Faculty of Economics and Business and Samenwerking Noord strengthen partnership

The Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) and Samenwerking Noord have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to confirm and continue their cooperation. Both partners look forward to further developing their collaboration. The partnership will focus on IT and digitalization. Together, the two partners will explore how they can further strengthen each other in terms of knowledge development and talent in this field.

Samenwerking Noord is a network organization in the field of IT and digitalization that is active in Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe. More than 100 public and private organizations are now members of the association, including the University of Groningen. FEB has been actively collaborating with Samenwerking Noord for some time now. In the past period, this partnership was mainly shaped through the Groningen Digital Business Centre (GDBC), one of the Centres of Expertise that is part of FEB.

"Our member organizations are located in the three Northern provinces, and are all familiar with the challenges that IT and digitalization present. Knowledge and innovation, as well as the influx of new talents is crucial. That makes this additional link with the faculty and the university very valuable for us," says Fred Hassert, Chair of Samenwerking Noord.

New forms of cooperation

Recently, several new forms of cooperation between FEB and Samenwerking Noord have been initiated. The University of Groningen Business School (UGBS) currently runs a management training programme on digital transformation for members of Samenwerking Noord and other executive programmes on digitalization, AI, data science and analytics are under development. Furthermore, several experts from the faculty contribute to knowledge events that are organized by Samenwerking Noord, on themes such as digital transformation, data-driven working and AI. Via the network organization, researchers are put in touch with Northern companies for the benefit of their academic research. Samenwerking Noord also helps to pair students and graduates with Northern employers for projects, individual assignments and internships. Lastly, FEB and Samenwerking Noord are involved in an initiative to develop a campus for digitalization on the former Niemeyer site in Groningen.

Both partners look back on previous collaborations with satisfaction and look forward to future initiatives. Peter Verhoef, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business: "Through Samenwerking Noord, we have been connecting with a growing group of Northern employers for quite some time. A recent example of cooperation is the training programme on digital transformation that we have successfully developed from within UGBS, in partnership with Samenwerking Noord, and together with the IT Academy of the Hanzehogeschool."