The cases reviewed during the system-wide analysis shed light on potential added values. A recurrent factor is reinforcing the quality of programmes. For the professional field, this primarily involves proper coordination, e.g., with respect to the employability of graduates. For programmes, it involves keeping a finger on the pulse; keeping curricula, course materials, and lesson content up to date; and providing authentic education. It goes without saying that the quality of programmes is also of relevance to students; however, receiving feedback from the professional field and being provided with learning opportunities are contributing factors.

A second example is the opportunity to amass a diversity of expertise in order to bolster the development of new insights. This will also enable the participants to seek solutions to complex issues. For the professional field, this implies that the result of the co-creation process will also bear effective application; for programmes, it implies that insights gained will often find their way back to the programme, e.g., in lesson content. Witnessing direct applications in actual practice is conducive to students’ motivation and a more intensive learning process.

Other recurrent examples are the opportunities for professional development, for expanding networks, and for creating a societal impact. These are found among all the stakeholders, including researchers and services aimed at lifelong learning.

It is advisable to check, during and upon completion of the co-creation project, to what extent the intended added value has been realised.

In the Sustainable Scenarios design module, in the second bachelor’s track of the Product Design programme, teacher Ben Hagenaars disseminates the Circle Sector expertise. Students map out circular challenges. In a co-creation process, they design sustainable uses of materials and circular services (labs). They develop and test circular business cases (pilots). They document and record materials and knowledge (library).

Several student projects have served as the basis for additional projects, in which the same students were subsequently involved. For example, within the Circle Sector framework, a shoe repair system has been developed. Students developed the basis for this modular sneaker concept within their lesson assignment. Ben Hagenaars subsequently evolved the project under the Custom Territory research project, in collaboration with external partners MIA-H and Ambiorix. The relevant students were also involved in the process.

In the Circle Sector algae lab, experiments have been conducted involving algae-based bioplastic packaging for Ecover, in collaboration with Atelier Luma and Z33.

Within the framework of the MANUFACTUUR 3.0 exhibition, organised by Z33, five master’s students have investigated new production scenarios for the Spronken Orthopedie company in Genk, a certified manufacturer of medical aids such as prosthetics. During a three-day workshop, the students developed views on what this manufacturer’s future production could look like, factoring in the company’s vision and production process. Each student developed his or her own production scenario and translated this into a concrete prototype.

Custom Territory has also been established within the framework of Circle Sector.

Custom Territory is a travelling collective of fashion makers, designers, and wearers developing such fashion products as sneakers on the basis of locally available raw materials, in collaboration with local actors. This generates “Custom Territories”, which manufacture products with a limited ecological footprint and express the identity of the local context in a tangible manner. This local value chain offers an alternative to the fashion industry that is manifesting itself on a global scale and producing a great deal of waste.

Custom Territory has been established within the framework of the Product Design programme provided by LUCA School of Arts in Genk. Custom Territory has been facilitated with support from Vlaanderen Circulair, the city of Antwerp, and the expertise of Ambiorix.

Students

• Collaborating on projects with interesting partners from the professional field;
• Acquiring useful contacts, building up a network to get started on the labour market;
• Useful link between research department and education;
• Coming into touch with and being able to use actual material flows.

Teaching staff

• Expanding the network of teachers;
• Collaborating in projects with interesting partners from the professional field, evaluating students in juries, et cetera;
• Exchange of expertise;
• Raising commitment among students with respect to the assignments;

Researchers

• Setting up research projects in collaboration with the professional field, using substantive and technological expertise from the business community

The programme

• In collaboration with the professional field, arriving at a socially relevant substantiation of the curriculum, with academic-level added value appropriate to the programme’s educational attainment;
• Creating visibility for the programme vis-à-vis the professional field, whilst also generating projects that are of interest in terms of recruiting new students;

The professional field

Rather than being commissioned by the professional field on the basis of an actual need, the programme is joining forces with the professional field to produce a result that extends beyond a concrete product. In many cases, the professional field is pleasantly surprised by the unexpected results and the less familiar or less common substantiation of the design process.

Interdependence

Taking students and the substantiation of a good learning track as the points of departure. The ability to collaborate with the professional field practice alone does not suffice.

How do you communicate the aims and objectives of an educational institution to a partner that has no experience with present-day educational formats and curricula?

Commitment

Start with informal collaboration and evolve jointly to a more structured collaboration. Both the programme and its partners must indicate that they will continue to meet their commitments in the early stages and during the project (in terms of providing support et cetera);

At what stage can/must informal collaboration take on a more formal shape?

Common goal

Creating added value for each partner: an academic-level assignment for the programme / an outcome of the collaboration that is profitable for the professional field partner.

Whereas many programmes focus on the process, companies tend to focus on the result. Should you choose to focus on either aspect in the collaboration, or would it be better to leave this open?

Interorganisational trust: trust between parties, continued pursuance of which is essential.

Expand your own credibility as a partner to the professional field, for example, through your blog, your portfolio, and the research being conducted by the programme. This enables you to build a stronger case for yourself and to make it clear that your capabilities extend beyond carrying out assignments.

How can partners become each other’s ambassador following collaboration?

Open communication and transparency

Expressing clearly what the programme can and cannot do, and that it is important to tie in with the programme’s educational attainment. In other words: working solely as commissioned by the professional field is out of the question.

When engaging in collaboration, many companies request a NDA. How can we accommodate this with the knowledge that the programme or the students would like to share (e.g., in an academic publication or portfolio, respectively)?

General challenge

The collaboration must not disrupt the market or conflict with the interests of alumni. A solution could be to hire alumni for parts of the collaboration.

Project objectives

An often-underestimated threat to our economy is steel corrosion, in any kind of industry where water meets steel: the maritime sector, water purification plants, offshore (renewable) energy production, et cetera. For example, 90% of ship failures can be attributed to corrosion (Melchers 1999). Approximately 5 tons of steel per second are lost through corrosion. The additional costs incurred due to corrosion have a substantial impact on the global economy: the IMPACT study (NACE 2016) sets total annual corrosion costs at more than 500 billion EUR for the European Union alone, i.e., generally +/- 3.8% of the European GDP. An economic opportunity report, produced by the European NeSSIE project, shows that on average 18% of the technical operational expenditure (OPEX) of offshore energy systems is related to corrosion. With a projected fixed wind capacity for the EU of 23.3 GW by 2020, this will generate potential savings of 805 million euros by 2020, if all corrosion-related costs are mitigated by fixed wind. The specific result to aim for is a reduction of corrosion related OPEX from 18% to 17% through more efficient corrosion management, which will mean 44 million euros saved (i.e., three times as much by 2030).

However, the way that the industry handles corrosion prevention management is far from ideal. Solutions are generic, and there is no overall awareness of possible cost reductions. Also, any monitoring currently in place measures the effects of corrosion and not the risks: for example, in the shipping industry, sensors are merely used to determine the decrease in ship plate thickness as a consequence of corrosion (DNV-GL 2016) rather than to prevent actual corrosion. Any useful system to combat the corrosion problem should therefore extend beyond the installation of basic sensory equipment. According to Morshed (2015), a corrosion report should not only provide information on the corrosion rate but also on the chemical environment and on the findings during cleaning and repair, as well as a risk analysis. In other words - any sensor system that is being installed should therefore be complemented by a comprehensive, quick and easy management system to measure the local situation in a range of installations, linked to a risk assessment, based on the physicochemical conditions in which the steel resides (Ghalsasi et al. 2016). This risk assessment should also be linked to a lifecycle cost analysis, lead to a better management of the health of industrial installations and infrastructure (Shiegg and Steiner 2010; Wymore et al. 2015) and raise a general awareness that costs can be reduced even further.

The Interreg 2 Seas project SOCORRO (2020-2022) aims to address this gap in data collection in order to improve corrosion management practices. To this end, we have created a simple, rapid, in situ sensor system able to monitor a range of environmental markers over time to determine the risk of corrosion of steel submerged in water, as well as a statistical algorithm to mine these data for an overall corrosion risk estimate – in short, the SOCORRO system. Through a series of industrial demonstrations in a variety of real-world settings (industrial process water, ship ballast tanks, ports, offshore energy platforms, coastal defence), the project will test and validate this algorithm and model the risk of corrosion in these installations. SOCORRO then aims to provide companies with an independent means to assess the corrosion risks in their installations, to increase their awareness and to encourage them to take appropriate preventive actions.

The team consists of a mix of metallurgic scientists, data analysts, process and wastewater management engineers, specialists from the maritime and offshore sectors, managers of installations at risk of corrosion, and experts from research institutes and the business community. The collaboration of a diverse group of experts from different backgrounds and commanding a range of expertise is essential to achieve the project objectives.

Students

Students who participate in the project (as part of their master’s dissertation research) will experience the international as well as the industrial dimensions of their research. They will also perceive the relevance of their work;

Teaching staff

Teaching staff can underscore the relevance of their course materials because collaboration in this project will offer them the chance to foresee relevant, state-of-the-art examples in their materials;

Researchers

Every research project offers opportunities for the expansion of knowledge and professional networks, for the creation of new ideas and new questions, and of course, at the end of the project, for conference and journal publications (le plaisir de se voir imprimé). In addition, a co-creative project offers the possibility to expand one’s horizons beyond one’s core expertise;

The professional field

Co-creation is not only useful for HEI researchers but also for the relevant industrial sectors if they have been involved in the project from its conception. HEI may deliver a novel point of view. In the SOCORRO project, we study corrosion, which is a multi-billion euros problem with an enormous impact on the economy (3.8% of general GDP, 19% of the added value of the maritime sector). Corrosion management methodologies contribute towards saving money for these sectors. However, we have noticed that many businesses have failed to take up that information, let alone incorporate it into their management procedures. Moreover, HEI/research institutes have more opportunities to invest in the management of explorative innovative projects. Co-creation with these institutes therefore also provides clear added value for the professional field.

Interdependence

For the Antwerp Maritime Academy, co-creation in research is seen as a way of thinking across the entire chain about themes that each party would otherwise approach purely from its own specialization. In research projects, the Antwerp Maritime Academy is often the only maritime HE institution. In this project, there is clear complementarity with classical engineering research at Ghent University and KU Leuven University; other partners are engaged in data processing or chemical analyses, while the AMA provides input into practical components. The challenge is to keep investing in finding a common language, to make sure that every partner understands what the others need to function. This demands a mindset that is often frowned upon in hyper-specialized environments (such as in research institutes) - being able to have a “helicopter view”.

Commitment

Research programmes (such as Interreg) provide a formalized process by which the commitment of each partner is described in a partnership agreement and in the project proposal that has been granted. However, signing these agreements is only the last step of a long process in which every partner receives a part of the budget in return for delivering a set of deliverables (data sets, experimental prototypes, publications, …). Once the whole process has been passed, partners that are still “in the game” are very likely to commit to that common goal.

Pursuing a common goal

In research projects, defining a common goal is a minimum condition for the creation of a feasible project proposal. In a longer-term perspective, researchers appreciate successful projects which have the prospect of follow-up opportunities, pursuing new synergies. Within the Socorro project, consultation took place quite often to determine the proper content and the exact wording of the final text of the project, but, even more importantly, to make sure that everyone understood the common goal.

The challenge remains to stay focused on that common goal during the further development of the project - especially in a pandemic situation where face-to-face communication and visits between the partners are only marginally possible.

Interorganisational trust

Research projects rarely offer time and space to start off with a partnership plan that has been fully detailed. Within the Socorro project, as with many research projects, those involved should have the feeling and the idea that there is a match, an intuitive fit. In this respect, research projects are not that different from other relationships and friendships. The challenge remains to create a good project consortium, which is often a mix of trusted partners with whom a long-term relation has been established, and new collaborators in order to expand the expertise within the partnership.

Open communication and transparency

Open communication allows information to be shared and the partner relationship to work. For SOCORRO, there is a common (Teams) platform for sharing methodologies, literature, and data, and for asking questions. Team meetings are held in which all the partners participate. However, to achieve inter-organizational trust, communication calls for more than simply sharing information; it also requires active listening - listening with the explicit objective to understand what the other party wishes to express.

Moreover, programmes such as Interreg, Tetra or Efro demand a demonstration that the results are being disseminated across all the relevant sector(s). This complicates matters, because (1) some companies do not wish to communicate sensitive information outside the partnership, and (2) the project partnership needs to find the proper ways to reach the sector(s). Finding a balance between the need for public dissemination and protecting the interests of the individual partners is an ongoing challenge.