ‘solution’ for this ‘problem’ is, apart from direct food aid, a ‘green revolution technology package’ approach to increase local yields. Farmers are encouraged to use ‘improved’ seeds, which potentially give higher grain yields when combined with chemical fertilizers plus weed and disease control measures. Such globally applicable technological packages worked very well in Asia during the last century. In general the addition of chemical fertilizer can compensate for the inherently low soil fertility. Fertilizer, however, is expensive and the yield gain doesn’t always make up for the extra costs incurred. This is because food prices are low owing to food aid and food subsidies (domestic and international). Then, of course, the predictable solution is to subsidize fertilizer too. When a green revolution package of this kind is introduced, it will usually lead to a much higher grain yield during an average year. Even so, after paying for the fertilizer, only a limited financial gain remains despite the subsidies. Unfortunately, after a few growing seasons yields start to decline because the chemical fertilizer does not replenish all the essential nutrients and the natural stocks of essential nutrients in the soil are mined and depleted. Buying special fertilizer is too expensive.

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are dealing here with a wicked problem. Such problems cannot be solved with one simple neat and tidy solution as in mathematics. But stepwise we might gradually get closer to a desired pathway towards a solution. Most grand challenges are wicked problems that require an approach that is context sensitive (human touch) and experimental (entrepreneurial attitude), two of our unique selling points. I use the Ethiopian example to demonstrate that, like cultural identity and language, technology too is context and place specific. For us in the Dutch context, which is close to the Western/US culture-dominated global society, this is not always obvious. But in Africa, where there has always been a large gap between Western and local technology, some development projects have already had many decades of experience with participatory technology development − a practice we all can and should learn from.

In my view this context specificity applies to all technological domains. Another typical example is biotechnology. Genetically modified crops have been developed by scientifically proven safe technologies to engineer new plant traits and properties. So why is this ‘proven’ technology not used by the whole world? And why is its use and non-use clustered by continent? This has much to do with public opinion, which is also About every five to ten years, crop failures due to context specific. People, including well educated people, insufficient rain will occur and, despite the green tend to be culturally coloured in their opinions. A current revolution package, farmers will have no or only limited example in our own country is the Zwarte Piet debate. grains/pulses. Now the cattle also suffer because the Most Dutch people cannot perceive or accept that other modern grain varieties are usually short-straw varieties global citizens might perceive Zwarte Piet as an insult. If that yield less straw. Furthermore less weed fodder is we proposed to replace Zwarte Piet with a dog to carry available owing to weed suppression. To make things Sinterklaas presents, we would almost certainly get worse, the farmers have to sell off their cattle when market prices are very low because of the high supply in questions in parliament. A completely bewildering order to settle the fertilizer debt. So many farmers are left response for people who consider dog to be a tasty dish to eat. with no food, no cattle and even a debt, with limited prospects of escaping this debt trap. Not a situation you We as UT have the slogan ‘high tech human touch’ − a want to be in! So from a farmer’s perspective this nice green revolution package is not a solution but potentially perfect internationally sensitive slogan. As a technological university, we should be even more aware a life-threatening risk with only limited gain. that when it comes to potential society-changing technologies − especially when they are new and This presentation of the farmer’s perspective explains difficult to comprehend − people will be prejudiced why local farmers are reluctant to adopt such new against them. They will perceive all kinds of related risks technologies and/or innovations. But still these global and threats to human health. Biotechnology is a typical green revolution technological solutions are heavily example of such a technology. It will continue to have a pushed by governments, FAO and NGOs. Why? Apart negative connotation in specific countries and within from the obvious commercial stakes of private partners such as fertilizer and seed companies, this is because the specific belief groups (NGOs), cultures and populations. A similar fate could befall some nano-technological green revolution packages worked well in Asia and applications. Good solid science does not automatically because many decision makers are not aware that lead to societal acceptance and the intended impact. So technological applications are context specific. Typically why didn’t this happen to the computer and i-revolution? local farmers are seen as backward and stupid, needing Most probably because these technologies have a more education. In this specific case, it is probably the human measure (in Dutch: de menselijke maat), whereas involved decision makers and scientists that require climate change is too big and biotechnology too small to more education. I do not pretend that simply more relate to. I am not an expert in such matters, but it education can solve this type of problem, because we


53STE DIES NATALIS | FROM GEO TO GLOBAL: SPACE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

implies that these technologies and the resulting innovations are intuitively easy to comprehend: people feel in control, the technologies enable them. It is not that long ago that stories of cell-phone-induced cancer were the subject of public debate, but somehow now that everyone has a cell phone this has become a nonissue. It will be interesting to see what will happen with robots − hopefully it won’t go the way foreseen by the sci-fi author Asimov. During the 64 years of its existence, ITC too has been struggling with the context-specific human touch of its technology. Originally ITC was an international training centre to support less developed countries in using aerial photographs and expert skills to map their natural resources. This has co-developed with technological developments towards GEO-ICT and multi-sensor applications, ranging from ever-improving satellites to human sensors. Every one of you with a smartphone – and who hasn’t got one? − is a human sensor. More and more devices are equipped with a GPS, allowing location-specific information collection. Examples include car navigation systems, bikes and animal tracking devices. Many of us provide information voluntarily (facebook & twitter text and photos, other social media, TomTom) and involuntarily (location, web browse data). All this information is generated, stored and usable for sometimes unexpected applications. Less popular examples are NSA and consumer behaviour monitoring on the world wide web. A lesser known application is that changes in signal strength of cellphone communication can be used to model the rainfall intensity in between the send and receive stations at high spatial resolution. The very rapid global acceptance of internet and mobile phone technology has accelerated the societal impact of ITC’s technology, because suddenly space and location matter to everyone. Do I have network coverage? Is it 3 or 4G? Globally there are now almost as many cell-phone subscriptions (6.8 billion) as there are people on this planet (seven billion) − and it took little more than 20 years for that to happen. In 2013, there were some 96 cell-phone service subscriptions for every 100 people in the world. This has transformed society, especially in Africa. Even in low-income countries most families now own a cell phone. This has triggered many local innovations, which have accelerated the societal impact even more, allowing Africa to leapfrog certain development stages.

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Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile payments system launched in 2007. (M-Pesa means mobile money: pesa means money in Ki-Swahili). Now it handles about 1.15 trillion Kenyan shillings a year − that’s 35% of Kenya’s gross domestic product. It enables Kenyans to transfer small amounts of money from person to person, allowing safe transfer by phone coverage from big cities to rural areas where no banks exist. And of course it also pays for a beer in the local bar! The concept sprang from the practice of resourceful Africans using and swapping mobile airtime as a form of currency. This is why beggars in Nairobi ask not only for money but also for phone time. M-Pesa is now expanding across Africa and has also emerged in India, Afghanistan and Romania, where other mobile network operators have launched their own mobile banking services. Telekom is soon going to launch a similar service in Indonesia (a population of a quarter of a billion). Such payment systems − and the digital audit trails they leave − are also proving useful data trails for governments tackling tax evasion and for corporations combating fraud, contributing to yet further societal transformations. Micro-financing systems can be set up without the need for local bank branches. Similar developments are taking place with insurance activities: telecom companies are initiating such services relying more on human sensor and satellite information than on local agents. All these developments provide technological shortcuts, bypassing the need for land lines and local bank and insurance branches and empowering local people in many ways. We as a technical university do of course contribute to the global society with new technologies and techniques. However, apart from the global impact, we should become more sensitive to the context-specific human touch of our high tech beyond Twente. So high tech with a specific contextual human touch. If we want to have a specific impact, we should target regions/ contexts to co-shape our human touch within the local context with local people/stakeholders. The UT has very well demonstrated this local touch within the context of Twente, but this is not a one-size-fits-all formula. We will have to select specific contexts where a new specific touch can be developed in order to maximize our impact. Once we are able do this, our global reputation will be enhanced, leading to recognition, more students, more partners and much else.

Now let us assume we all want this. What are the pitfalls in internationalization? Nowadays farmers are accessing local market prices for their produce to arm themselves against profiteering middlemen. Nurses, doctors and patients access medical data services and monitor diseases with their smartphone. This illustrates how mobiles and wireless devices are transforming lives. But the biggest societal transformation in the African context is the Vodafone and


53STE DIES NATALIS | FROM GEO TO GLOBAL: SPACE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

CULTURAL AND CONTEXT SPECIFICITY There are many possible examples to highlight cultural specificity, ranging from language, values and customs to symbols, gestures and food habits. As a dinner guest in Kenya or Germany, please finish everything on your plate or the host will be offended and think you didn’t like the food. In China, however, if you clean your plate the host will be offended because it is a sign that you didn’t get enough food. I recommend reading a guide to social graces to avoid embarrassing ‘Oh, I see’ moments. I will elaborate on a simple culturally specific example, the use of colour. If you use colours on your website or in a map, then you should be aware of how your audience views such colours. This is especially important if you are designing a website or a map that is intended for an audience of a culture different from your own (or for a global audience). The cultural bias for colour symbolism can be very powerful, and if you don’t understand what you’re saying with your colours, you can make big mistakes. Let’s take the colour red as an example and cite some contrasting associations. These range from good luck in China and purity in India to sin in Hebrew and mourning in South Africa; from communism in Russia to happiness and prosperity in Eastern Europe. In our own Western context red is associated with danger, love, and passion. Colours can even determine decisions in daily life. In Thailand every day has a different lucky colour: Sunday: red; Monday: yellow; Tuesday: pink; Wednesday: green; Thursday: orange; Friday: blue; Saturday: purple. But there are also unlucky colours associated with each day. So not consciously choosing your tie colour in Thailand can affect your business success. When I look at our professors in their mainly black togas, I have to say they would certainly be considered unlucky today, Friday, in Thailand. One could also speculate on the specific impact of the black-dominated UT house style. Fortunately, in China black is the colour for young boys. So based on this association our house style appears to be suitable for young male student recruitment in China. In general there is a movement towards global Western standards of written and unwritten cultural codes. Being a global citizen requires knowledge of these newly evolving standards in an e-environment. But it also requires awareness of the different backgrounds and perceptions. When you meet your scientific colleagues abroad, they will speak your language of science and often will have also mastered the global e-language. So it appears there are no cultural barriers. In reality every global citizen has a local context where the ‘old’ values and codes still apply. For us mainly Dutch scientists and teachers, this seems to be marginal, whereas colleagues in India, China and Africa have to function in these

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completely different societies. It is important that we sensitize ourselves and train our students in this double world identity. The UT has demonstrated its ability to fit very well within the local Twente context. It is time to sensitize ourselves to other locations where we can make difference.

SUSTAINABILITY IN COLLABORATION There is one currency that many people all over the world value: profit. To develop a sustainable society, it is necessary to balance the people, profit and planet dimensions. Traditionally ITC has had a strong focus on the people and planet dimensions, because within a development cooperation context profit orientation was considered ‘not done’. The views on development cooperation have changed significantly during the last five years. This is due partly to the worsening economic situation in the North, which has led to the reduction in development cooperation budgets, including a 20% cut in ITC base funding. More importantly, an increased emphasis on profit has been triggered by the insight that development aid too has a more lasting impact when people can make a profit from new activities and technologies (People-Planet-Profit). ITC has responded to this development by initiating and participating in socalled Public-Private Partnerships. Usually government and non-government organizations collaborate with knowledge institutions and companies. The key to becoming a partner in such a collaboration is to know and sell your unique skills and to prove your added value, otherwise you will not be invited to participate. So the typical approach to securing PhD (AIO) funding doesn’t work in this context. It requires a more businesslike attitude, and often experienced staff inputs are required. But what is holding you back from reinvesting the financial gains in PhD projects, projects without any direct funding agency requirements attached? These projects are almost by default societally relevant and when successful have a large impact. An example of such a project still under development is the flooding of Jakarta in Indonesia. Typically one would expect this flooding hazard to be caused by changes in climate and sea level. Yes indeed, those are also changing in Indonesia but they are not the main underlying threat in this case. This is a typical example where human activities have a major impact on the earth science environment. I have told you about the natural rates of tectonic movements horizontally and vertically. Whereas Venice is subsiding at the rate of 13 cm/century, the land surface in Jakarta is currently subsiding at rates of up to 25 cm annually! This is a hundred times greater than the fastest natural rate. The main cause of the city subsidence is the extraction of groundwater for drinking water. Jakarta’s 10 million inhabitants (greater Jakarta


53STE DIES NATALIS | FROM GEO TO GLOBAL: SPACE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

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aim that is widely shared by the UT. ITC sees this combination of education, research and capacity development as a winning format for long-lasting success in our (niche) domain in the targeted areas. It is therefore key to coordinate research and educational activities. We not only have come to know our alumni while they were in the Netherlands, we have also come to know and appreciate them in their local context. This knowledge of our alumni in their local context, outside the scientific domain, is where ITC’s approach differs from that of the rest of the UT. The ITC example implies that effective collaboration requires teamwork. Researcher and teacher have to share intelligence and need close ties with the student enrolment and marketing services. Every UT-ITC’er abroad is an Currently a major master plan is under construction. This ambassador and needs to take this role seriously. It requires knowledge of all the regulations involved and not only has a raft of hydrological challenges, but also the provision of realistic information to potential students has to address such issues as drinking water, city planning, awareness raising and the design of acceptable and partners. This is a key issue for the whole of the UT, given its internationalization ambitions. Faculties need to context-specific solutions. This is a typical complex develop close collaboration and information exchange initiative where potentially the UT could contribute from with the support services in order to maintain one front all kinds of disciplines. desk with a face towards potential students and collaborators. has 28 million inhabitants) require good-quality drinking water. Stopping groundwater extraction is no option as there are no other supplies available. And even if the groundwater extraction were to stop now, the subsidence would continue for at least another metre. The land subsidence is obvious when you look at how bridges are starting to drown and the seawater in some coastal locations is already one metre above the land surface. Imagine what will happen in the next decade if current rates continue? The classical Dutch dike solution will not work. Dikes can keep the sea out, but then Jakarta would become a lake, because the rainwater from the surrounding volcanoes would still drain towards the city.

NETWORK AND TEAMWORK Before we can start to experiment in a specific context, we need a reliable network with good intelligence. ITC has more than 20,000 alumni (5700 with an academic degree) all over the world, of which half are active and very loyal to ITC. Often our alumni are in influential positions, helping us to set up projects and make them locally relevant. In Indonesia, for example, we have prepared ourselves for the Jakarta challenge by joining a consortium, the Joint Cooperation Program (Phase II), with both Dutch organizations (Deltares, Alterra, KNMI and UT-ITC) and their Indonesian counterparts. It was our alumni who facilitated us in this context. But the UT has even more alumni, more than 34,000 alumni all over the world! When we combine ITC’s alumni with academic degrees with those of the rest of the UT we get an impressive global picture. How did ITC acquire so many active alumni? Apart from the regular programmes here in Enschede, we also offer tailor-made training courses on specific topics demanded by our stakeholders. Many of these courses are on location within the local context, and this helps our professors and teachers to understand and experience local conditions. Most of our PhD students carry out their research in their country of origin, exposing ITC researchers to the local problems and context during fieldwork. Apart from organizing courses, we are also involved in institutional capacity development (many of our partner organizations were initially founded by ITC). We do not see these institutes as competitors but as partners, and they force us to continue to advance our education and research to ever higher levels − a logical

EXPERIMENTATION As I explained using the Ethiopian example, wicked problems can be tackled by working context sensitively and by means of experimentation. This implies that there is not one fixed solution for local internationalization. A copy of a past solution never works; new adaptive creative solutions are required. When I delivered my inaugural speech as dean of the faculty ITC in 2010, I used the imaginary space elephants of Salvador Dali as an inspiration for the faculty’s adaptive future. This multiplicity of joined animals can dance to many different tunes – an aptitude we will need to encourage within the many different contexts. The UT is already known for its entrepreneurial skills and attitude. Combined with some context-specific dancing skills, this should allow us to expand our impact far beyond Enschede.


53STE DIES NATALIS | FROM GEO TO GLOBAL: SPACE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

CONCLUSION Our UT high tech has both a global and a contextspecific human touch dimension. The latter can only be achieved by intensively interacting with local stakeholders in their local context. We have to go there! We have to interact with them in their own local ecosystem. This interaction can be fruitful when our collaboration is focused on long-term sustainable collaboration aimed at mutually profitable solutions. In order to become a valuable partner, we have to decide which domains to explore and which not. We are too small to cover the whole world. We need a clear distinctive profile, and this can be both domain and context specific. Our European and local regional reputation in Twente doesn’t necessarily need to be similar to our international reputation. It is important that we deliver what we promise and that we gain a reliable reputation in not only education and research but also societal relevance (projects and businesses). Finally, in order to achieve these targets we should not be afraid to experiment, to take risks. We have to learn how to dance to the global e-rhythm as well as the local music. You cannot learn to dance simply by watching; you will need to practice. I invite you not only to think globally but also to target your impact locally. There is enough UT practice space for our global development. I thank you all for your attention.

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University of Twente Drienerlolaan 5 7522 NB Enschede PO Box 217 7500 AE Enschede The Netherlands info@utwente.nl


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