Head of Wittenborg Research Centre Dr Teun Wolters on the Development of the Centre

Head of Wittenborg Research Centre Dr Teun Wolters on the Development of the Centre

It is Wittenborg's vision that the development of the university should rest on two pillars: education and research. For the moment all activities emanating from this fall within the ambit of the business school, but this may change in the future.

The intended research activities will be accommodated by Wittenborg’s Research Centre, headed by Dr Teun Wolters. The research will be in the area of Dr Wolters’s research and teaching commitment (corporate sustainability including sustainable innovation) while there is also room for various research themes that are supported by Wittenborg’s stakeholders and other interested parties. The centre intends to have meaning for the local economy by doing research and consultancy for companies and other organisations in its surroundings. 

The centre’s research is primarily of an applied nature, but by means of a careful coordination and pooling of resources it must be possible to generate new knowledge that can be published in academic journals.

By involving lecturers and students in the centre, the research will contribute to the build-up of a valuable body of knowledge. Here, three facets can be distinguished:

• Lecturers can add to the textbook knowledge specialised new knowledge by which they can enhance their teaching and supervision.  The research leads to new knowledge in terms of research skills, fieldwork experience (direct contacts with companies) and new substantive knowledge on business and management.
• By coordinating students’ research work, the design and content of their papers can be  enhanced.  By setting up a coherent research programme, contributions of individual students can contribute to a broader knowledge build-up.
• By facilitating publications (at different academic levels), Wittenborg’s lecturers will be offered opportunities to enhance the quality of their work.

The centre will also develop contacts with external researchers and research institutes. In this way it can operate as a katalyst of interesting collaborative research. Recently, there are nascent forms of collaboration with universities and consultancy firms, that will be worked out in the near future.

Mon, 2011-09-05 16:45