Abstract

In the province of South-Holland in the Netherlands, four professional universities have joined forces with local governments to address the major challenges that face the region together. In this South-Holland Impact Alliance, we feel responsible to use and connect our knowledge, networks, skills and capacity to come up with innovative solutions that complex issues such as health disparities, climate change and labor market shortages require. And we have lots to offer: 175 research professors, over a 100000 students, almost 80 researchers, and already over 600 funded research projects between the four of us.
Of course, even with these numbers, we cannot do it all. Therefore, in the first phase of our collaboration, we have chosen to focus on three major themes, which are sustainability, health, care & wellbeing, and artificial intelligence. On these topics, we want to expedite the existing work we are already doing together, and develop new ideas that build on that.
But how to do that, and where to start? How do you get from these broad topics to tangible research proposals – and funding? How do you divide the work according to each partners’ strengths? How do you deal with the tensions that may arise when you’re allies and competitors at the same time? And what kind of support is needed for such a partnership? In this presentation, we will share our lessons learned. We plan to not hold back and share it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly.