Education and research
The DCC will get to work on education and research on water and energy management, and on new forms of food provision. For MBO, HBO and WO students, the DCC plans to develop an ongoing learning pathway. Besides that, there will be new degree programs at Zeeland-based knowledge institutions. In research, the focus is on the themes of water, energy, food and biological resources. The DCC will also stimulate business development and start-ups that will occupy themselves with water, food and energy. The Zeeland delta is the living lab of the DCC: with various parties, it collaborates to work on solutions to climate and sustainability issues in deltas.
Unique collaboration
The founders of the DCC are Scalda, HZ University of Applied Sciences, NIOZ, Wageningen University & Research, Utrecht University and University College Roosevelt. “UCR is the only sizeable stand-alone college in the Netherlands, away from the bigger-city-environment,” say Edward Nieuwenhuis, Dean and Etienne de Jager, Managing Director of UCR. They say “it is the place to be for students, academics and administrators who value a strong sense of community in a stand-alone, liberal arts and sciences environment, placed in a beautiful and natural delta area in which some of the world’s greatest challenges of climate change (such as water, energy and food, sustainability, and the social and cultural transformations associated with it) can be studied as “living labs”. We believe that the DCC will, on the one hand, build a larger research community in Zeeland to contribute to the long-term positive effects that fundamental research will bring to our region; and on the other hand, focus on concrete applied solutions and transitions in education, business, and governance within the living lab of the Zeeuwse Delta. With the center, our students and academics can dive deep into questions of governance, culture, and approaches in environmental studies, engineering, sustainability and data science. With our new labs for Science and Engineering, we will be able to perform work we were not able to do before, both in life and environmental sciences as in chemical and energy engineering. UCR’s real strength is that we can add to these perspectives from the social and human sciences that help address questions of societal dynamics and questions of history, meaning, and art. And we look forward to exploring some of these complex questions with some of the best knowledge institutions in the country and the world. With the strong participation of Utrecht University and Wageningen University & Research, the academic position of UCR in the region and abroad will be further and sustainably strengthened.
Impact for Zeeland
The location of the DCC is the Kenniswerf in Vlissingen. The expected impact for Zeeland is big: new jobs, an expansion of the number of degree programs, an increase of the number of students, an improved knowledge infrastructure and a positive effect on the business climate. Research projects are set up and carried out in close consultation with the Zeeland corporate world, social organizations and governments.
The founding of the DCC in Vlissingen is a part of the compensation package ‘Wind in de Zeilen’ from the Dutch national government for not realizing a Marine Corps base in Vlissingen. The DCC will start operations in mid 2023. In the upcoming months, work will be done on matters such as appointing an academic director and a business director, housing and the further developments of the plans for education and research.