What a wonderful afternoon we had, with our Adapt! launch of Feb. 13, 2025.
A year ago, we received the Gravitation Grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), and now we have really started!
In times of polycrisis and polarization, there is an urgent need for evidence-based insights that help societies remain resilient while protecting the core values of the open society. How do we weather crises without falling into societal divisions? We discussed this during the Adapt! launch last February 13. We presented the different pillars of our Adapt Academy. Lotte Jensen and Rik Peels underlined the importance of stories about meaning and purpose in times of crisis. Paul van Lange and Kees van den Bos emphasized the challenge of maintaining trust in each other, and in the government. Arjen Boin and Scott Douglas showed what can be improved when it comes to administrative legitimacy.
Four questions were central, which we asked to ourselves and all interested partners. With these we will get to work:
- how do we experience the crisis gap?
- how can we connect practical experience with scientific research?
- how do we make scientific knowledge practical?
- how do we ensure that knowledge and experiences from different disciplines and organizations come together?
We already received a first response from SCP Director Karen van Oudenhoven-van der Zee, Police Midden Nederland Peter van Os and Mayor Sjors Fröhlich, who were interviewed by our Adapt! PI Ellen Giebels. Afterwards, those in the audience - students, academics, people from government and civil society organizations - made important contributions.
We are tremendously pleased with all the input and will now get to work with all the inspiration from you and yours and hope to report on our initial findings soon.
Were you unfortunately unable to attend the Adapt! launch, not to worry, you can watch the content portion of the day below or via this link.
Watch the video here:
Be sure to check out our website for more information about Adapt! To keep up with the latest news, you can also sign up for the newsletter at the bottom of this page.
Read more news about the Launch event? Then look here, for example.
Beatrice de Graaf, scientific director, also on behalf of the other PIs:
Arjen Boin, Kees van den Bos, Scott Douglas, Ellen Giebels, Lotte Jensen, Paul van Lange, Rik Peels, and Karlijne van der Ende (Business Director), Sophie Price (Project Manager) and team.
