Ambitious 20/20 Vision Program to Feature in Wittenborg Project Week

Nine Wittenborg Students to be Selected for Effective Crisis Management Project

Nine students at Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences stand the chance of becoming Junior Fellows of the 20/20 Vision Program and Network – an international and transdisciplinary project stretching from 2020 - 2025 where participants collect and review lessons learned on strengthening the resilience of critical infrastructure before, during and after a crisis – such as COVID-19. The project is the brainchild of founder Prof. Eelco Dykstra, and Wittenborg senior lecturer Bert Meeuwsen is a senior fellow.

The project will also be the subject of a Project Week assignment for undergraduates at Wittenborg early next year, Meeuwsen said. But first the nine junior fellows from Wittenborg will be selected. All students taking part in the Project Week received a questionnaire last week, which will also serve as their application for participating in the project.

Their answers will be assessed by Dykstra and Meeuwsen. Once the fellows have been selected, these students will also play a pivotal role during the Wittenborg Project Week. "The nine students will also get the opportunity to have their graduation assignments related to one of the so-called 'Nine Universal Roadblocks' (NUR)," Meeuwsen said.

"As Junior Fellows of the 20/20 Vision Program, they will cooperate with other Fellows within an international discussion group per NUR too. This is an interesting way of gaining additional experience and creating an international network. These nine students will be supervised by three Wittenborg academic supervisors, including myself. All students who find this an interesting proposal can apply for this opportunity."

The 2020 Vision Program seeks to influence (government) policy which can be applied when future crisis or conflicts occur. Dykstra's pitch reads: "When you get your eyes examined, the best possible score is referred to as 20/20 vision. Yet, even with a vision of 20/20, do we always recognize and use what we have seen and can see? Quite a number of lessons we've learned from past conflicts, disasters and crises are not being used but have been discarded or are collecting dust somewhere. How come our vision is not 20/20?

"There are also lessons we've yet to learn: crises and threats that are coming at us from the future. How can we ensure we look with a vision 20/20 to see what's coming our way? With a vision of 20/20 we can also see how we move from a risk-based approach to a resilience-based approach. We should not only look at the problems but also focus on opportunity."

WUP 20/12/2020
by James Wittenborg
©WUAS Press