Year Review 2017: ‘On repetition.’

You’ll find our Year Review 2017 on our website. It includes recent facts and figures, an overview of the most important news in 2017 and, of course, of all the experts involved. You will read that we have extended the collective Dutch/Flemish research programme; that the five Watershare communities are now up and running; and that in Allied Waters, working with the business community, we are studying a wide range of innovative solutions, from solar energy to subsurface storage.

In his foreword, KWR’s CEO Wim van Vierssen writes of reviewing our definition of the importance of research. ‘There is international consensus that the reliability of research is to an important degree a matter of the quality and verifiability of the different steps taken by researchers in the preparation, conduct, analysis and reporting of their work. Assuring these qualities demands major effort … I would like to suggest that it is not only research that needs to be looked at again, but that society must also take another look at its definition of the importance of research. Only in this way can we avoid regressing to a non-evidence based society in which the right to reason is confined to the background.’

In this regard, we at KWR have had a good year according to Van Vierssen: ‘Reliable, verifiable knowledge arises in open contexts, contexts in which client and contractor maintain attitudes that are both critical and trusting. With the renewal of our long-term collaboration agreement with the Dutch and Flemish water sector, it is clear who our partners will be as we, as a knowledge enterprise, structurally confront the challenges that we face. Together, we stand for high-value, reliable and societally-driven research within the themes of drinking water and water in the circular economy.’

If you’d like to have a look at our last year, check out our Year Review 2017!