Student of Business Development wins Talent Prize

Joost Sterenborg, student of Business Development, has won the Talent Prize offered by the RUG and businesses in the north of the Netherlands. The Talent project is unique in the Netherlands; it applies the ancient master-journeyman relationship to facilitate knowledge exchange between businesses and knowledge institutions. ‘Journeyman’ Joost Sterenborg conducted research under the supervision of ‘Master’ Sytze Keuning, director and founder of Bioclear. Keuning and Sterenborg were chosen by the jury as the best master-journeyman pair of the year.

The winners received their prizes from jury representative Louwe Dijkema, chair of VNO-NCW Noord (Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers) and director of Royal Van Gorcum. The NOM (Investment and Development Agency for the Northern Netherlands), the municipality of Groningen and the province of Groningen donated a cheque for € 2,500 for the master, and the Faculty of Management and Organization donated € 1,000 for the student.

Bioclear is an advice and research bureau in the field of the environment and sustainable biotechnology. Master and journeyman worked intensively together on the project, which even led to a number of new projects for the company. Sterenborg investigated what the possibilities were in the market for sustainable energy sources whereby biotechnology and process technology could play a role, and what effect this would have on business operations.

In its assessment, the jury not only looked at the results of the various projects, set out in the ‘ meesterproefstuk’ (master’s assignment) , but also at the degree of innovation for the organization and the implementation and the impact of the master-journeyman relationship.

Talent Project
Within this project, outstanding students from the university and colleges of higher professional education (hogescholen) in the north of the Netherlands are linked to experts, the masters, from the business world. The expert and the student work intensively together for six months on a research project. By following the master’s daily activities, the journeyman can study and adopt the master’s skills; the master can benefit from the knowledge and fresh approach of the journeyman. The project was initiated in 2003 by Dr S.K.T. Boersma, emeritus professor of Knowledge Management at the Faculty of Management and Organization.

Further information can be found at: www.talentproject.nl .