Jan van den Ende has been appointed Professor of Innovation in Horticulture. This chair has been established by Stichting Hagelunie to mark the occasion of the departure of Achmea Agro director Bernard Koeckhoven on 12 September 2018.
(Source: rsm.nl)
On the picture from left to right: Erik Persoon, Bernard Koeckhoven, Jan van den Ende.
Promoting innovation in horticulture
The horticultural sector is one of the Netherlands’s best-performing sectors with a leading global position. Innovation is consequently essential to remain at the top. Innovation has many facets, such as sharing information with the chain (including the consumer), creating disruptive innovation, sustainable innovation, or web commerce. Another important factor is the growth of companies in the horticultural sector. While in the past these companies were small enterprises, nowadays there are several companies with turnover in excess of 100 million euros that do their own research. Innovation management is crucial in such companies.
The mandate of the new Chair is to promote innovation in the sector through conducting research and risk management, and the realisation of active knowledge dissemination on innovation management and risk management in the agricultural sector. The key principles in the mandate are liaising with the sector and practice-oriented implementation.
Stichting Hagelunie took the initiative
The Chair will be financed through Stichting Hagelunie and will be established upon the departure of Bernard Koeckhoven, former director of Achmea Agro (Interpolis, Avéro Achmea and Hagelunie). Koeckhoven’s goal has always been to work on using knowledge to assist horticulturalists in maintaining their continuity in a shifting landscape.
Read the full news article on rsm.nl
More information about Jan van de Ende
Research programmes of Centre for Sustianability for the horticultural sector
We offer master students graduation topics focused on the horticulture in our Greenport Hub. The Greenport Hub is also partner of the World Horti Center and the TKI TU foundation which initiate and finance research for innovation in the horticulture. In the Greenport Hub, scientists define research themes based on the most prominent and urgent sustainability challenges in the horticulture sector. These themes are the framework in which students can formulate their research questions. The hub is open for all master students from Leiden, Delft and Erasmus.