Appointment Dr. Anet Weterings to the special chair Regional and Circular Economic Development

The Faculty of Economics and Business is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Anet Weterings to the special chair Regional and Circular Economic Development. This chair is a joint initiative of FEB, the Faculty of Spatial Sciences and the three northern provinces: Drenthe, Friesland, Groningen. The provinces are subsidizing this chair, as the theme of Regional Economic Development and Circular Economy is high on the Provincial agenda. The chair will be established at the C.R. Rao Foundation.

In her role as special chair Weterings will conduct scientific research into regional development -among others in the northern Netherlands - with a focus on the circular economy, sustainable agriculture and the energy transition. The goal is to contribute to the quality of political-administrative decision-making within national and regional policy processes. This will be done by transferring knowledge about regional development and resilience and a more sustainable economy to regional governments, the business community and society.

Building bridges

Next to her role as special chair, Weterings will continue to work as a researcher at Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (Dutch: Planbureau voor Leefomgeving, PBL) and will build a bridge between research at the University of Groningen and PBL. Weterings holds a PhD in regional economics from Utrecht University and continued her career at PBL, at the 'Regional Economics' cluster of the Urbanization & Mobility sector. Through her research, she contributes to the quality of political and administrative decision-making of national and regional governments.

Regional economic resilience

Since the start of her career, Weterings has focused on better understanding regional differences in economic development. Over the past fifteen years, she has broadened her research horizons in a number of ways. First, by shifting her focus from regional economic growth to regional economic resilience. Second, by examining the regional economy not only from the perspective of the company, but also from the perspective of the (potential) workforce. For example, regional-economic conditions also influence the job seekers’ chances of finding and keeping employment. Thirdly, Weterings is focusing more and more on regional aspects of energy transitions.