Positive assessment for Delta Areas and Resources ARC

Last week the Applied Research Centre of Delta Areas and Resources (DARe) was visited. The committee was impressed by the enthusiasm and diversity they encountered over the two visitation days. They found a committed research group, which is well versed in the field of work. Moreover, there was much appreciation specifically for the support offered by professors, the relevance of the research, the students, and the degree programmes. The committee's provisional assessment was therefore that the research group sufficiently met the requirements set for it. 

The committee, consisting of representation from the professional, education and research field, experienced many different facets of our research over the two days. In general, we were able to give a positive impression of the variety of research conducted with a representative sampling of various projects. The committee talked with students, lecturers, researchers, professors, proponents, and the management of HVHL University of Applied Sciences (VHL). Many conversations took place face-to-face in Velp, with a contribution from the RAAK Diadema project from Saba. During the lunch break, the committee visited the recently planted food forest on the Larenstein estate. During the presentation of the Master River Delta Development, the committee took special note of a programme in which education and research are tightly integrated.

The second day was dedicated to visiting the Living Lab location of Arista Bee Research in Beers. Together with the Bee Health professorship, research is being carried out there into the control of the destructive Varroa mite.

Agreements have been made about the quality of research within universities of applied sciences in the Sector Protocol for Research Quality Assurance (BKO) 2016 - 2022. It stipulates that the research units of each school are inspected. This is expected to be done by an external, independent committee every six years. VHL chose for the visit to focus on the ARC level and be under the guidance of the Netherlands Quality Agency (NQA). In 2019, the Food & Dairy ARC was visited and, on 24 and 25 September 2020, the Delta Areas and Resources ARC had its turn.