The energy transition is being delayed somewhat due to the current corona crisis. But Franc Weerwind and Hans Bakker note that there are also plenty of opportunities: not only thanks to high-quality new technology and new companies, but also in heavy industry and an abundance of unpicked low-hanging fruit. "What we do in terms of sustainability is unique."
The new COVID algorithm can predict which people are at the greatest risk of developing complications after contracting coronavirus. By vaccinating these people first, a study has shown that the risk of hospital intakes could be cut in half after administering just one million vaccinations – potentially saving lives. So, what’s required to scale this data system across the Netherlands? And how can these efforts work to inspire the Amsterdam Economic Board’s goal of creating a unified healthcare data infrastructure?
The Data plus Pizza meetups are back: online and without pizza. For the second non-pizza edition, Amsterdam-based AI & healthcare researchers presented an infectiously inspiring range of models that work to save costs, cut antibiotic use, predict hospital occupancy levels and put deferred treatments back into the timetable. But how do you factor in flexibility?
Service technicians drive back and forth in major cities on their way to repairs, installation and maintenance. Their vans are often not very energy efficient. Nevertheless, electric transport is already possible within service companies, but it is not yet used on a large scale.
The Amsterdam region has become a global leader in applying artificial intelligence to improving health and healthcare. This has not come about by accident. Instead, it is a result of a concerted effort in community building. Through Smart Health Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Economic Board has overseen the development of a network for collaboration and cross-fertilisation, spanning academic, private and governmental organisations.
On 2 December, the first results were presented for a number of themes within the Green Deal Sustainable out of the crisis - on which the Board is working with partners - during the 'State of the Region' event. The aim is to accelerate current initiatives in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in a short period of time. The reset of the current pandemic provides scope for making sustainable choices.
The Dutch ICT chain guarantees a continuously growing flow of depreciated ICT hardware. As of this year, we will jointly discard more than 50 million ICT hardware products. Promoting circularity in the ICT chain is crucial to make the increasing digitization in Dutch society feasible and sustainable. With an annual purchasing volume of 43 million ICT products, the Dutch business community in particular has a major impact and can accelerate the transition to circularity in the chain in order to realize the regional ambition of 100% circular purchasing by 2030.
Together with the City of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Bureau Metropolitan Area and many parties from the region, the Amsterdam Economic Board is working on making textiles circular. Within the Green Deal Circular Textiles, various parties are committed to this ambition. “Here in the region there is already a lot of activity in the field of circular textiles,” says Claire Teurlings, Lead Circular Economy at the Amsterdam Economic Board.
In the race against the growing shortage of people in the data center sector, data center provider 'Interxion: A Digital Realty Company' is starting a collaboration with IT and tech study guide 'TekkieWorden.nl'. The advancing digitizing society, partly prompted by the increasingly concrete application of innovative technologies such as AI, machine learning and the increasing use of cloud services due to the extensive use of teleworking, ensures that the data center industry is growing by 10 to 15 percent annually. This also increases the demand for tech talent for innovation, operation and maintenance. The sector is growing from 12,800 jobs in 2019, expected to reach 16,800 in 2024. This growth will be accompanied by an increasing shortage of more than 1,000 people, expected by 2024. With the collaboration, Interxion wants to actively influence the enthusiasm, find, recruit and train new tech talent.
Now that the cultural sector is going through severe weather during the corona crisis, Amsterdam's pop venue Melkweg wants to seize every opportunity to help (former) employees with retraining or further training for promising professions in the IT sector. After a broad (re) education and training program was set up earlier, it now announces a collaboration with IT career program 'PathWays' of TekkieWorden.nl. The collaboration takes Melkweg employees into the world of tech jobs and careers for four weeks and they create their own study and career path in tech in this short time, from home.
