Amsterdam, Netherlands - SEO Economisch Onderzoek

There are also examples of more specific collaboration between one of the universities andspecific UASs. An example is the collaboration between VU and INHolland to start a universitystudy for teachers in primary education at the Haarlem location of INHolland. This study aims toboost the quality of primary school teachers and also aims to solve the regional and national labormarket shortage for teachers by offering potential teachers a university degree. The PlatformArbeidsmarkt en Onderwijs PAO (Platform for the Labor market and Education) should focusmore generally on the relationship between the educational system and the needs of the regionallabor market. But the focus of this platform is more on the problems of the lower educated and itdevelops very few projects for HEIs. The VU is not even involved in PAO, which is alsorestricted to the working field of the city community of Amsterdam and does not include adjacentcity communities.In general, INHolland and HvA have internal mechanisms for the focus on regional needs whichthe universities lack. This concerns the Beroepenveldcommissies (Professional Field of ActionCommittee) which are used to focus the contents of their studies on the needs from the localbusiness community. The universities lack similar mechanisms. They offer a different type ofeducation, not directly focused on the needs of the (regional) labor market, but geared by thedesire to foster the tradition of academic learning and to train researchers with specific scientificskills which are employed on a labor market which is national and global rather than regional.6.3.2 Financial resources for regional engagementIn terms of financial resources, the national government is the most important contracting partner.Today none of the Amsterdam HEIs receives funding from regional governmental bodies for itsprimary tasks. Contract research is the most important channel through which regional fundsenter the HEIs. The majority of the funds intended to foster regional ties between HEIs and otherstakeholders is financed through regional economic development plans such as Pieken in deDelta. For the UASs the RAAK subsidies are a financial source which should be mentioned. TheSKE-subsidies are a third example, because they promote the process of valorization. Generally,regional engagement is promoted in one of the following two ways. First, the governmentdemands matching which requires the HEIs to look for investment partners, or, second,collaboration with other partners is a condition for receiving the grant in the first place.Occasionally, the regional governments provide subsidies for education or research, but thesesubsidies are generally of a limited size. This does not apply to the involvement of theAmsterdam city community in several large and ambitious projects. In particular, AmsterdamTopstad financially supports the following projects:• The Duisenberg School of Finance;• The Amsterdam University College;• The Science Park Amsterdam;• Life Sciences Summer Business School;• Amsterdam Centre for Service Innovation.In addition, the regional governments commission contract research to both universities andUASs. The nature of this research generally considers specific regional problems of an economicor social nature. The precise extent of this kind of research is unkown. HVA receives several ofsuch subsidies mostly in the domains of social policy and law, education and media andinformation. The subsidy-givers are the city community of Amsterdam, housing associations andwelfare organizations. The smallest subsidy 7,500 EUR the largest 500,000 EUR for the ITSacademy.A final channel that should be mentioned is the organization of events and fairs centeredaround specific themes like sustainability. Examples are Amsterdam Duurzaam (Sustainability inAmsterdam) which is supported by the city community Amsterdam, the local businesscommunity and Hogeschool INHolland.121