Jubilee year symposium review 'Sustainable Solutions, focus on Africa’ 2007
The TU Delft 2007 jubilee year symposium entitled ‘Sustainable Solutions, focus on Africa’ was held on 1 and 2 November. The central issue of the symposium was how TU Delft can provide an optimal contribution to sustainable development, especially with regard to addressing Africa’s needs. This question was examined based on four themes: Energy, Food & Health, Water and Mobility.
The symposium was informally kicked off on 31 October with a preview programme on the fundamentals of sustainability. The jubilee year symposium was opened by Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende. In his opening speech, he called on the scientific community to put creativity, inventiveness and enthusiasm to good use in the search for practical solutions to environmental threats.
The beginning keynotes are available at collegerama
The way forward
TU Delft can now look back on a successful symposium. In three days, the 700 participants discussed, from a wide variety of perspectives, the role that TU Delft can play in the search for the so urgently needed sustainable solutions for global problems such as energy, climate, etc. The main focus of this symposium was the question of how to meet Africa's specific needs in these areas. The students and researchers of TU Delft exhibited a great deal of affinity with the subject and the many attendees engaged in the discussions very actively.
In his summary at the end of the symposium, the chairman of the Executive Board expressed his satisfaction with the many positive elements that the keynote speeches, invited lectures and discussions produced. And the symposium's intended platform function also lived up to expectations. In the course of the symposium, many options for cooperation in research and education between knowledge institutions, governmental authorities and industry were identified and discussed. The suggestions that came out of the symposium are definitely worth further follow-up.
TU Delft will incorporate the results and recommendations of the symposium into the activities that the university wishes to pursue in the area of sustainable development.
One of the conclusions of the symposium is that new technologies will play an essential role in the development of a sustainable society. But technology alone is not enough. Talented and highly-trained people are just as indispensable. Additional critical success factors are promoting enterprise and removing barriers to local applicability.
Where possible, TU Delft will incorporate the results of the symposium into its perspective for action with regard to sustainable development.
As the first tangible step in that process, TU Delft has set itself the following goals:
- To attempt, in consultation with the Minister for Development Cooperation, to create a long-term perspective for the grants programme through which, with the support of the Minister, 25 students from Africa have come to study at Delft this year
- To enable at least three student teams each year to work on projects in Africa
- To return, two years from now, to the subject of this symposium in a different form.
An extensive report on the symposium you can find by clicking the programme.
