TU Delft as a prestigious university strives for making impact for a better society through research and education. But how can we influence in a positive way the decision making about our society? The strategic programme TU Delft| The Hague and our new location serve perfectly this goal! Through our initiatives, we embrace work towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG).
The goal of our initiatives is to involve in an effective way the state-of-the-art engineering in political and decision making processes. We aim ultimately to train a certain type of engineers, not only systems thinking but also transdisciplinary. Engineers that are policy-conscious and oriented towards the application of their research and technical advice for a better society.
Climate Action Hub
The Climate Action hub is an initiative positioned in The Hague, as an extension and implementation of the TU Delft Climate Action Programme and was launched in September 2021. Its main purpose is to bring researchers, policymakers, and the public closer together to tackle climate change mitigation, adaptation, and governance through cooperation, training programs, and knowledge exchange.
In order to facilitate this, a variety of events, collaborations and knowledge sharing activities have taken place since its inception. These include media initiatives such as the Media Trainings for Young Climate Researchers in October 2022, organised in collaboration with KlimaatHelpdesk, participation in the National Climate Week with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate in May 2022, as well as the official IPCC Press Conference in April 2022.
Moreover, knowledge-sharing collaborations with experts in climate affairs and public policy have also been on the agenda, such as the National Climate Consultation in March 2023, Science Meets Policy in July 2022, and the Expert Gathering Climate Policy 2050 and Beyond, which was organised together with WRR in July 2023.
All in all, the Climate Action Hub aims to be a fruitful and stimulating environment for inter-disciplinary sharing of knowledge, which expresses itself by way of events and collaborative initiatives between researchers, policymakers and the public.
The Climate Safety & Security Center (CASS)
The Climate Safety & Security Center (CASS) is an interdisciplinary initiative at TU Delft | The Hague. Within CASS, the ambition is to build upon a firm embedding in the Climate Action Programme in Delft, while entering a new setting for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of two important research topics: climate change and safety & security. As such, CASS aims to establish an internationally leading research centre building upon TU Delft knowledge, with a critical mass of relevant Delft research developing a recognizable presence in the city of The Hague. The institute in The Hague is set to approach climate change and stability from an engineering point of view, slicing through local, regional, national, and global cross-sections.
Currently, five flagship programmes are in development based on five research themes: water security, energy security, food security, material security, and human security. Linking these topics together constitutes the “liveable environment” in which they occur. These programmes are aimed at creating new opportunities for young researchers, while capitalizing on the expertise and networks of Delft researchers already working on these themes.
CASS serves as an important addition to the activities of current (inter)national players in this field in the context of The Hague. Currently, much of the focus in this area is on behavioral change rather than innovation. This offers an opportunity for CASS to connect with other organizations, within The Hague but also internationally, to create impact through a common network.
Digitalization
There is increasing public and political attention for the role of digitization in social transitions, which has resulted, for example, in the establishment of a new Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Digital Affairs. TU Delft also sees this as an important strategic theme by naming digital society as a major social challenge and bundling its expertise in a university-wide initiative named ‘AI, data and digitization’. Therefore, digitalization is one of three substantive focus themes of TU Delft | The Hague.
Within the digitalization theme, we actively link up with existing initiatives (e.g. Digital Ethics Centre, Digicampus, cybersecurity, Transdisciplinary Centre for Just Public Algorithmic Systems), for instance by offering space for relevant activities and connecting networks. In addition, we are actively working on further cooperation with strategic partners. With the Municipality of The Hague, for example, substantive research collaborations around digital resilience are being built within the framework of the 'Digitally Secure The Hague' agenda. Concerning education, we are working with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations on cases, internships and projects on data-driven work, and we are seeking more connection within the Municipality of The Hague and the TU Delft Teaching Academy in the field of community-based learning in districts of The Hague.
Furthermore, within digitization we see a great need for better interpretation of digital knowledge in relation to policy and decision-making, and for professional education around digitization issues and responsible use of technology. Therefore, we are currently exploring opportunities for professional education in cooperation with the TU Delft Extension School, and proactively exploring possibilities for future public engagement activities, for example in cooperation with local schools and other public parties. Where this can currently be seen as a contribution toward education and impact, it will also help to better facilitate future transdisciplinary collaborations.