Province of South Holland new partner to ECDA’s ecosystem

The Erasmus Centre for Data Analytics (ECDA) formally welcomes the Province of South Holland as a new full member to its ecosystem of public and private stakeholders.

In November 2021, with the opening of the Erasmus Data Collaboratory by Ed Brinksma, president of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the province already announced the intention to join the Erasmus Centre for Data Analytics.

“Our economy is in an interesting transition phase, in which we are, as it were, surfing between the downward wave of the industrial age and the upward wave of digitization. There is no other way: as a society and therefore also as an economy, we must change drastically and sometimes even radically. After all, the economy of the future revolves around knowledge and innovation” Mr. Jan van Ginkel, vice secretary-general Province of South Holland said. He continued by saying: “South Holland chooses to further develop promising, innovative sectors, such as data analytics and artificial intelligence. This will generate new activity and therefore prosperity and jobs for the future. Joining the Erasmus Centre for Data Analytics as a full partner will help us accomplish just that.”                                 

As part of the partnership with ECDA, the Province of South Holland will participate with a multi-disciplinary team in the Leadership Challenge with Data Analytics program, to stimulate a data-driven way of working and thinking in the organization. A student master thesis research programme will be set up in the context of Grenzeloos Data Landschap. This is a collaborative programme among the Province of South Holland and the cities of Rotterdam and the Hague where the parties share knowledge and skills in the field of data and technology such as digital platforms. The Province of South Holland will also be involved in the organization of ECDA’s first edition of AI for social good, a student hackathon that is planned to take place in the summer of 2022. Next to that, the collaboration will be explored with several of ECDA’s expert practices.

Dr. Marcel van Oosterhout, associate executive director ECDA said “Our ambition to contribute to societal challenges such as the energy transition and transitioning towards sustainable mobility only work if we create an ecosystem where public and private partners collaborate and co-create with academics and students. We believe that data, digitalization, and AI will be important enablers for creating this societal impact. However, this is only to a small extent about technology, moreover, it is about social innovation, creating trust, new ways of innovating. That is exactly what we aim for with our ecosystem of partners. We welcome the province of South Holland to strengthen our ecosystem!