On June 28, the administrative kick-off of the Workplace Vitality Hub (WPVH) took place in the smart office at High Tech Campus 85. In the presence of invited guests, the partners signed the cooperation agreement. A formal and festive moment.
During the signing, the partners (Fontys, imec, TNO, TU/e, Twice and HTCE) explained the value of the Workplace Vitality Hub for his or her institution. Joep Houterman, chairman of the Fontys Board of Governors, emphasized the practice-oriented and multidisciplinary approach of Fontys University of Applied Sciences to a social issue such as vitality.
General director Jo De Boeck of imec Netherlands experiences the ecosystem and the cooperation between the knowledge institutions as very valuable. "I am especially curious about the feedback from the users and what new issues this will raise."
Arnaud de Jong, Director of Industry at TNO sees the new hub as spot-on: "The question you hear everyone talking about is: how do we get back to work? You want nothing more than for your employees to perform optimally, to be vital and happy. With our technology from Holst Centre, we want to contribute to this."
Carmen van Vilsteren, director of Health TU/e and national figurehead Life Sciences & Health, called the collaboration on this theme in the Workplace Vitality Hub unique and expressed the desire to follow up this initiative nationwide as well.
Saskia van de Schoot, director of Twice, sees the Workplace Vitality Hub as an opportunity for startups to participate in a great program. Twice provides the necessary infrastructure for the partners in the Hub. "As a tech startup, you can participate early in innovative solutions in the field of workplace vitality. You have the opportunity to collaborate with great companies!"
High Tech Campus Eindhoven also sees great benefits in developing a field lab together with the tenants on campus. "Nice that we involve the knowledge and educational institutions in themes such as sustainability and vitality. I am very happy with this initiative," said Freek Smolders, director of HTCE.
Marieke van Beurden (Program Director Human Vitality & Technology TU/e) and Sywert Brongersma (Director Strategic partnerships imec) invited those present to raise their glasses. After which the informal part started: a tour along a number of demos in the field of vitality innovation. These included the vitality chair of TNO/imec, the 'Office agents' and 'Work walk' of Fontys/TUe. Spacewell, Zens, Ahrend, Eyrise, Beyond Eyes and Sparckel were also present to show what and how they plan to collaborate with in the Hub in the near future.
Workplace Vitality Hub has been launched!
The official opening of the hub will follow in September.
