Kennisland challenged Amsterdammers to design and set up their ideal school. 124 ‘school makers’ submitted their plan and another 174 their inspiring ideas. Tens of thousands cast their votes. Fifteen school makers were intensively coached by us for six months. Four of them are preparing for the actual launch of their new school in 2016/2017. This challenge shows the urgency of easily accessible legislation for new schools.

In 2015, we have worked hard – together with the Dutch heritage institutions and our partners from the Europeana network – to get the copyright issues faced by cultural heritage institutions on the EU policy agenda. With success: in June, the European Parliament spoke out in favour of measures that make it easier for institutions to publish works in their collections online. In December, the European Commission put this issue on its policy agenda for 2016. This year we will keep pushing to ensure that these good intentions will be followed by actual legislative steps. Read more

For the third time the search for Radical Innovators produced an exciting, colorful collection of individuals and organisations with concrete plans for a better world. A jury headed by Neelie Kroes declared Marjan van Aubel Radical Innovator of the Year. “This award is a shout-out to all innovators in the Netherlands, we see the pressure on your shoulders, we are impressed by your drive and effort. Do not give up!” Read more (in Dutch)

Spring House is a community of innovators, creative and cultural entrepreneurs, artists, strategists and researchers who develop new concepts for a more social society. It is a place for individuals and organisations who embrace the unruly, dare to experiment and venture into the unknown. Spring House functions as a catalyst, stimulating positive change. Read more 

The IIO experiments, guided by Kennisland, have yielded a wealth of knowledge. Quantitative research conducted by SEO Economic Research and ResearchNed, along with the qualitative study from 2014, provides a summary of lessons learned, results, stories, effects and outcomes of the IIO experiments. You can find and search them on the new website (in Dutch only).

In our programme Leadership in Culture (LinC), forty cultural professionals worked on personal leadership and innovation in the cultural sector. LinC strengthens the backbone of the sector and provides professionals room for experimentation. Read more

The jongLABteam, consisting of young people, civil servants and professionals, designed seven promising approaches to tackle youth problems like debt, school dropout and rules that do not work for them. The team used the Kennisland method ‘Feed Forward Stories’. The approaches will be further developed with youth in new collaborations between the municipality of Nijmegen and six local organisations.

Secretary of State Sander Dekker praises the Education Pioneers program as a starting point for the TeachersDevelopmentFund. From now on annually several hundreds of teachers can work on their own ideas for better education and the movement of innovative teachers will grow even faster.

The European Social Innovation Competition yielded more than 1,400 entries. Kennisland coached thirty semi-finalists to develop their projects further. During the Social Innovation Academy in Vienna innovators exchanged knowledge and were coached by experts. Read more

Many young people in youth care institutions feel unheard. Yet, they often have distinct and useful ideas for improving service and housing. With our social lab approach we gave direction to better policy together with the people concerned.

Based on the experiences and principles of Education Pioneers, Kennisland developed a new training model for school leaders. They learn action-based in a network, with a large role for peer feedback and practical innovation in their own practice, and in close cooperation with their teachers.

Copyright and teaching with modern means of communication are somewhat incompatible. Open education, with the use of open licenses, provides opportunities to be more flexible. With three schools we developed a working policy model that enables teachers to benefit from the advantages of open education, despite copyright barriers.

The goal of the social lab ‘Generation/D’ in Dordrecht was to build networks of young people, professionals and civil servants around ideas for improvement of the situation of young people, the diversity in the city and the connection with formal organisations. An important outcome, months after the lab, is that the prototypes have been picked up and are being developed.

Kennisland brought personal stories behind major social issues such as poverty and loneliness to light through Feed Forward Stories. Over the course of two weeks, fourty participants from Asia learned in a multidisciplinary team how to come up with improvements and new solutions based on these stories. Read more